Why Finland has the BEST long-distance trains in Europe! Trip from Helsinki to Tampere with VR
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Follow me on Twitter / intercitysimon
Today im taking you on a journey on the Finnish railway from Helsinki to Tampere on what are my favorite long distance trains in europe, if not the entire world. Come along as we check out the many excellent features onboard these truely magnificent trains.
Train type: VR Sr2 + transtech double-deck IC coaches
Route: Helsinki to Tampere
Train: IC 43 Helsinki to Vaasa
Distance: 188 km
Journey time: 1h34m
Average speed: 120 km/h
Price: 18 euro
Music:
Alexi Action - Synthwave 80's
The workplaces in the IC are so nice, I was legit surprised at how spacious everything was. I'm pretty happy with VR in general. The only thing that's a little sad is that a lot of the old wooden railway houses in the countryside are no longer in use.
yes i agree, the loss of the wooden railway stations is sad.
But i love VR much better train-experience than i.e. in germany
Everyone talks about Switzerland and Japan as being the great rail countries, but Finland is legitimately excellent, and very affordable.
I did the once per day service that stops at Härmä for Powerpark.
Despite being an isolated station it still had an electronic departure board, and a bus meets every train.
Helsinki to Tampere 181 km. That’s a 1 hour trip on the Chinese g and d class rail lines? Who is THE great rail country?
@@fredfrond6148 Nagoya to Kyoto is 150 km and 37 minutes.
@@Ristonehajotettukone oh soo clever. Mr. Great white man.🙄
@@Ristonehajotettukone examples of Chinese rail lines. th-cam.com/video/Zp10xgwETvg/w-d-xo.html. Are you gonna say racist things about black people too now?
@@Ristonehajotettukone most modern city in the world. th-cam.com/video/ul5rqQGaLQ4/w-d-xo.html
What an amazing train. I've never seen a children's play area on a train before.
As someone who quite regulary travels between Helsinki and Turku, they really are great. The new 1+2 ekstra class is finally worth the quite modest extra price. The only complaint I have is regarding the chaos at Kupittaa, as the Turku main railway station is closed, and the kupitaa station is not suitable for such masses.
I can imagine the mess, Kupittaa used to be my nearest station back when i lived in Finland, even on a regular busy IC it would struggle with all the people trying to exit the station
En tuu hakee
@@fellu9658 tulisit ny
@@Tuukkohakee Tunnin juna Turkuun menee golfkentän läpi saatana!
Well, the main station in Turku isn’t closed. Trains to Tampere still depart from there. They are currently working on the tracks between the main station and Kupittaa.
Oh yeah, good old SLM Sr2 locomotives. I worked on the RE465, they're just marvellous. You can literally take them apart with only six different spanners.
Even though our trains are ok, our railway network is not consistent. People travelling from Eastern Finland to Western Finland and vice-versa face enormous amount of struggle. When travelling such a route, you have quite a few connections or just a very inconvenient route (Go South to get to West). Also the trains can be a lot worse and getting replaced by bus may be more common. And well, there are also less options timewise!
I totally agree with you! Finland got the rolling stock right. Outside the Helsinki commuter rail network and Helsinki - Tampere trains just aren't that frequent and lacks good connections to a lot of places.
Yeah, you can thank dying towns in the east and the national defence considerations for the bad east west connections.
@@Simon-Andersen You might be aware already, but it's mainly because of national defense reasons. Finland's lack of highways and railways that move horizontally across the country is on purpose.
@@Minisynapse also lake Päijänne is a pretty big obstacle, railways have to go around the north end (Jyväskylä) or south end (Lahti)
Another reason might just simply be track quality. A lot of our tracks are old and in bad shape, not allowing high speeds and increasing service irregularities.
I love the art deco designs of train stations in the early 20th century. As usual, very good and informative video
Finland benefits from a huge loading gauge allowing really spacious double deck coaches in inland trains.
And they really use it to their advantage
I still miss the old ones that we had back in the 90's. I always fell asleep to that noise they had.
@@amadeuz8161 if you mean the clunking sound, its gone due to welding of the tracks together allowing for higher speeds.
@@KujezZi if you never went in em then you cant imagine, if you did then you know what I am talking about :D Many things are different and Pendolino change is the worst one of em all.
@@KujezZi The old blue cars had plenty of noise. Much was generated by the detachable trays, which were stored in hard pockets on the back of the seats. Every time any kind of vibration went through the car, the myriad trays, with their plastic and metal parts, would rattle in their pockets. But back then, nobody expected trains to be quiet. On the other hand, the seats were thick and soft enough for you to sink 10cm into the cushion.
