On the Sapsan route from Moscow to St. Petersburg there

are six intermediate stops. However, RZD have adopted a clever stopping pattern where different trains stop at different stations so that they are all served at least three times throughout the day in both directions. Some stations enjoy slightly more stops than others but at least there are no 'stoppers' that pause at all stations thus turning the much heralded rapid service into a slow one. The net result of this is that the fastest Sapsan does the four hundred mile journey in three hours and thirty five minutes making three stops whilst the lowest does it in four hours and four minutes making five stops. Here our ten coach train pauses at Bologoye a town of about twenty thousand people, a significant number of whom work on the railways. It is a major railway hub with a number of main lines crossing in the town that handles passenger and a lot of freight traffic.