Sleeper Train to Finnish Lapland - an Overview

[doc7austin]

Recently I have travelled by train through Finland.

I'd like to summarize the night train offerings in Finland.





The night train network has been slashed by VR in recent decades.

What remains today:

- Daily: Helsinki - Tampere - Oulu - Rovaniemi
- Daily through car group: Turku (- Tampere - Oulu - Rovaniemi)
- Daily: Helsinki - Tampere - Oulu - Rovaniemi - Kemijärvi
- Seasonal (up to 2 daily): Helsinki - Tampere - Oulu - Tornio - Kolari
- Seasonal (up to 1 daily): Helsinki - Tampere - Oulu - Rovaniemi

Both Kolari and Kemijärvi are located well North of the Arctic Circle.

VR has copied the new yield management method of ÖBB. Hence, Sleeping Car fares are dynamic and could become very expensive.

All these trains offer Seating and Sleeping Car accomodation. Couchette Cars are unknown in Finland.

Two Sleeping Car types are deployed:

- VR operates 30 CEmt Sleeping Cars. These have been constructed between 1970 and 1984 in Helsinki.





- In addition 50 Edm double-deck Sleeping Cars have been purchased by VR in the last two decades.





The classic CEmt Sleeping Car can only be found in the aforementioned seasonal night trains to Kolari and Rovaniemi.


Let's have a closer look outside and inside the CEmt Sleeping Car:







Each CEmt Sleeping Car consists of 12 cabins, offering 35 berths in total.









Three stacked berths can be found in 11 of the 12 cabins.







A full trip report with a review of both sleeping car types is available here:

Enjoy !

 

[AndrewE]

Interesting/non (European)-standard berth numbering. I remember being amazed by couchette coaches "sur le continong" going up to berth 96 (maybe even higher) - until I twigged that it was just compartment 9 berth 6!

 

[rf_ioliver]

Done it a few times. There used to be routes to and from Oulu via Kuopio too ... very useful. The routes via Kontimaki-Nurmes-Joensuu to Helsinki are long gone. Yes, it gets very expensive in the skiiing season and during the 3 "skiing weeks" in February. Mind you Finnair will happily offer a dreadful service for double the price.

I used to take the Oulu-Helsinki via Kuopio trains when they ran. VR ran down the service and actually at one point prevented anyone from purchasing things in the restaurant car (despite it being staffed and fully stocked). It wasn't too uncommon for the train to be met by pizza delivery vans in Kajaani.

 

[CarrotPie]

VR has copied the new yield management method of ÖBB. Hence, Sleeping Car fares are dynamic and could become very expensive.

Yes, it gets very expensive in the skiiing season and during the 3 "skiing weeks" in February. Mind you Finnair will happily offer a dreadful service for double the price.

Indeed. You can easily get a two-person cabin for €49 a month or two in advance, but there are barely any free over the next few weeks. Travelling next weekend will set you back €299 for a cabin and the same again to take your car with you.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I was on a package holiday by air last year to Äkäslompolo/Ylläs in Lapland (via Kittilä airport).
On an excursion to a reindeer farm we passed Kolari station, and I thought at the time it was only for freight (it's a major timber loading point).
I then found out that you could reach the ski areas by coach from Kolari, connecting with the seasonal sleeper from Helsinki.
Fascinating region. It's about -20 there today.

 

[rf_ioliver]

I was on a package holiday by air last year to Äkäslompolo/Ylläs in Lapland (via Kittilä airport).
On an excursion to a reindeer farm we passed Kolari station, and I thought at the time it was only for freight (it's a major timber loading point).
I then found out that you could reach the ski areas by coach from Kolari, connecting with the seasonal sleeper from Helsinki.
Fascinating region. It's about -20 there today.

Typically sees 1-2 freight trains per day, and one passenger train to/from Helsinki - IIRC doesn't run a few months.

The line used to continue north around 20km to a mines at Äkäsjoki and Rautavaara. Traffic stopped in 1985 and 1988 respectively and the line from Kolari taken out of use finally in 2002.

It is actually surprising how many small halts there were on that line - now only Ylitornio and Pello remain. The Finnish language Wikipedia page has a complete list. https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolarin_rata

 

[CarrotPie]

Typically sees 1-2 freight trains per day, and one passenger train to/from Helsinki - IIRC doesn't run a few months.

That standard pair (269/276) runs all year round, but these days only a few days a week off-season (except some days when 263/262 runs instead).

 

[doc7austin]

This is part 2 of my journey from Helsinki to Levi Ski Resort in Finnish Lapland.

We had to change from train to bus in Kolari.

Enjoy !

 

[FormerBritInMe]

@doc7austin the videos were quite interesting, thanks for making these.

 

[Strazor]

On some lines the connections are really good. Between the larger cities for example. They are comfortable, but relatively slow. Oulu-Helsinki is 700km and takes 6 hours in best case scenario.