I don't miss them on the main routes, as they had a top speed of 120kph, or something, but I do miss them on the side routes, where they were replaced with the railway busses, or whatever you'd call them in English. Those things felt cheap when they were brand new, and now a couple of decades later they have too many wheels in the grave already and are miserable.
These features are so impressive. Some of the features I haven't even thought about. I wish all train companies could copy a bit from Finnland here.
Amazing. I can’t wait to go back to Finland 🇫🇮. I’m going to Oulu to visit some friends by train from Helsinki too.
Thanks for another great video. I agree the VR double decker coaches offer one of the highest standards of rail travel I have experienced. I did most of southern and central Finland by rail, in just a few days. Sadly some routes closed. But when I was there, the line from Joensuu to Pieksamaki still had the older single decker blue coaches, with opening windows, so you could listen to the lovely sound and fast acceleration of their nice Dv12 diesel locos.
I just took this train in standard / eco class and let me tell you as austrian who is used to nice train travel: it is great! not only is the train really fast, the seats are also very very comfortable and if there is no one behind you, you can lean them back all the way. I‘ve never seen something similar in any standard class before! Very nice video
Fantastic railway video from finland!!!👍👍🇫🇮
VR ICs are absolutely amazing, I really prefer them over SJ's ICs but would I dare to say that they are the best in Europe? I honestly enjoy Siemens rolling stock the most so for me, Railjets and ICEs make up the best IC trains. 😁 And I really look forward to the new Comfortjets from ČD.
The Railjet is deffo also a top contender! I look forward to seeing the Comfortjets as CD plans to run them to my hometown of Copenhagen in 2025 :D
@@Simon-Andersen Yes, Denmark will be conquered by our Sirloin in cream sauce with pastry dumplings and Pilsner Urquell on tap. 😁 Looking forward to visit!
We liked the video very much, it was nice to see such a beautiful and well-equipped facility
Glad you liked it
People like to shit on VR constantly but I've never had any problem with it. The only truly common occurrence, disregarding cases when the train is late for a few minutes, is that some of the bathrooms are out of order.
It is the random price generator that gets my blood boiling.
We love VR train. MY wife and I travelled from Helsinki to Tampere on the 4th week Juli 2023. We flew Finnair from Singapore to Helsinki. The train station is very close to the airport. The VR train was double decker. It was comfy and quite. We have 1 big suitcase and 2 hand carry luggages. As you mention there are compartement of luggages that made our traveliing easier.
Sounds like a great trip!
Great video and summary! I'd like to add in two things:
- It is recommended, to buy your tickets in advance, so you can get them much cheaper ;)
- There are ofc. night trains, with sleeping cabins, and also there's a special train line, from Helsinki, up to Lappland, which has vagons for cars. Perfect for those, who arrive to Helsinki with a car and would like to visit the far north. ^^
Trains are only fast within the Helsinki-Tampere-Lahti area in Finland. The railroad network outside that are does work but the railroad typically has one set of tracks preventing rapid two-way traffic and as a result, traveling times get much longer because you have to constantly stop waiting for the trains going into opposite direction.
Amazing its so beautiful train
Love from Pakistan railway
As a Finnish person who also values VR it is nice to see foreigners enjoy VR too even though it gets so much sht from other Finns
Plus, kaksi, kolme, kolme, nolla, kaksi, neljä, yhdeksän, kolmekymmentä, kolmekymmentäyksi, seitsemän, seitsemän
What I think is interesting about VR, it's that delays from 5 to 15 minutes are not uncommon, but It's ok for us Finns, because we trust VR to inform passengers about problems in connections etc. Considering that VR isn't as on time as bullet trains in Japan, but VR does incredible job maintaining customer satisfaction even though small delays in connections are expected.
Yeah VR is generally really good in this regard. I remeber being on a Turku-Helsinki train that broke down in the middle of the journey, conductor swiftly on the speakers and even did all the delay info in English in Detail, when we got to Karis, they held the Hanko trains for those connecting.
Fantastic Video! I like it! 🙂👍
Thumbs Up and Best Greetings
Thanks :-)
This was very entertaining and well made video, even though I don't usually watch this kind of videos 👍
Thanks for the kind words 😊
I don’t know what’s your definition of best, but Finnish rail is definitely not the best in my standards. Sure it’s comfy and rather affordable but it’s so slow. The wifi doesn’t work everywhere and as in any other country, delays happen, particularly in winter. I commute very often to northern Savonia and it takes 4 to 5 h depending on the schedule to travel 390 km. Top speed is 160 km/h on this route and the train stops in every single village with more than 10000 inhabitants. I have used other European trains, and recently did à Lyon-Rennes trip on the TGV (700 km) that took me 4 h. The price was 52 € (same as a single ticket for my Finnish commute) and although it was a OUIGO 2nd class, I had a very comfortable seat, enough leg room and a strong wifi with onboard streaming of movies, music, books all accessible for free from the network. So a very different experience at 320 km/h top speed. I think VR would gain investing in proper high speed rail as the country is quite long from North to South and that would really help develop cities in central Finland.
