England to Finland in January - reliability

[Tim R-T-C]

Hello all,

I'm going Crosscountry skiing in Lapland in January and fancy making my way there by train.

Going either chunnel or fly to Hamburg (recent unreliability of the tunnel vs. airlines being cancelled because of snow to weight up there), then boat/ferry to Copenhagen, train to Stockholm, ferry to Helsinki and sleeper up North. On the way back, might go from Helsinki to St. Petersberg for a few days and fly back from there.

Question - how reliable are the Scandiavian trains/ferries in winter conditions? Are trains likely to be diverted or disrupted frequently?

Thanks.

 

[Gordon]

Hello all,


Question - how reliable are the Scandiavian trains/ferries in winter conditions? Are trains likely to be diverted or disrupted frequently?

Thanks.

Like Switzerland - you can expect trains to run very well, except in truly exceptionally bad conditions.

Google a few nordic railway snow pictures and you will see trains powering through very deep snow without problems, afar all those conditions are completely normal given the latitude.


.

 

[Jegerpizza]

I suggest taking the ICE/EC from Hamburg to Copenhagen via Puttgarden, because you will get the unique experience of going onto a ferry on the train, I've live close to the Danish part of that route, and have traveled on these ICEs on the ferry before, wonderful and unique experience! Dont worry about the snow, we nordic countries are used to it and normally a good amount of snow shall be present to just make small delays. The Puttgarden-Rødby ferry is almost always sailing, and i haven't yet tried it being completely canceled. But they can be very busy at sometimes. The ferry sails every 30 minute, but sometimes a ferry is out for maintenance and therefor "only" sailing every 40 min.

A little tip:
The trains branded as ICE trains are worked by ICE-TD trains
Trains branded as EC trains are worked by IC3 trains. Booth are very good units!
One way tickets on this route start at around £25.

Don't hesitate to ask me about anything the Hamburg-Copenhagen journey i can help pretty much with everything on that .

 

[30907]

Depending on you starting point, you could consider Harwich-Hook as a route to Hamburg. However, the North Sea in winter might not be pleasant.

On the same basis, a Baltic crossing might be rough - would it be worth taking the train up through Sweden to Lapland and then back to Helsinki?

 

[rf_ioliver]

I live in Finland, PM me if you have any questions

t.

Ian
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Quick answer...there are some problems but it really depends upon temperature, humidity and (yes!) type of snow, but otherwise you're not going to get stuck.

Are you planning to get to Lapland by train? There is a day train to Rovaniemi from Helsinki and two night trains, one to Kolari and one to Rovaniemi-Kemijärvi. Both are EXTREMELY popular and booking well in advance is strongly recommended!

Ferries...Stockholm to Turku or Stockholm to Helsinki are your options, 14 hours and 18 hours respectively. They make a stop in the middle of the night in Mariehamn for duty-free reasons. Excellent restaurants and bars, but don't expect to get much sleep as you'll be amongst 2000+ partying Finns

More info, please PM me and I'll be happy to help

t.

Ian
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

On the same basis, a Baltic crossing might be rough - would it be worth taking the train up through Sweden to Lapland and then back to Helsinki?

No passenger rail link any more. You'll end up taking a bus from Umeå (I think) via Tornio to Kemi. Otherwise there are trains between Helsinki and Lapland via Oulu.

The routes taken by the Helsinki/Turku-Stockholm ferries are through the Finnish archipelago (Åland islands) which are fairly sheltered so these are rarely "rough". The ferries are huge (2,500 passengers, 800+ cars) so even in rough conditions it isn't a problem (good food and copious amounts of beer help I hear). You'll get a cabin and possibly sleep a bit of the way. In January the sea will probably be frozen (with luck) so it shouldn't be rough.

t.

Ian