What I don't like is the price changes they made recently. They went the way of the airlines with so called dynamic prices. The difference between the best and the worst train are enormous. Last time I checked to go Helsinki the cheapest was 33 euro but would take 11 hours and 2 switches. The most expensive was 95 euro direct in 6 hours. Of course it gets even more pricey if you're doing last minute travelling. Which I find a pity. That was one of the big advantages of a train, you could just hop on it and go.

 

[CarrotPie]

On some lines the connections are really good. Between the larger cities for example. They are comfortable, but relatively slow. Oulu-Helsinki is 700km and takes 6 hours in best case scenario.

What I don't like is the price changes they made recently. They went the way of the airlines with so called dynamic prices. The difference between the best and the worst train are enormous. Last time I checked to go Helsinki the cheapest was 33 euro but would take 11 hours and 2 switches. The most expensive was 95 euro direct in 6 hours. Of course it gets even more pricey if you're doing last minute travelling. Which I find a pity. That was one of the big advantages of a train, you could just hop on it and go.

There is a way around that over the summer - the lomalippu holiday ticket - €119 gives you unlimited travel across Finland for 5 days (subject to train capacity) - much less than some walk-up returns! Having said that, if you book a few weeks in advance tickets are very cheap, and in the recent sale I managed to bag a Helsinki-Pieksämäki-Joensuu-Kouvola-Helsinki day trip for just €14.20!

 

[rf_ioliver]

On some lines the connections are really good. Between the larger cities for example. They are comfortable, but relatively slow. Oulu-Helsinki is 700km and takes 6 hours in best case scenario.

IC25 at 5h24 is the fastest Helsinki-Oulu. Not that slow, other trains, eg: the 6-7 hour journeys do make a lot of stops however. The night trains are often restricted to 140kmh by the older car carrier wagons, but then again it doesn't need speed. If you are making that particular journey then there's also the much slower route via the Savo line which a) takes forever and b) costs more.

The main issue is the passing points - while there has been a lot of work upgrading and double-tracking Seinäjoki-Oulu, it is heavily used and there can be a lot of waiting in loops for trains to pass. The knock-on effects of a later train can be a nightmare. Though the other week the signallers did a superb job of pathing an hour late IC25 and an earlier 3 hour later Rovaniemi all-stations stopper from Helsinki to Oulu with both actually making up time. IC25's Vectron was replaced with an old Sr1 locomotive restricted to 140kmh. The earlier train with an Sr2 was allowed to go ahead and use its 200kmh capability to stop everywhere and sprint between stations until Kokkola where IC25 overtook and at least kept the delay down. I guess some overtime was earned by the south bound freight drivers
.
The main connecting points are Tampere, Seinäjoki, Kouvola and Pieksämäki - trains will wait at these points for connections. Tampere often has some longer stops to make sure everything does catch up. I've been Oulu-Helsinki trains arriving 60-70 minutes late at Tampere and then leaving 5-10 late after that.

Prices are very dynamic. For example, this morning, Helsinki-Oulu on IC25 one-way is 34 eur; it averages around 44-50 eur. I travel Helsinki-Jyväskylä a lot; I have the choice of a 30-trip ticket which averages about 28-29 eur one-way, and is really convenient. Booking the day before it is normally around 35 eur; a week out and it can be as low as 22 eur and sometimes a lot less.

 

[CarrotPie]

IC25 at 5h24 is the fastest Helsinki-Oulu. Not that slow, other trains, eg: the 6-7 hour journeys do make a lot of stops however. The night trains are often restricted to 140kmh by the older car carrier wagons, but then again it doesn't need speed. If you are making that particular journey then there's also the much slower route via the Savo line which a) takes forever and b) costs more.

The main issue is the passing points - while there has been a lot of work upgrading and double-tracking Seinäjoki-Oulu, it is heavily used and there can be a lot of waiting in loops for trains to pass. The knock-on effects of a later train can be a nightmare. Though the other week the signallers did a superb job of pathing an hour late IC25 and an earlier 3 hour later Rovaniemi all-stations stopper from Helsinki to Oulu with both actually making up time. IC25's Vectron was replaced with an old Sr1 locomotive restricted to 140kmh. The earlier train with an Sr2 was allowed to go ahead and use its 200kmh capability to stop everywhere and sprint between stations until Kokkola where IC25 overtook and at least kept the delay down. I guess some overtime was earned by the south bound freight drivers
.
The main connecting points are Tampere, Seinäjoki, Kouvola and Pieksämäki - trains will wait at these points for connections. Tampere often has some longer stops to make sure everything does catch up. I've been Oulu-Helsinki trains arriving 60-70 minutes late at Tampere and then leaving 5-10 late after that.

Another problem recently is Sr2s being limited to 140km/h to avoid kicking up too much snow into them, which then causes them to fail. It (mostly) avoids failures, but it also delays longer services by up to half an hour. Since the recent track damage debacle, everything's now limited to 160km/h, so there are quite a few delays.