Deffianlty! That's why my focus was just the trains themselves as I really do belive they are some of the best in Europe. But the rail system as a whole is a other topic for discussion and would warrent a much longer and carefully researched video :-)
I really enjoy an outward facing chair upstairs in the restaurant car.
Very nice trains I have to say. Awesome 🤩
Because my grandparents live in Tampere I use Helsinki-Tampere line alot. And because I live in Kirkkonummi (40min from Helsinki) I'm always taking a local U train to Pasila and switch there for an IC. Train connections here in Southern Finland are excellent. When traveling on IC I often book a extra class ticket because it's super comfortable and costs only 10€ extra
I remember going on these and just staying in the playground at the bottom of the train
The features included in these trains seem amazing. Was that a telephone cabin in extra class? Too bad most of these features would be hard to implement on smaller loading gauges
Yes it was and theres a few more throughout the train :D
Originally in Pendolino and older InterCity trains those were smoking cabins. Onboard smoking hasn’t been allowed in about 20yrs but they kept the cabins even in newer trains, they are now telephone cabins and various smaller cabins.
Regular double decker cars have a telephone cabin on both the upper and lower level. It's by no means an extra class thing.
Thanks for good video. I really hope that there will not be any privatization of passenger operations in Finland. It would certainly lead to higher ticket prices based on my experiences from UK and Sweden.
My problem with VR is, that despite being a Finnish railway, every-single-winter when I'm trying to travel somewhere, the trains get crazy delayed due to snow. I've pretty much given up on travelling in winter by train, because last time I ended up waiting 2 hours at the the train station, in the freezing cold because it was the night and the countryside train station itself had closed, and while they did open an indoor space for us to stand in (no chairs or seats) it was so crowded that I had to stand there like a sardine neck-to-neck with over 60 people, eventually I gave up waiting when they delayed it by another 45 minutes, and I realized I wouldn't make it to my destination in time to catch public transport and I didn't want to pay another 60 euros for a taxi.
Long-distance buses still tend to run fine, even in the middle of snowstorms, so I've started taking those, comfortable enough (if you pay for extra for more leg space) and have free-wifi etc. just like the trains. Also bus tickets go for like half the price or less. You have to bring your own drinks and snacks if you're looking to eat, but the bus rides don't really take too much longer than the trains.
Long delays are rare, though they do happen especially during winter storms. In most cases, even if the train was severely delayed, the train is still faster option than a bus. I think even the worst on-time performance services have less than 1 delay over 30 minutes per month. As a side note, when things go wrong on the main line, trains between Helsinki and Oulu, Kolari or Rovaniemi can be late many hours (like 5-14 hours late). Happens about once a year for certain unlucky services (mainly sleeper trains and afternoon/evening services).
Most often delays are caused by vandalism and suicides. A suicide will basicly shut down the line for 60-90 minutes. Other common reasons include track failures (faulty safety or signaling equipment, damaged electrical supply etc), equipment failures (limited speed or total failure), freight train stuck on the tracks, as well as forest fires etc.
If you happen to find yourself on or waiting for a delayed train, you can get compensation. If the train is late for more than one hour, you'll get 25% refund for the ticket. If it's late for more than 2 hours, you'll get 50% refund. If you miss the last public transit connection of the day (which you would otherwise been able to make), you can get a refund for additional expences, such as a taxi home.
Lesser known thing is the train operators duty of care. If your train is severely delayed, you can get free drinks (such as water, coffee and tea), snacks and even food within reason (evaluated on a case by case basis, and depends on the delay and availability of food and drinks). This is basicly never announced in the train, or offered by default, so you need to ask the conductor or restaurant car staff if you can get free drinks or food. In general, you'll get drinks after about an hour delay, snacks after couple of hours, and you'll never want to end up in a situation where you can get food (as it means you are probably 5 hours late, maybe even more).
i've travelled during winter alot and this has never been an issue for me
I traveled 8 years to work by train (like 100km oneway). And even changed from an IC to a local train (twice a day of course). During these years IC were twice so late (because of a snow storm) that the local train could not wait: so I had to wait an extra hour for next train. And it was very rare when trains were running late more than 10 minutes - few times a year, I think.
But it was funny when a train was running late like 3 minutes, people were crying like the world is going to crush down....
We are punctual here in Finland, yes, but VR is actually a pretty good company.
