# FINLAND | Railways



## Moolio (Oct 3, 2004)

Sorry if there's athread already, but I didn't find one, so here goes...

The trains:

Pendolino (HSR-ish, top speed 220kph):









IC2 double-decker:


















IC1 with a Bombardier locomotive:









Suburban trains in the Finnish capital...:









...soon to be replaced with these (Swiss-made FLIRT-trains):









Helsinki Central:

























Jyväskylä (my hometown):









Hämeenlinna, one of the first stations in Finland. Connection between Hämeenlinna and Helsinki was opened in 1862:









THX for viewing.


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## Alexriga (Nov 25, 2007)

Very well considering low density of population!


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## Wallaroo (Aug 3, 2007)

Lokks a hell of a lot better than danish railways.


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## Moolio (Oct 3, 2004)

thanks for your comments. dunno about danish trains, but i would imagine theyr pretty decent?


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## Dinivan (Apr 9, 2007)

^^ read the danish-thread lol they look quite unhappy with their network  
BTW, could you post pictures from the interiors of the trains? and a map of the finnish network would also be nice


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## Il_Milanese (Jan 31, 2006)

Looks nice! Any pictures with some snow? I love trains in snow ^_^


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## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

Dinivan said:


> and a map of the finnish network would also be nice


http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/index.php ==> railway maps


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## Moolio (Oct 3, 2004)

Dinivan said:


> BTW, could you post pictures from the interiors of the trains?


Sure. I didn't find too many photos, but maybe these help:

Pendolino:









Upper deck of the IC2-double-decker:









SM4 suburban train:











Il_Milanese said:


> Looks nice! Any pictures with some snow? I love trains in snow ^_^


I tried to look for some, but coudn't find any bigger than 100X200 pixels or so. Sorry.


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## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

Il_Milanese said:


> Looks nice! Any pictures with some snow? I love trains in snow ^_^


In Switzerland: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=571524


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## SimFox (Jun 30, 2006)

Moolio:
do you know when shall we get those new Swiss made suburban trains?? and will they come to Helsinki first??


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## Moolio (Oct 3, 2004)

SimFox said:


> Moolio:
> do you know when shall we get those new Swiss made suburban trains?? and will they come to Helsinki first??


It appears, according to an article I read, that the first trains will be delivered to Hki in 2009 and the last ones 2014 (32 units, € 189 million). As for your second question, they are already used in Germany on top of Switzerland, so no.

Have your city's mass transit authorities also ordered FLIRT?


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## city_thing (May 25, 2006)

Great photos, thanks for making this thread.

Helsinki station is amazing, I love looking at photos of it. The station in your hometown looks great as well, very modern.


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## brisbanite (Dec 11, 2007)

Thanks Moolio, great photos, do you have any of the freight side of things. Helsinki Central is a fairly large station.


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## Moolio (Oct 3, 2004)

Thanks to both of you. I couldn't find any decent images of freight trains in Finland, but I'll be sure to link them should I stumble across some.


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## Küsel (Sep 16, 2004)

I love Finnish railway - especially the Ravintola-Cars :lol:

Was travelling between 89 and 2000 probably every single line that exists from Rauma to Lieksa, from Helsinki to Kemijärvi - and it was always worthwhile and comfortable... except these bloody old drunkards, that always sit next to you stinking and nearly vomit on your lap - that was really annoying. Hope it got better in the meantime.

Best experience: travelling on EASTER from Helsinki to Kemijärvi in a night train without reservation ... as a group of SIX! We always had to wait til a seat was free that one of us could sleep a few minutes, the rest of us was sitting inbetween the cars making music and having fun all night


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## brisbanite (Dec 11, 2007)

I was watching the Amazing Race yesterday and they had the contestants riding in a few Finnish trains to various places. I am not sure of what series it was though. They showed a fair bit of the trains.


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## Kuvvaci (Jan 1, 2005)

very nice trains. I liked this thread


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## Alvar Lavague (Aug 24, 2006)

The new Jyväskylä station is quite nice and spacious especially when you compare it with the former station (A nice wooden building nevertheless).


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## Kuvvaci (Jan 1, 2005)

what is the top speed of IC2-double-decker?

