So, the coming timetables for the trains from Finland to Haaparanta in Sweden have been published now. On working days two trains per day and direction. On Saturdays ("la") three, on Sundays ("su") three as well. Ol=Oulu, Hpa=Haaparanta.
Leaving 5:08 in the morning from Oulu is humoristic! But expected, as VR wants to prove passengers don't want to use this connection.
In practical terms there's one usable train per week: On Saturday.
(All times are in EET)
This does actually seem to produce a somewhat usable interchange connection from a Helsinki–Rovaniemi night train. There is a 16-minute interchange in Oulu, and probably a few minutes less in Kemi, where the night train stops at 5:58. It's not super fun to have to wake up before 5:58, but it's a thing that can be done.
That gets you to Stockholm by 20:38, Mon–Sat.
@tml @Tuuktuuk @jon Since funding comes from Tornio, and Oulu is the main city in the region - a lot larger than Luleå - and that people tend to travel shorter distances more often than longer distances, it makes total sense that Tornio-Oulu is the main connection.
Rolling stock availability is another possible reason for the timetable being as peculiar as it is. It's entirely possible that the funding wouldn't cover dedicating a train for this purpose, regardless whether VR was involved.
They've said that the decision about funding came too late and they were not in time to take Swedish timetables into account. They've promised to create good connections with Swedish trains in the beginning of 2027.
We'll see if that happens.
@demoographics @Tuuktuuk @jon
There’s an hour in Boden between the night train and the train to Haparanda. But still not a comfortable schedule.
“Luckily” there’s another train to Finland 7 hours later. This evening train is the only connection 6 out of 7 days of the week.
“wHy iS noOnE tAkinG thE tRaiN?” 🙄
@interrailinfosvenska @demoographics @jon
Oh, and regarding a connection from central Europe to Rovaniemi to greet Santa: a train to Rovaniemi stops in Kemi at 15:32. A train coming from Sweden towards Oulu will stop in Kemi about one hour before it arrives to Oulu. That means, around 15:35. Judging from these trains needing 1h40min to go to Oulu whereas the current night train takes 1h50min to Tornio, which is not as far as Hpa, I'd say this connection _will_ be missed. Very accidentally.
Actually, today I could have concentrated on my work, but instead I was pondering this. I would dare to say that the 15 min change is very reliable. Firstly, Finnish railways are very ready to wait for late connections – largely because so many of our IC lines only operate once every 3½ h or so. Secondly, changing from night train to the Swedish regional train has enough buffer to mitigate late running.
@interrailinfosvenska @jon I worked some years for VR and both in our first training, as well as in later supplementary trainings they kept repeating "Tärkeintä on, että asiakas pääsee perille" ("the most important thing is that the customer reaches their destination."
If a train's conductor ponders what to do about a passenger, that's the main rule for VR worker to solve the situation.
Meaning: yes, the train will wait!
They very strongly rely on the phone call from their colleagues regarding the domestic Finnish services, so I am quite sure they don't. Either thr traffic control productively tells them, or they get that phone call from the other train, or they happen to see the arrivals screen somewhere. Or they just go.
VR has extremely high-quality customer service training, but because the bosses attitude towards the actual workforce is abysmally bad, the work morale is super low.
@interrailinfosvenska
They are an extremely tight-knit team, and most of them do care about the passengers, but they very often do only what is required and nothing more.
It was over 10 years ago that I quit, but back then you already had good tools for seeing hiw the other trains ate faring, but I seldom saw them used.
But then again, they were very active with letting the connections know if they were running late, and that works very reliably, all in all.
@interrailinfosvenska
But, it might not be the same system as in Sweden? So, I don't know how they interoperate. My hunch is that it'll work fine, especially they're in Lapland and at least in Finland's part of Lapland the attitude is very strongly "fuck all institutions in the south, we do our thing", combined with really caring about other people.
Laws, rules and regulations are not fully in force there, it's more about people facing other people as peers and figuring things out ad hoc.
@interrailinfosvenska ...but then again, it's about railways, and even in Lapland a railway worker is more rules-orientez than the Joe Average.
And I live in Helsinki, so Lapland is something of a foreign country for me as well. But VR isn't. I do know how VR rolls.
@mirjamsterdam @interrailinfosvenska
Probably not, but is the night train commonly delayed by more than an hour?
Tuukka R
lukas wirz
Tor Lillqvist
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Mirjamsterdam
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Trainfo.eu
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