Really great railway by finland
Watching this in the Joensuu railway station while waiting for a train replacement bus yet another time. In the south/west the trains are fine, but outside there its more often than not that a couple hour train ride can easily become a day project
Plus, kaksi, kolme, kolme, nolla, kaksi, neljä, yhdeksän, kolmekymmentä, kolmekymmentäyksi, seitsemän, seitsemän
L have ridden that train and it is brilliant
Mashallah so beautiful country every setup is well systemized.people are very happy onbehalf ofall kinds of facilities from abid pakistan peshawar.
cool, didn't know you used to live in finland - which city did you live in?^^
i used to live a year in western finland as well and also enjoyed many trips aboard VR trains. some things i would maybe add:
+ the luggage lockers are truly great; not that you would need it in finland haha
+ the pace at which these trains run at are extraordinary. I used to cover a trip of about 80km in each direction and it took less than 40min. Also to get to and from Helsinki, the travel time was just superior to driving a car. In Finland, even though it's such a huge country, they really managed to make trains the best mode of transport. And since VR runs on (as far as i know) 100% emission free current with no diesel trains in their passanger fleet, that's an amazing sentiment to cut carbon emissions.
- i really didn't like the pricing model though. if you book far in advance, it might be cheap. but the prices increase the later you book. i paid as low as 20€ to Helsinki and as high as 65€. so it's not really affordable to take a spontaneos trip somewhere :(
- Finland's rail network is excellent for some and pretty useless for others. The connections from north to south are usually great but crossing the country from west to east is next to impossible. and if you're in Lappland (north of Rovaniemi), good luck without a car o_o
- and just a small thing that is good to know about VR stations, the luggage lockers there are pretty poor quality and only take 2€ coins to pay for the 8€/day price, which is ridiculous in such a modern and cashless country.
I had almost 2 years in Turku! The railway network is indeed not set up for spontainus trips and anything not Helsinki oriented gets tough. Maybe one day more service will return if the goverment is willing to invest in more rural train services.
I would highly encourage you to try out the ICE service here in germany, especially for a longer route. Personally i absolutely love traveling with them apart from the fairly common occurance of long delays and other issues. There is even a line to paris, which might give the opportuniy for a cross europe tour series of sorts.
I have been on various ICE services before but i wanna come back to film soon! They are great trains but yeah DB seems to be in a bit of a operational meltdown state atm.
Great to see ur video
Steissi (helsinki railway station) is one of the beatiful train station ive ever seen, and im noit saying this as just a local haha
the only thing that sucks is connections east-west. I live in Joensuu and if I want to go to Kuopio or Jyväskylä or anywhere in the west, I have to travel down to helsinki and back up, in a V-shape, doubling the travel time and prices. I wish they had better connections for that.
Man the new price changes doe. Before i got from joensuu to Tampere for 14€ if u was lucky but now its 47€ even after student discount 😂
If you book sufficiently in advance you can get it down to at least 13,30€ one way. 9.8 had one that low
You didn’t show the green button that opens doors just by touching it, you can’t press it down
How does wheelchair accessible facilities work onboard? I'm struggling to spot any.
Usually at least one of the carriages has several wheelchair spots and toilets. And food can be ordered via app to your seat, and some trains have also food/drinks trolley going around.
As pp-bf2ec points out, the train has at least one accessible coach that has a large step free area, but unfortunately most of the train is not accessible due to the internal stairs.
Usually the accessible area is on couch 4, which includes 2 wheelchair spaces. I’ve used those maybe 20-30 times, and they are great! Sometimes though people with children leave their strollers there, but with the help of them or the staff you’ll get your space quickly.
You can also charge your electric wheelchair or mobility scooter / invamoped as long as your charger uses the normal wall sockets you find in Finnish homes too. Have done that too, since part of my journeys have been with a manual, part with an electric wheelchair and part with a smallish mobility scooter (Invacare Orion Pro) - not so sure If bigger mobility scooters fit from the doors of the train.
Me when finland is mentiomed in a youtube
SUOMI PERKELE🇫🇮
Only thing is that they never come on time XD i use trains pretty often and they were often sometimes as much as 1h late
Very good seats? Yet no word about the plastic armrests.
I live in tampere
It's best train i used
As a foreigner that has been living in Finland for 12 years I can say it is probably the best country on the planet and the women are just gorgeous, blond and silent.
Plus, kaksi, kolme, kolme, nolla, kaksi, neljä, yhdeksän, kolmekymmentä, kolmekymmentäyksi, seitsemän, seitsemän
Does this train go to Sweden as well?
