ER200

The ER200 was a Soviet high-speed electric train built in Riga by Rigas Vagonbuves Rupnica, notable as the first high-speed direct-current electric multiple unit fitted with rheostatic braking. Development of the ER200-1 began in 1974 and the train entered regular service on the Moscow to Saint Petersburg railway in 1984, running at up to 200 kilometers an hour, with a second design variant joining the same route in 1996. The type remained in service until 2009, giving the Soviet Union, and later Russia, nearly twenty-five years of experience running high-speed electric trains on its busiest passenger corridor.