With the Allegro express train, it only takes about three and a half hours from St. Petersburg in Russia to the Finnish capital Helsinki.

It was a popular connection for a long time, even before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the number of passengers had increased by more than 15 percent in 2019.

And if the journey got too long, you could order a champagne in the bistro.

But that's over for now.

Because, as the state-owned Finnish operating company has now announced, the last Allegro from St. Petersburg will arrive at Helsinki station on Sunday for the time being.

Then this connection to Russia was also cut off.

Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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Since the Russian attack on Ukraine, the trains have mostly been well filled in at least one direction, despite Corona: to Helsinki.

According to Finnish media reports, it was mainly Russians who tried to get to Europe.

After all, after the outbreak of the war it was no longer so easy for them, and in any case it was no longer possible by plane after the airspace was closed.

The train connection between St. Petersburg and Helsinki was soon regarded as one of the last important land connections between Russia and the EU.

The trains from Helsinki back to St. Petersburg are said to have been quite empty.

This meant some media attention for the Finnish train station, but otherwise the Finnish government was relaxed for a long time with regard to travel.

After all, most didn't want to stay.

The Finnish Minister for Europe Tytti Tuppurainen, who is also responsible for the Finnish railway company, told the FAZ a week ago that the situation was calm and that most of those who came by train would then fly on to other countries.

The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on Friday that Tuppurainen had informed the railway company VR that the train connection to Russia was no longer appropriate.

The VR stated that until now the train service had been maintained so that Finns could also come back to their country.

Apparently they had enough time for that now.