Finland uses rail width dating back from the Russian empire meaning it is uncompatible with European trains and rail networks. But I suppose you could switch trains at the border but no there would not be enough customers for a route like that. Most travel to Sweden happens between helsinki and Stockholm with a cheap 1h flight.
@@JohnTwo1 I'd say that most travel between southern Finland and Sweden is on ferries. They're sometimes really cheap and you can get to Stockholm from Turku or Helsinki with them, and from Vaasa to Umeå.
@@JohnTwo1 Due to climate crisis there are many more of us who choose not to fly anymore and prefer taking the train whenever possible. Hence the revival of night train network in Europe and planning for a rail connection from Finland to Sweden (Laurila-Tornio-Haaparanta) to be built in 2023-24. I look forward to getting on train in Helsinki in the evening and waking up in Stockholm the next morning! Much less carbon emissions than by air or sea. 💚
@@fortuna7469 Rail connection to Sweden? Awesome. Yes, people here like the night trains, I used it many times to go to Lapland. I would be looking forward to taking a sleeper train to Germany (if the tunnel Helsinki-Talinn is ever to be built) but I suspect it won't be during my lifetime (I'm 52).
Less carbon emissions and more comfortable. Instead of waiting in airport, security checks, cramped in a plane seat, wake up refreshed and start into the day. Yay! By plane, essentially you "waste" one day,
VR is a punch line to thousands of jokes.
Why is there not a water dispenser? Having the wtaer in cups seems like platic waste to me
It's more hygienic to use bottles or other containers. Water in tanks has to be kept at or close to boiling temperature, otherwise microbes will start growing in the tank. That's why there's a warning (5:25) in the toilet not to drink water from the tap.
Thank you for thinking about the environmental aspect! 💚It would be best if water would not be served like this at all (in disposable small plastic cups with a metallic cover). Most people could bring water in their own reusable bottles and those who are unable to do that could buy a bottle of water in the restaurant car but we are so used to the convenience of everything we need to be at hand at all times everywhere so hardly anybody plans ahead and packs necessities with them.
Tbf I haven't seen ppl using those water cups much, most people (myself included) either drink coffee or take their own bottles with them. Those cups seem to be used mostly on "emergency". I think I've drank from them once, maybe twice.
I am in this train currently lol
I guess they are OK but somehow I aended up in the ones, that have several non-functioning toilets and either non-functioning AC or an AC, thats running on turbo all-time... :|
R u sure, is the best train in Europe? Toilet r rly terrible and sometimes train are always late. Never been Finland a lot? 😂😂😂
Ootko koskaan matkustanut junalla ulkomailla, VR'n vessat on siihen nähden todella hyvässä kunnossa. Muutenkin se on junan vessa, ei siivitin kylpyhuone joten eipäs valiteta. ✌️😌
@@thejohanvalli huh, I don't speak slavs
The trains are good, but ticket costs too much if you do not buy it months in advance.
That is a fair point
The long distance trains are fantastic. But commuting to work is hell, hot, mostly late. In the summer, it is hell.
the train arrived at Helsingi station 15 minutes early and still leaves 3 minutes late, typical vr 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂
To be fair, someone did decide to set fire to railway equipment that day so everything was a bit messed up :)
WTF*? Some one actually praises finnish VR? :D
What? Trains in my beloved country suck. They don't work in wintertime (because they were made in Italy); the tickets are only cheap, if you by them a month early; they are ridiculously slow (Japan's trains are twice as fast); and the seats are uncomfortable.
I now take a coach every time, even if it's a lot slower. In exchange I get to travel in peace, and at half the price of a train ticket.
Only the pendolinos were made in Italy, which does not form the majority of the fleet. Some of us can book in advance and would actually like legroom, which a onnibus does not have. Train fares in Japan on Shinkansen are very expensive and no advance discount is offered. VR has some of the best ontime performance on European railways. But the grass is always greener abroad :-)
200 kmh is not "ridicilously slow" . besides we dont need our trains to go 400+ kph
i bought my tickets like 2 weeks early and still got it for 20 bucks? and you should always by tickets in advance anyway, regardless of where you go..
they do work during winter time, i mean, i used an intercity to tampere in january when it was snowing... and about travelling in peace, i find the buses to be more restless than trains
@@Celatra200kmh like for 15km. Helsinki - Oulu takes 5:30 to 6 hours and its 600km. Its garbage tier and you can almost match it with car.
@@jepulis6674 again, it's over 7 hours with car. no way in hell can you do in 6 hours in car.
there are other factors such as comfort, enviromental footprint and cost too, not just the speed.
@@CelatraIts 3hours going your 200kmh. Its slow and quite shit. Its also ridiculously pricey going up north via rail and bus. Saves like 50€ vs flying and flying is 10h faster.
