How Does the Finnish Railway System Differ From Others?

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Today we prepared another video from the series Railway Nation in which we comprehensively discuss the railway systems of different countries. Namely, our focus is Europe's third-ranked railway system according to the European Railway Performance Index - Finland.
Finland is one of five Nordic countries and the northernmost country in the EU. It is also one of the most sparsely populated EU countries, so transport there is incredibly challenging. The development of the railway system was conditioned by the fact that in the 19th century, the time of the birth of the railways, Finland was under the great influence of the Russian Empire. On the other hand, railways also played an important role in the 1917 independence war.
However, today, Finnish State Railways - VR represents modern business entities, and are organized as subsidiaries of VR-Group Ltd. First, VR Ltd, the Group's largest company, provides rail passenger services. Second, VR Transpoint comprises several subsidiaries providing freight services both on rails and roads. And third, VR FleetCare offers rail fleet maintenance and lifecycle services and fleet technology-related expert services. In addition, there is a train operations division responsible for driving locomotives for both passenger traffic and VR Transpoint. Railway transport in Finland is open to competition for private operators.
Let's not forget the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency which has the responsibility of developing and maintaining the state-owned road, railway, and waterway networks, and Fintraffic in charge of traffic control or road, rail, and maritime traffic, ensuring safe, smooth, and environmentally friendly mobility in Finland.
Of course, in the video, we covered many aspects from the perspective of the historical development of Finnish railways, we explained the reform process of Finish railways, its market structure, discussed many interesting traffic performance data, the influence of the sanctions and relations to Russia in regards to railway traffic.
In the end, we hope you'll enjoy and learn something new about the railways of the world.
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Special thanks to Tuukka Varjoranta for providing video footage: / @tuukkavarjoranta
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#finland #railways #transport

[@petrhajduk9955]

One thing that is lovely about the commuter trains in Helsinki is that they are insanely smooth. The acceleration, the ride, the braking. And silent. Another interesting thing is that the night train to Lapland is taking cars as well.

[@Tuppoo94]

Those Stadler FLIRTs are really nice trains.

[@Eurobazz]

I guess the additional loading gauge created by the 1,524 mm track gauge compared to the standard track gauge of 1,435 mm, allows for additional carriage space in terms of width and overall comfort.

[@12kenbutsuri]

And those aren't eve VR trains, but HSL trains, Helsinki regions own.

[@lookingforsomething]

@@12kenbutsuri Technically the train service in Helsinki region is bought from VR by HSL

[@12kenbutsuri]

@@lookingforsomething cool!

[@tapio_m6861]

Viipuri was actually a bigger town than Tampere during late 19th century. All of them were tiny compared to today since people really lived in the countryside. Tampere had just approximately 7 000 inhabitants and Turku about 19 000, while Viipuri had 13 500. Helsinki had 32 000, and Oulu had about 7 300. Tampere wasn't even the fourth largest town in Finland... but it was a "major" industrial hub so the railway made sense in that regard. Less on the size of the town.

[@GustavSvard]

Helsinki at 32 000 people, Tampere at 7000, 180 km apart. They would not be getting a new-build rail lines today! I know the economics, standards, etc etc of building infrastructure is wildly different today from then, but it's still a bit eye-opening to consider how small out cities were back then when the early railways were built.

[@herramirtsaaja9032]

Viipuri used to be second largest city in finland

[@davidkasquare]

@@GustavSvard it’s true what you’re saying, and the main explanation: no cars.

[@jout738]

Yes I wished Finland would have kept Viipuri, when then it would have been a lot bigger, when look at what Russians have done to that city not caring about it single bit. Now Tampere is third largest city in Finland, because its able to generate population from large area and thats why Tampere has biggest population growth to city in Finland surpasing Helsinki even.

[@herramirtsaaja9032]

@@jout738 viipuri actually wasnt part of winter war peace deal but it was lost after continuation war Continuation war was a total failiure and stupidity

[@AnthonyGarcia-ig6tx]

My siblings and I actually experienced the Finnish VR train system by complete accident on our vacation this past summer. We were originally only supposed to make a flight transfer in Helsinki to Tromso, but our connecting flight ended up being delayed and we missed our last flight out of Helsinki. With no other option to fly out, we took the train from Helsinki all the way up to Rovaniemi and we were so happy and surprised with the high quality of trains and service. Because of these trains, we got to see Finland and major cities on the western border of Finland that we would have never known otherwise.

[@kasperjoonatan6014]

Congratulations! Please come back, and not for Norway but only Finland :)

[@JumalaPlays]

@@kasperjoonatan6014 as a finn, i'd rather stay only in Norway, not Finland

[@imati7319]

@@JumalaPlays mitä vittua

[@Ziegeri]

"high quality of trains and service" You must have been in some other country, because that does not apply to VR.