Are there inter-city buses in Finland or all transportation is with railways?


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## Alvar Lavague (Aug 24, 2006)

^^ The intercity bus network is much more developed than railways. Almost every small town has its bus station but train stations are quite rare.


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## Eco-rat (Sep 22, 2009)

Rebasepoiss said:


> ^^ Half of all trains run with less than 20% of seats filled? :shocked: That is really bad. The future of Finnish railways looks quite dire with these numbers...which is ironic since Estonia has made Finland kind of an example on how to raise passenger numbers on railways (which Finland indeed did a while back).


Same everywhere. DB took a hit from buses in Germany, even in Japan the intercity buses are strangely popular, when i can't think of any good reason, even price. Some people must really be determined to get the best price.


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## Rebasepoiss (Jan 6, 2007)

^^ To be fair, the price difference is insane. I checked prices for a Monday morning Helsinki-Turku trip, roughly at 8AM.

Omnibus - € 7.50 (the highest price when buying a ticket for the next day)
Train - € 33.60


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## Nexis (Aug 7, 2007)

Its the same here in the US , but the population of certain corridors like the Northeast and West Coast means that Rail ridership hasn't taken a hit...in fact its growing...


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## Urbanmusician (Oct 10, 2013)

It's usually cheaper to fly from Helsinki to Oulu than travel by train...


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## tonttula (Nov 8, 2010)

Can't say I saw the popularity of buses raising again. 
From somebody who travels quite a bit between Vaasa and Helsinki, I would not even think of taking a bus when talking about that kind of distance. Also getting student prices from VR helps.


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

Eco-rat said:


> Same everywhere. DB took a hit from buses in Germany, even in Japan the intercity buses are strangely popular, when i can't think of any good reason, even price. Some people must really be determined to get the best price.


Strangely popular, but certainly don't capture much of the modal share overall. Instead, in Japan they compliment the railways. The buses do sometimes take better routes than trains though - for example from Kansai to Shikoku it's actually better to take the highway bus for most of the island.

Even here in Sweden long distance buses are popular, but the train doesn't seem to suffer in ridership despite a healthy competition to the bus - the reason of course is speed. The train is generally faster than the bus and a LOT more comfortable. I will never take a bus over a train, I'd rather not travel than travel by bus. They are the worst form of transport of all.


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## Sunfuns (Mar 26, 2012)

Svartmetall said:


> Even here in Sweden long distance buses are popular, but the train doesn't seem to suffer in ridership despite a healthy competition to the bus - the reason of course is speed. The train is generally faster than the bus and a LOT more comfortable. *I will never take a bus over a train, I'd rather not travel than travel by bus. They are the worst form of transport of all.*


The long distance bus is on the bottom of my totem pole as well. Still there are people who are more sensitive to prices than me or you plus occasionally there is no good alternative.


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## Sunfuns (Mar 26, 2012)

Having said that the difference in price in Finland is too large. Railways will have no other option than to reduce prices significantly particularly on routes where they can't be faster than bus.


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## doc7austin (Jun 24, 2012)

Actually for decades there has been a price duopoly between trains and buses.
The prices were the same. VR has just charged an additional fee for IC, IC2 and Pendolino trains. There were no saver or advance purchase fares. Still, price were much cheaper than in Germany. Students got 50% discount.
Some people preferred buses, other ones preferred trains.
Trains are more comfortable, but do not cover all urban areas of the country.

However, in recent years some low cost bus companies has established business in Finland. They steal business from traditional buses and from trains.
That has forced VR to introduce advance saver fares.


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## Nexis (Aug 7, 2007)

*[VR] Pendolino service from Helsinki to Oulu passing Parkano station.*


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## Rebasepoiss (Jan 6, 2007)

What's the maximum allowed speed in Finland when passing platforms?


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

Finnish state railway's opening to competition is speeding up...


> VR's monopoly on Finnish passenger rail traffic will end during this government's term, says the Transport Minister.
> 
> "This is not about privatising VR; the state is not giving up ownership," she said.
> 
> The ministry’s goal is to set in motion the process for opening up train traffic to competition during spring 2016. Currently, VR has an exclusive agreement on passenger train traffic in Finland through to the end of 2024.