What is Finland NOT best at? :D
Plenty of things, but high quality trains is not one of them :P
@@Simon-AndersenFinland was ranked the best country in 2019 by the World economic Forum conference in Switzerland Davos.
I don't know how many trains you have tried nyt Finnish trains are relatively awful with poor wifi connectivity, regular problems with train engines and The overall atmosphere of trains.
For one example. Italian trains beats Finnish trains 100-0
Compared to brittish and american trains we beat them 100-0
I spent 2 years living in turku and took the train to Helsinki every 3-5 weeks. I don't know how many Italian trains you have tired but it sounds like you have only been on the high speed network. If you take a intercity train to Sicily or a sleeper with broken AC in the summer you will come begging back to VR. Not to mention the ontime performance is way better on average in finland
the high speed italian trains are nice.
anything else however....no.
Meanwhile in Denmark, urine on the floors, urine in the elevators, beer and/or urine and/or vomit on the seats. No dining car, no kids section, no free water. Always delayed, always replaced by buses. And really, really expensive.
Same in the Netherlands, though less urine and vomit and more trash and graffiti. They dodged a bullet a few years ago when they tried to introduce a new carriage without toilets, if they had I'm sure we could've added "smells like piss" to the list as well.
The price is your left kidney.
I wanna know where you get a kidney for 18 euro
But they are ALWAYS late
Does this mean that we are not allowed to complain about the VR anymore?? 😱🤭
No there's plenty of issues with VR but the physical trains themselves are among the best :)
Ne on iha paskoo
Plus, kaksi, kolme, kolme, nolla, kaksi, neljä, yhdeksän, kolmekymmentä, kolmekymmentäyksi, seitsemän, seitsemän
Why do you say soviet era? Finland and that train has nothing to do with the Soviet Union. Just say 80's train... Sorry that just boiled me up.
Sr1 locomotives were manufacured in Soviet Union by a company called "B/O Энергомашэкспорт". They truly are Soviet era locomotives, and honestly there is nothing bad about it.
@@klapiroska4714 Oh that is why they always break down. Good to know.
@@Mojova1 Well, it's still the one that is most likely to rescue a train that has gotten stuck or has broken down. Sure it's not the fastest, prettiest or most powerful locomotive, but it'll get the job done, and won't be stopped by winter weather.
Fun fact: in the 70s some VR trains had a disco carriage:
kuvat.vaunut.org/eff5f50bc064289e56635ef2014c2c45.jpg
403 Forbidden
As a kid i used to not understand why Americans always joked and complained about public transport. living in Finland as a kid i quess my world view was quite limited, i mean i started to take the public bus to school at age 12 and many start alot younger if the school is like over 5km away. Many Finns take our country for granted because they are so used to it.
We as Finns *should* take all these things for granted, they're simply the result of societal common sense. It is goddamn laughable how most other "first world" countries are run, I'm currently based in Dublin and it's like living in the stone age in comparison. It's not like we're performing magic in Finland either, every functioning country could and should offer the same amenities.
@@JohnDaubSuperfan369 That sounds so strange, considering Dublin, when Ireland is twice as rich as Finland, despite having roughly the same population, and has less public debt. The Irish government spending, as expected, is much higher than in Finland. Even if the place makes you feel like it's lacking development, compared to Finland, logic dictates that some others things, that aren't relevant to you, are in a much better shape than in Finland. It's not like all that money would simply disappear somewhere, like in Russia.
@@herrakaarme Ireland's "wealth" is mostly an illusion and quite recent, has almost 0 impact on the real wealth of the people, government and the quality of the infrastructure. Remember that in just 2008 Ireland went bankrupt. Making improvements in infrastructure and QoL for the people are extremely long term projects that often take decades
On the flipside, Finland's true wealth is mostly obfuscated on how differently it works compared to the other nations being compared. There are several other more specific economic research and indicators that reveal the true standing of these true countries, and Finland is way ahead of Ireland in most of them
@@herrakaarme You're more than welcome to come and investigate for yourself 😂 Any country with essentially a two party political system and extensive connections to organised religion is extremely prone to corruption, Ireland is no exception in that regard. You are aware of the fact that Ireland is the biggest tax haven in the world? The inflated GDP does not equal quality of life. Money disappears in a slightly more elaborate and less blatant way than in Russia, but it still disappears.