[@VilleAlama]

@@Ziegeri Trains are always at least 10 minutes late, in the winter may be more. Seats are very uncomfortable even compared to many shitty bus seats. Everything in train is very expensive (to be expected). And last and not least if you're not student bus costs less, and even driving your own car there costs less.

[@firefox39693]

Finland is a really good example of a country with a high degree of rail electrification in Europe, and you can't use US Marshall Plan money as an excuse. Finland is famous (for me at least) for not accepting any Marshall Plan funds, in an attempt to avoid frustrating Russia after the second world war. It's also a large country. It's similar in size to a Canadian province, or the state of California, Texas, Florida, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, etc. Simply being large is not a good enough reason for Canada, the US, Australia, and other archaic countries to not electrify their railways and take action on climate change.

[@ernieee42]

yeah in Germany we don't have nearly as much electrification as we should, BUT we have one autobahn with overhead wires for trucks, makes sense when you have a train company that likes using truck for cargo

[@TealJosh]

And weather conditions. It gets very cold sometimes or large amount of snowfall, and while there can be issues leading to reduced speeds, it's typically all okay.

[@Eurobazz]

An added historical political slant I see 😀

[@tompao7832]

Well, the Marshall Plan was active in the wears after WW 2, and electrification in Finland started in the 70:s so I fail to see the connection...

[@Eurobazz]

@@tompao7832 I thought the same. It's a load of bollocks including reference to the Marshall Plan.

[@squidcaps4308]

The ticket prices since '95 have been consistently the same as one person driving a car the same distance. Which means they have been consistently twice the price they should be.

[@ernieee42]

maybe you can convince them, that your alternative is a bike, so train tickets should be almost free...

[@MarkkuHanninen]

Not really, for example cheapest ticket from jyväskylä to helsinki was 12,90e. Several trains were 14,90e and the most expensive 30e. With car, 6l/100km you use something like 16l of fuel, with cost of 33e + cost of wear. So after the VR price reform, you can certainly get around much cheaper in train than in a car and pretty much always little bit cheaper at least.

[@TealJosh]

@@MarkkuHanninen yup. Only thing required is planning ahead. The prices grow higher the closer the travel day gets.

[@elinaryhanen2108]

for a student the prices are good because of the discount

[@InsongWhang]

@@MarkkuHanninen Problem with that math is that it only applies when your destination is right next to the train station. If you have to take another bus, train, metro, tram or taxi to get to where you're going, then that really screws the numbers.

[@Muovipullo]

There's this weird phenomenon that if one writes word "Finnish" or "Finland" on title of video, it will trend in Finland, that happend again, and here I am. Surprisingly almost everything was new to me, and the subject is fascinating.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Search for "torilla tavataan" for further explanation about this phenomenon.

[@jooger69]

It's the "suomi mainittu" algorithm.

[@stefanholmstrom68]

The "Russian gauge" is actually not Russian, but was first used in the United Kingdom and then in the United States. It was the American railway engineer George Washington Whistler who suggested it for Russia, where he also died.. And now Finland is the only country with "Russian" gauge, as Russia's gauge is 1520 mm.

[@santerihiitola]

While the trains are usually on time, the sparse railway network and bottlenecks around Tampere mean that when one long distance train is late for one reason or another, it starts a chain reaction where many others will miss their schedule as well. Trips from Oulu, Jyväskylä and Pori to Helsinki or Turku all pass through Tampere. Plans were made in the late 80s to make a rail link connecting Turku and Pori, which would help alleviate this issue a little bit, but it has not been built and the network rarely gets completely new routes nowadays.

[@kasperjoonatan6014]

It was the plan from the start.. we had to get people to Tampere, and and it worked :)

[@johndododoe1411]

The global rail community needs tp invent better ways to contain delays and other problems, so more passengers can go where they plan, especially if not actually traveling through the obstructions.

[@klapiroska4714]

Pre-covid, there was also a daily sleeper train service between Helsinki and Moscow, leaving Helsinki at around 17:40 and arriving to Moscow at approximately 8:20. The top speed of this service was 120km/h, making it the slowest intercity service in Finland, and as far as I can tell it was completely run by russians. Also, at 10:46 you've found some rather old footage :). Train services labeld with letter P (pikajuna = express train) haven't been run in years, and 500-series services haven't been run at least after 2014 (all train services after 2014 are logged and logs are publicly available). The sleeper version of P services (labeled PYO) do still operate between Helsinki and Kolari. Currently the timetable show 6 PYO services / day, but 5 of them have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. These services are limited to 140 km/h EDIT: Added information that public records of train services go only back to 2014

[@leisti]

Indeed, the Helsinki-Moscow night train ran for decades before it, too, was closed down because of the current war. At the end of 1986, a friend and I took it to Moscow and back, to stay there for a week to escape Christmas.