More on the subject: YLE News


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## Tin_Can (Jun 17, 2009)

VR Group's new Siemens Vectron locomotive.

150988454


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

The Finnish Government has granted funds to continue the project of a new, long-awaited, faster and shorted railway between Helsinki and Turku (nicknamed ELSA, as it goes via Espoo, Lohja and Salo). A very curvy present line (via Karjaa) doesn't allow sufficiently fast travel, even if the travel time for one of the trains has been recently shortened to 1 hour and 38 minutes.







.​More in Finnish here.


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

^^ New, faster and shorter railway between Helsinki and Turku with travel time one hour or so? It's been one year ago. What about the travel time just 20 minutes or less?


> Plans for a high-speed hyperloop transportation shuttle inched forward as sponsors begin looking into land use and environmental impact studies for a connection between Turku and Helsinki. The city of Salo has ordered the analysis and is also considering a test track to Turku.


"Hyperloop takes a step forward" writes yle.fi


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## ArtManDoo (Aug 5, 2008)

Thre is no Hyperloop at moment even no complete test track nowhere in the world. I think let there will be more knowledge about this fancy thing before serious proposals could be maid.


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

Do you like betting? Finns apparently do, let's just mention that every year Veikkaus, the Finnish national betting agency has been able to hand over to the Ministry of Education more than 500 million euros from its profits (the total population in Finland being 5.5 million). 

Recently Veikkaus has announced that it will expand its betting to include the trains' punctuality. Their Fixed Odds Betting system will be similar to sports betting. By selecting 1 you bet the train will arrive on time (5 min. tolerance). Two means delay. X will probably mean big delay or unexpected circumstances. Well, the Finnish trains run mostly on time, but last night the sleeper train to Kolari would have been given X. Due to the car transporter fault the delay reached 5,5 hours. Disappointing for passengers, costly for rail operator too: all passengers' tickets will have to be refunded.


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## Nexis (Aug 7, 2007)




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## Jacky93 (Jun 29, 2016)

I think the main reason rail patronage in Finland not exactly as high as it could be is because not many of the routes are direct, e.g. Helsinki-Jyväskylä or Helsinki-Pori having to detour and go via Tampere, which makes the train journey longer than driving.

Anyone know if the planned Helsinki-Forssa-Pori or Helsinki-Lahti-Heinola-Jyväskylä lines will be built in the near future? I've read reports that show the Helsinki to Jyväskylä trip would take 2 hours, and Pori 1.5!! They'd be mad not to


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

Jacky93 said:


> Anyone know if the planned Helsinki-Forssa-Pori or Helsinki-Lahti-Heinola-Jyväskylä lines will be built in the near future?


No, unfortunately not. From above mentioned, so called "oikorata", more direct connection from Helsinki (Kerava actually) to Lahti has already been in use since 2006, but the plans to continue this line via Heinola to Mikkeli rather than Jyväskylä are not going to be implemented any time soon.

Right now, railway news from VR on positive side concern growing demand for passenger rail travel, due to new price policies and shorter travel times.


> Matkamäärä on kasvanut tänä vuonna jo lähes 10% (...). Täyttöaste on jo yli 40%, ja suosituimmilla vuoroilla selvästi yli 70%. Kysynnän kasvu on kääntänyt myös matkustajaliikenteen liikevaihdon ja tulostason nousuun.


Passenger travel has risen almost 10% this year and load factor has been 40%, on most popular routes over 70%. The growth in demand has also led to growth in net sales and overall performance.
In VR news release one can also read about new rail car orders. Beginning in early 2019, 20 double-deck carriages, 113 seats each, will be delivered by Transtech Otanmäki.


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## Rebasepoiss (Jan 6, 2007)

Do I get it right that there would be a brand new (underground?) railway from Helsinki central station to the airport? If so, would it also serve local commuter trains withing Helsinki metropolitan area? 

Also, what are the estimated timelines for the three projects?