From my bedroom window I can see a brand new development of multi-million € apartments (most of which are bought by foreign investors) with a dilapidated romani-encampment of caravans and actual horses right next to it, and an even more dilapidated methadone clinic across the street from them. And the street they're on doesn't even have asphalt on it, in the capital city, in a supposedly "nice" neighborhood... There are a few more rows of multi-million houses around the bend, again interrupted by dilapidated council housing. Class-divide in this country is insane, things are almost as ridiculous as in the States. Downtown is even worse, absolutely riddled with abandoned buildings next to fresh Google offices and homeless people sleeping in their doorways, or begging in the middle of the street. You'd have a hard time stepping over them on your way out of the train station, if you ever actually managed to make your way down there. The public transport is so expensive, overcrowded and under-scheduled that you're better of avoiding the potholes in your own car, which basically has to be a brand new car since the taxation penalizes you very heavily for owning a slightly older. Wonder who lobbied for that particular scheme... People trade in their cars here like we used to trade in Nokias 20 years ago.
Organised crime (the "illegal" kind) is also properly organised here, the Garda are always finding young tracksuit-laden lads scattered around Dublin in bin bags, a lot of them are 17-19 year olds from council estates. The taxi drivers ferry drugs for the Kinahans all over the city, which I've personally no problem with and I hope they get paid well for it, this is just the kinda stuff that Wikipedia doesn't volunteer for you and it helps to put the differences between Finland and Ireland in perspective, you can't read everything from numbers.
Maybe I'm just hallucinating it all though, maybe it's just one of the benefits of having a steady supply of quality pot here.
@@JohnDaubSuperfan369 I'll have to take your word for it, since you are actually living there. Numbers don't indeed tell the whole story.
Just nitpicking here but the body of water you see when leaving Helsinki railway station is actually not a lake but part of the Baltic Sea, the Töölö bay.
Ah yes thats correct! Thanks for pointing it out :)
As a finn it's really interesting to see videos about Finland. Just seeing familiar places on youtube feels nice
Plus, kaksi, kolme, kolme, nolla, kaksi, neljä, yhdeksän, kolmekymmentä, kolmekymmentäyksi, seitsemän, seitsemän
Just got back to Melbourne from my frist visit to Finland... amazed by the quality of the inter-city trains. Best I've encountered in the world... EU, US, AU SEA...
When you need something, buy good one.
The children playground and family coupes are just mindblowing for me, who travelled with Swedish trains quite many times.
We can just dream about such conditions.
stuff is financed with taxes, and benefits from people who behave decently towards the next man and society.
I hear that sweden spends a lot of its taxes on social services for people who arent too fond of pulling their weight in society, and at the same time ignore established societal
ways to preserve the common good. Lot of vandalism by people who have nothing better to do. Extremism, gang violence. And so on.
A society that is that hostile to each other, and to the local customs and culture, for whatever reasons (different discussion) cannot have nice things. That is common sense.
@@zoolkhan How is Swedish system different from the Finnish?
@@MaratD I'm preatty late to answer but VR is the only train operator in Finland and it's owned by the state. Sweden has lots of different train operators which can also be owned by private companies :)
I might have slight disagreement about IC Extra class seats. Those winged headrests are bad for your shoulders when you are 197cm tall😅
Anyway, welcome to Tampere!
I guess its always gonna be hard to make a seat thats suits every height 😅
true that. we have to shrink.
im only 182cm tall and i honestly didn't like the seats. I prefer the eco class.
same here traveling with the trains in finland is quite uncomfortrable for me but they are so cheap that it is stupid to own a car if you do not have to
and here we are like VR what a joke, always late etc! but yeah Intercitys are great, did not even know it had upper class, dont know how hot days you have traveled, but the trains are always cool, reall good Ac also, and basic bench are confy.
Not that good, I mean they are nice. But damn Finlands railway system is the worst. 5 hours to get from Kuopio to Helsinki. And that's a direct route. If I went anywhere north, east or west I'd have to travel south and back up again to get there. Finland only cares about the railway system in Helsinki, Which is no surprise, all the money spending now on extension is only extending Helsinki to surrounding area. Very very poor system in Finland.
Pricing is bullshit, I was going helsinki and saw price was half the price, next morning when went to buy it was double. Moment I bought tickets at double price the same tickets went back down to half price again within hours. Such a scam. And I wasn't allowed to cancel and buy the cheaper tickets.
I agree with most of what you say. But the trains themselves are nice which is what the video is about :-)
Great review of this shorter IC journey! I travel regularly from Turku to Helsinki and sometimes to Tampere, and yes, the IC's are truly great to be fair. Especially with the modernization of the Extra-class and the new bike and luggage space on some of the cars. It would be nice to know your thoughts on the mess that's undergoing in Kupittaa due to the trackwork to Turku central railway station. Tusen tak!