[@jannejohansson3383]

This year Christmas dosen't come in rus.

[@DrScarface74]

@@jannejohansson3383 it was this year already in the 7th Jan, dude 😂😂😂

[@t_kups8309]

Pikajunas are seldom but they do still operate.

[@davidkasquare]

Could the slow top speed of 120 km/h be because of the differences in track width, 1524 mm vs 1520 mm?

[@panibo]

A plan to build an underwater railway tunnel from Helsinki to Tallinn (~50km underwater) and connect it to the Rail Baltica was suggested a few years ago. Not sure where it stands today, but man I wish it would happen.

[@mfrantti]

After Russia destroyed Nordstream gas pipes at the sea, near Sweden and Denmark sea-area, that tunnel will not be built.

[@majorgenerall]

@@mfrantti You spelled America wrong XD

[@jokupoika24]

@@majorgenerall bruh

[@WXKFA]

@@majorgenerall The purpose in damaging the pipes was for gazprom (the russian oil company) to buy time without breaking the contract while also being a good boy to kremlin to give pressure to EU with gas and oil. America and EU had nothing to gain from breaking them.

[@majorgenerall]

@@WXKFA such intriguing nonsensical horse manure u NATO bots come up with. Quite astonishing

[@roytelling6540]

I moved to Finland in 2010 from the UK and I was amazed at how much better the Finnish trains are compared to the UK in every way. They are smoother, cleaner, more reliable and on time. The longest delay I have known on VR was 4 minutes, the longest delay I have known in the UK was when I went there this year. I went from Manchester Airport to Runcorn, a journey that should of taken 1 hour 13 minutes, took me a little over 2.5 hours

[@samisoininen6926]

It's not always sunshine and rainbows. Past 2 years I have used VR 4 times. 1st time the train was late 2 hours, 2nd time 1 hour, 3rd time 20 minutes and 4th time 2 hours 20 minutes.

[@WhiteOwlet]

@@samisoininen6926 Holy shit, that's a lot of bad luck! I'm generally really happy with VR, but I remember a winter like that. I took two train trips Helsinki-Vaasa that winter, both over an hour delay. Wonder what happened back then...

[@WhiteOwlet]

My longest delay in the UK was 4 hours. I was heading to Llandudno Junction from Birmingham. The customer service guy didn't even know where Llandudno Junction was when we asked him for help. It's a real shape trains are so limited in the UK; it's a great way to move around.

[@roytelling6540]

@@samisoininen6926 OK as far as my traveling on VR since 2010. I have never had that long delay. BUT in the 40+ years I lived in the UK I would say the average waiting time for a train was over 20 mins

[@staticshockfan]

I love learning somethings I didn't know about the country I've lived my whole life in from a person that doesn't live here!

[@junienkuvailua]

Thank you for this video!!! Love from Finland.

[@smvwees]

I took the night train in March 1997 to Rovaniemi. It is quite magical with the footlights lighting the snow. I stayed in Lahti at the time. There was also a chance i had gone to St. Petersburg, but i chose Lapland instead.

[@jannejohansson3383]

It was good decision.

[@michaelhall8586]

Thanks for this, finland is such a unique country with a fascinating history

[@RailwaysExplained]

Indeed!

[@davidlally592]

Mm sometimes the Finns are known as the Irish of the north (similar history)...

[@madsbuhris]

@@davidlally592 Or the Irish are the Finns of the British Isles. Thats why so many Irish men have the name Finn!

[@felixbergfors]

Sweden is better:) WE OWNED FINLAND 1 TIME!!! ÖSTERBOTTEN/SWEDEN

[@mohis5664]

@@felixbergfors Statistically Sweden is a worse country than Finland

[@Whatshisname346]

There are also some interesting upgrades to the network coming soon. This includes a high speed double track line from Helsinki to Turku which will bring travel times down to 1 hour. Also a big upgrade to the Kotka/Hamina -Kouvola line to allow for higher freight volumes. The great thing about these gradual upgrades is that not only are they improving traffic and travel times, they’re also building a really strong base of rail knowledge for future projects.

[@lws7394]

170km in 1hr sounds good. But how is the current connection Helsinki Turku so bad? Bahn.de. gives no direct trains , with 2:20-3h journey time and only 1x per hour ..🤔 Is that because of constructions at the direct route ?