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

^^ Well, the tunnel would serve mostly long-distance trains, but some commuter trains would use it too. Here is the picture of the "lentorata" project:






The most recent official document of so called väylävirasto you can find here (in Finnish), note the parallel standard-gauge tunnel towards Tallinn on the map. The broader text, partially in English, has been published by the Finnish Transport Agency (Liikennevirasto) already in 2010. An excerpt from there:


> The Airport Line refers to the envisaged railway line connecting Helsinki Airport with the main line between Helsinki and Tampere. The line, which would mainly be used by long-distance trains, would diverge from Pasila and have a length of about 30 km. It would be a double track and travel almost the entire distance via a tunnel. (...) It is envisaged that all long-distance trains and some of the regional trains running on the main line and the Kerava-Lahti shortcut would use the Airport Line. This would free up a substantial amount of capacity for regional and freight trains on the section south of Kerava on the existing main line. (...) The trip between the Helsinki main railway station and the airport would last 15 minutes, compared with 29 minutes on the Ring Rail Line. (...) The Airport Line would also speed up connections between Russia and Helsinki (...), the Airport Line will allow for the laying of a link between Helsinki Airport and St. Petersburg in the corridor going towards Porvoo through Kerava.


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## Alexander Kanavin (Jul 4, 2010)

eu01 said:


> "East Line" from Vantaa Airport via Porvoo to Kouvola.


Wait, why Kouvola? They already have a good 200-220 km/h connection via the recently built Kerava-Lahti line and upgraded Lahti-Kouvola line (which would then become underused?). Meanwhile, the struggling Kotka-Hamina region will remain without any decent rail connection at all.


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

^^ Well, in my opinion the line mentioned should go half way between Kotka and Kouvola and further towards Luumäki (Joensuu/St. Petersburg). After Kymijoki river it would cross the existing Kotka-Kouvola double-track line and via sidings would link both cities with Helsinki. Kotka would get an almost direct line to the capital city and in fact the travel to Mikkeli and Kuopio would not suffer either due to the elimination of the direction change in Kouvola (shorter stop there).


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## Alexander Kanavin (Jul 4, 2010)

Sure that could work as well, I just wonder what are the specific justifications for the line to go directly to Kouvola and bypass southern Kymenlaakso altogether. Is a study/pre-study/proposal/anything at all available anywhere?

For a connection to Mikkeli/Kuopio I would look into building a direct high speed double tracked line via Lahti and Heinola.


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

As of next Sunday, 1st of September, the VR passengers will be able to pay conductors for tickets using bank cards only, also the last cash-accepting vending machines on railway stations will be replaced by modern cashless ones. Taking into account the lack of cash desks on many stations, some few people who still don't use cards for payments will have to search R-kioski boutiques in city centres to have their money accepted.


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## doc7austin (Jun 24, 2012)

The question is always whether foreign cards are accepted as well.


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

^^ It used to be a problem, but to my knowledge, not any more.


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## Rebasepoiss (Jan 6, 2007)

The Estonian state-owned freight operator Operail is entering the Finnish freight rail market to compete with its state owned VR. 



> * Operail invests €50 million in freight transport in Finland
> 
> Estonian international transport and logistics company Operail has launched a subsidiary in Finland, Operail Finland Oy, and is investing €50 million to begin freight transportation on Finnish railroads.*
> 
> ...


Another article: New player on Finnish rail freight market


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## 1772 (Aug 18, 2009)

Is there any interest in Finland to build a bridge across Kvarken between Umeå and Vasa?


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

Unfortunately, it seems that the new straight "one hour" high speed railway between Helsinki and Turku might have problems with getting the funding to be built. More details here.


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

There are ongoing discussions about the shortening of travel times also in the North to South direction, but the decision making is too slow, yle.fi reports.


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## Jacky93 (Jun 29, 2016)

Does anyone know where I can find passenger statistics for Finnish railway stations? I did manage to find one doc that showed passenger figures for the year 2008 but nothing later!!


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

Jacky93 said:


> Does anyone know where I can find passenger statistics for Finnish railway stations? I did manage to find one doc that showed passenger figures for the year 2008 but nothing later!!


Not really, you've probably found this, now VR have published only the numbers of passengers on its lines, but no publicly available railway stations data seem to exist.

Some trivia instead. Due to coronavirus the passenger numbers in Finnish trains have dropped by as much as 90% and restaurant cars are not circulating any more. Well, their staff offers now "meatballs on wheals" delivering them to your home address. Are you interested? Look at the offer  (sorry, in Finnish only).


