The ceremony was attended by Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the French Republic Alexander Orlov, Chairman of the of the OSJD Committee Tadeusz Szozda, UIC Director General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, President of SNCF Guillaume Pepy, Vice-President of RZD JSC and General Director of FPC JSC Mikhail Akulov and other railway officials of international organisations and of both countries. All the speakers stressed the necessity to further develop cooperation with the purpose of facilitating international railway traffic.

“We are grateful to our French colleagues for their partnership, which is not confined to these areas and projects. In this sense, the Moscow – Nice route is symbolic in a good way: it combines the cultural, historical, and economic relationships between our countries,” said Vladimir Yakunin, delivering his welcome speech at the ceremony.

He also said that the main goal of the Russian Railways JSC is to provide safety of its passengers, as well as the comfort and satisfaction of passengers with the services of the company.

“In the interest of our passengers, regardless of their nationalities, we will continue to develop our friendly cooperation between railway companies” noted the president of the Russian Railways.

In turn, President of SNCF Guillaume Pepy thanked President of Russian Railways for resuming rail traffic between Russia and the French Riviera, as well as new rolling stock operationalized on the route Moscow – Nice for this anniversary. According to him, in the period of their cooperation, the companies have been able to strengthen friendly exchanges in various fields, in particular, the exchange of experience and training of young professionals.

The rail traffic between Russia and the French Riviera opened in 1864, when the train St. Petersburg – Nice was launched. It was very popular among Russian aristocracy and ran until 1914. After nearly a century break a direct rail connection to the popular French resort was restored, and since September 2010 train No. 17/18 started to run again on the route Moscow – Nice with new RIC coaches starting from 22^nd January 2015.

Today, Moscow – Nice is one of the longest trans-European rail routes with a length of 3315 km. The train passes through eight countries: Russia, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Monaco, and France.

The Moscow – Nice train runs once a week. From Moscow it sets off on Thursdays at 11:18 (Moscow time) and arrives in Nice on Saturdays at 08:35 am (local time). Travel time is 47 h 17 min between two final points. From Nice, the train departs on Saturdays at 21:45 (local time) and arrives in Moscow on Monday at 22:30 (Moscow time). Travel time is 46 h 45 min.

The new rolling stock provides for the trains’ travelling speed at up to 200 km/h on 1435-mm-gauge rail (in European countries) and 160 km/h on 1520-mm-gauge tracks (in Russia and Belarus).

The new coaches coproduced by Siemens and TWZ JSC are provided with four-seater compartments with wider sleeping berths which can be transformed to individual seats. There is an air conditioning system with individual adjustment in each compartment, 2 sanitary rooms, including one - with a shower cabin, electronic keys for compartments, as well as many other innovative solutions nave been applied to provide comfort both for the passengers, and for the railway personnel. New RIC coaches have been in operation since June 2014 in the composition of train No. 31/32 "Lev Tolstoy" Moscow – Helsinki, since August 2014 - as a part of train No. 21/22 Moscow – Prague, since December 14 - of train No. 9/10 Moscow – Warsaw, since January 25, 2015 - as a part of train No. 23/24 Moscow – Paris. The new RIC coaches have been also in operation on Moscow – Budapest route since 17 December 2014 where direct coach No. 20/345 Moscow – Prague runs as part of train No. 21/22.

On 24^th January on the platform of Nice station within the framework of the event a mutually binding agreement for implementation of international railway products was signed between FPC JSC (subsidiary of RZD JSC) and SNCF Mobilités (SNCF subsidiary). The concluded agreement is of great importance for both parties and is supposed to result in the development of national cross-border transport of FPC JSC and SNCF Mobilités carried out both independently, and in cooperation with other companies.

After a small concert guests were invited to the square in front of the station building where a mobile photo exhibition demonstrating the preparation process and construction of railway network in the Sochi region before the XXII-nd Winter Olympic Games was organised.