A solemn ceremony of launching two Meteor 120P high-speed hydrofoil passenger vessels took place in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. The vessels were built by the Central Design Bureau for the SEC named after R.E. Alekseev, Rosmorrechflot reports.
The event was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saveliev, Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Gleb Nikitin and Chairman of the Board of Directors – General Designer of the Central Design Bureau for the SEC named after R.E. Alekseev Georgy Antsev, the press service of the Ministry of Transport of Russia reports.
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| SEC "Governor N.M. Baranov". |
| Source: Rosmorrechflot |
During the event, Vitaly Saveliev noted that river transport is of particular importance for Russia.
It was our country that made high-speed hydrofoils a mass type of passenger transport. The Nizhny Novgorod School of Shipbuilding and its founder, the legendary designer Rostislav Alekseev, made a decisive contribution. They have created solutions that have shaped the development of the high-speed passenger fleet for decades. The well–known "Rockets", "Meteors", and "Comets" worked on rivers and sea lines inside the country and were supplied to 35 countries around the world, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
The vessel is designed to carry 120 passengers over a distance of up to 600 km, with an average speed of 65 km/h. The autonomy of navigation is 8 hours, and the capacity of the fuel tank provides about 10 hours of travel. Meteor 120P is the largest hydrofoil-class riverboat.: It is about 36 meters long and about 10 meters wide.
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| SEC "Merchant D.V. Sirotkin". |
| Source: Rosmorrechflot |
As part of the River Highways project, about 33,000 passengers were transported on 8 high-speed routes in 2025, with subsidies amounting to 17.7 million rubles. In 2026, the federal budget provides for 94.8 million rubles, transportation will be carried out on 27 routes. In total, it is planned to carry about 60 thousand passengers – almost 2 times more than a year earlier. The transportation network has been expanded to Yaroslavl, Samara, Saratov, Ivanovo Region and Chuvashia, as well as routes along the Kama River from Perm to Udmurtia.
In the future, the inclusion of routes along Lake Baikal and the Amur River in the project is being considered. To replenish the high-speed passenger fleet, there is a program of preferential leasing of water transport with state financing.