I haven't been to Turku during the works, but i can imagine trying to empty a full IC and get everyone up the tiny stairs there would be a mess. Hopefully that station can get a proper rebuild at some point, maybe whenever Turku gets a tram line ;)
@Simon Andersen if you have followed some plans, VR is going to sell both Kupittaa and Turku central railway station, along with many other station buildings, which means we may no longer have in the worst case any waiting hall but the platforms. Also, the Logomo bridge is set to replace the central railway station building mostly due to the tracks being moved eastwards and for a possible new central station that combines also with the bus station. However, this plan has not made any progress.
@@Finntrans combining with the bus station in turku seems like a great idea but selling off the station buildings in Turku and Kupittaa not. Especially considering how cold it gets in winter time, there really ought to be a place to wait as trains aren't that frequent
I go to school by train. I have good experience with VR. And since school is 20km away from home school gives me discount to the tickets. Btw im a child. I go from Tikkurila to Järvenpää
If our trains are the best in Europe how bad must the rest of Europe be?
VR:n junat ovat todella miellyttäviä, sen tietää jokainen joka on junaillut muissakin maissa.
Agreed. When travelling in Finland these are superb.
I didnt know our trains were this good. I have been in them for over a decade.
Give them a try! If you book in advance you can go for cheap
Is the ride as smooth and quiet as it looks?
Yes! One advantage of locohauled electric trains is that there are almost no sound as there is only an
engine at the front
They are really quiet. The old blue, steel(?) wagons were really loud, but thankfully they are long gone now
Top bunk better btw.
You're doing a great job on your vids. Your English is great and i find your accent sort of relaxing. Keep up the good work!
As someone that always picks a cheaper end ticket I have never seen premium seats like you had in a finnish train, and I always wonder how many people really afford them. Because the price even with cheaper tickets tickles sometimes the cost of traveling by car (local people) or even a flight.. VR works ok though, and I have heard that even though in Finland it is an open joke that trains are always late, when the stats are compared to other European train companies, apparently VR is among the least delayed companies. :D I personally think that TGV's in France are in a complete league of their own in smoothness of the ride (I've had one trip Paris->Lux), but the Finnish trains maybe are a nicer and more spacious place to spend longer time
It's ussualy only a 5-15 euros on top of a normal ticket to go in one of the better classes. TGVs are good trains, unfortunately the last 3 times I've been to France they been on strike with all trains canceled :(
9:01 im immediately thinking about elokapina they do shit like that every now and then
you should have shown the viewes the small mall below the trainstation in helsinki, its a real treasure trove for a tourist
Привет 🙋🏼♂️ Превосходное видео 👍🏻🔝📹 🆒️
:) Thanks very much, Simon! Travelling to Finland in Nov & definitely taking the trains there.
2:33 this is a really old hlv-train, which will be deleted from service soon (i think)
Poretitygal. Bize. Valkove.
Zejezinicy. Posediaje
Living in Canada, I can safely say that Finland is decades ahead of us. I live in a corridor where 50% of the population lives and we do not have a train that can hit 200KM/hour. This should be seen by our Prime Ministers (provinces of Québec, Ontario and Canada) to get the ball moving. I am properly impressed with the amenities on the VR double decker! Should I be in Scandinavia, I will be sure to get onto this train. Great video!
Thank you! The train is a great way to see the Nordics. I enjoyed my trip with VIA from Montreal to Toronto but its far from being what we have in Europe
VR stands for Valtion Rautatiet (State Railways).
Interesting that the destination sign on the outside of the carriage reads out in Swedish rather than Finnish...but then they are both national languages.
The language alternates on the external displays.
when you come from HEL airport, you can board the northward trains at Tikkurila, but many people do not even know this.
I do because I did that the last time I went to Oulu :D
This is not correct. It's expensive, unreliable and awful service.
If you go down the stairs seen in 1:05 there's an entire shopping center too.
Easy! They don't have dozens of 2000 metres high mountain ranges. They don't spend 1200 million euros to make just one 25 km tunnel and we have to build lots of them.
yeah but the only oil thats plentiful here is canola...
True.
I was myselfin a delayed train in finland from tampere to turku the train was delayed over 1 hour and im missed my ship to sweden
It seems like most delays these days are due to faults in the electronic traffic control. If there's an error in the system, the trains will simply stop, until it's fixed, even if nothing strange was going on. They really should have a backup system. Furthermore, the system is extremely inflexible. This summer, I watched my train stop a few hundred meters from the station and stand there for 15 minutes, unable to move, because it didn't have the permission from the traffic control system before another train departed first. Unfortunately that other train wasn't in any hurry, so nothing happened for 15 minutes. Obviously the already moving train wouldn't have needed 15 mins to cross 300 meters, well before the other train had any intention to go anywhere, but there was apparently nothing anyone could do about it, even though everybody could see with their own eyes what was going on.