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

It's 25 years since the Finnish Railways started using Pendolinos on their network. Despite them not being the most reliable rolling stock (mainly due to harsh Winter conditions), the number of units in use has grown to 18. Here one of them on the move, in July 2020.


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

Finland will invest 1.3 billion euros on rail infrastructure over the next ten years, Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka announced at a press conference on Thursday morning.

The most significant projects include plans to reduce travel time between Helsinki and the cities of Turku and Tampere to one hour, as well as the Espoo city line.

More in YLE News.


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## M-NL (Sep 18, 2012)

So the 180km between Helsinki and Tampere currently takes 1h30m. Even upgrading some of the 170 km/h sections to 200 km/h or preferably 230 km/h should already help a lot.
Why does it currently take an Intercity or even a Pendolino 2h for the 170km between Helsinki and Turku? Is there a reason for the low 120 km/h to 160 km/h track speeds? There do seem to be a lot of slow corners in the OpenRailwayMap on this route. A new high(er) speed line next to Riksväg 1 perhaps?


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

The existing line is too curvy indeed. In fact, the project consists of four parts: the Espoo urban railway line, the Espoo–Salo direct rail line (new one), the Salo–Turku double track, and the Turku railway yard reconstruction. You can find also a visualisation of a new stretch:


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## eu01 (Oct 14, 2005)

According to yle.fi the planning for a new Helsinki - Turku line has started. Responsible for this project Turun Tunnin Juna Oy has estimated that the planning will be completed by the end of 2023, the construction will start at the earliest in 2024 and the fast train line could be completed at the turn of the 2030s. The planning will cost 75 million euros, half of the sum provided by the EU.


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## VITORIA MAN (Jan 31, 2013)

Edited


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

* Finland suspends its rail link between Russia and the EU *
Reuters _Excerpt_
Mar 25, 2022

Finland's national railway operator said on Friday it would suspend services between Helsinki and St. Petersburg in Russia on Monday, closing the rail link between Russia and the European Union.

VR, the operator, said it had been told by the Finnish state it was no longer appropriate to run the service, known as the Allegro, in light of sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

More : Finland suspends its rail link between Russia and the EU


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## Coccodrillo (Sep 30, 2005)

Anyone knows the fate of Sm6 trains, those used on the Helsinki-St. Petersburg route? Wikipedia says "_In August 2022, it became known that VR Group had written off all Allegro trains and their spare parts for a total amount of 45.4 million euros. The operator does not plan to resume their use._" but they are quite modern, why aren't they used on domestic services? Maybe in pool with the Sm3 trains which are an older version of the same model?


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## Qtya (Aug 31, 2006)

Coccodrillo said:


> Anyone knows the fate of Sm6 trains, those used on the Helsinki-St. Petersburg route? Wikipedia says "_In August 2022, it became known that VR Group had written off all Allegro trains and their spare parts for a total amount of 45.4 million euros. The operator does not plan to resume their use._" but they are quite modern, why aren't they used on domestic services? Maybe in pool with the Sm3 trains which are an older version of the same model?


I only found this article piece on the topic:

"The Allegro trains are owned by Karelian Trains, a joint venture of VR and Russian Railways (RZD). *Viktoria Hurri*, the managing director of Karelian Trains, stated to Kauppalehti yesterday that the trains have been operated so far as per the wishes of the central administration."









HS: VR to stop rail service between Helsinki and St. Petersburg


ALLEGRO TRAINS will stop operating a route between Helsinki and St. Petersburg on Saturday, reports Helsingin Sanomat. Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Tytti Tuppurainen (SDP) on Thursday issued a letter to VR, the Finnish state-owned railway company operating the trains...




www.helsinkitimes.fi


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## Alexander Kanavin (Jul 4, 2010)

I think the trains are owned by (or leased to) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_Trains and so it's possible existing contracts do not allow their use in domestic traffic. Maybe this will change when new timetables are in place.

'Written off' is an accounting term for financial losses; the trains are not scrapped for metal or sold, this would be monumentally silly


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## [email protected] (Jul 25, 2010)




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## [email protected] (Jul 25, 2010)




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