[@Tuukkohakee]

@@lws7394 1 direct train per hour with travel time being 2h, the travel time is slow because of the curvy and bad condition of the coastal line

[@klapiroska4714]

@@lws7394 That connection was built between 1896 and 1903. The route is really bendy and it has single tracked sections, both of which limit the operating speeds. Also, being relatively close to the ocean, ice becomes an issue during winter. One reason why Pendolino trains (called Sm3 by VR) were purchased, was to be able to go faster in this old and bendy route, but it didn't work out that well (the foundations of the track are too weak to go fast through tight bends). Currently Pendolinos and regular InterCity trains are equally fast/slow on the route. The more direct route will have better geometry (bend radius of 4km or greater), enabling higher operating speeds 200 km/h between Helsinki-Kirkkonummi and 250 km/h between Kirkkonummi-Salo. Compare that to the current situation of max 120 km/h between Helsinki-Kirkkonummi and 180-200 km/h between Kirkkonummi-Salo. Also the new route will be more direct (about 20 km shorter). While this project is quite far into the planning phase (detailed route plans are published for public review), there is no decision on if the new route will be built at all. At some point, it most likely will be built, but the best case scenario is that the route is operational in 10 years from now. My idea on the fastest possible timeline is: -Decision to build: 2,5 years (there are also plans for new routes between Helsinki-Tampere and Helsinki-Kouvola, and only one of those will get built in the next 10 years) -Aquiring land: 1-2 years -Construction: 5-6 years (the route will have many tunnels and bridges. Also it will be a very large project in general) -Testing: 0,5 years -Other delays: 1 year (getting rolling stock, training staff etc. For only 1 train per hour... I gotta say that in Finland, 1 InterCity service per hour per direction is quite decent. Most of the network sees 4-8 IC services per day per direction.

[@leisti]

@@lws7394 At the moment, because of track work being done in Turku, the trains from Helsinki to Turku terminate at Kupittaa, the previously penultimate station, a couple of km from Turku city centre. That might be why you're not finding direct trains at the moment. They're planning to construct a shortcut to the existing Helsinki-Turku line, between Espoo and Salo, which should bring the travel time down close to an hour, as MH-Suomi mentioned. Though it'll be many years before that will open.

[@Whatshisname346]

@@leisti It’s in the site investigation and design phase at the moment. There is a sizeable amount of work in this as VR and väylävirasto don’t do half-measures! Work is due to commence in 2025 with completion and commissioning by 2031 but there are a lot of incentives to finish earlier. Here’s hoping for Tunnin Juna by 2030.

[@petermatyas4834]

should have mentioned the excellent sleeper trains (along with the regular ones) to Kemijärvi. The line has been electrified a couple of years ago all the way there.

[@petermatyas4834]

it seems to be hard to find an actual map, showing the electrified sections too.

[@TrainToAlaska]

As someone who is Dutch and has no drivers license I am quite used to going by train everywhere but when I went from Helsinki to Tampere by train it was not comparable how nice these Finnish trains are! Next time I really want to go to Turku 🚂

[@kastelukannumollom5289]

Dutch trains are also pretty good from my experience.

[@davidkasquare]

I have not travelled by train too much abroad, just once in Sweden (Uppsala-Luleå), in Switzerland (Valais-Kandersteg), Belgium (Brussels-Antwerp), UK (London-Birmingham), Italy (Rome region), Germany (Munich-Stuttgart-Frankfurt) and Israel (Tel Aviv-Haifa, old railway Jerusalem-Tel Aviv), but I must say that compared to most of these, Finnish railways are really smooth and quiet. It’s almost like floating in air. 😊

[@kastelukannumollom5289]

@@davidkasquare almost never ride them because the only passenger lines go between like 5 big cities

[@davidkasquare]

@@kastelukannumollom5289 yes, the railroad network in Finland is unfortunately far too sparse.

[@Kuutti_original]

@@kastelukannumollom5289 Not really but i see what you mean. Unfortunately it is centered around biggest cities and tourism. Harbors being other reasons, so i dont see it changing anytime soon.

[@asdsdjfasdjxajiosdqw8791]

They're unfortunately planning to scrap the Allegro trains now that the partnership has been suspended. It's such a shame, really. They could be used on domestic services in Finland instead. There is also not an issue with maintenance because they are, as you said, part of the European pendolino family. Again, such a shame to see those relatively new trains being scrapped already.

[@ianhomerpura8937]

Can it be stopped? Because, really, scrapping it seems to be such a waste of money.

[@Diletantique]

Nope, they are not planning to scrap them. There have been talks about selling the Allegro trains to a possible new operator, as VR doesn’t have use for the trains at the moment. Passenger numbers have already risen above the pre-covid levels, and as there is huge demand at the moment it’s more viable to drive most intercity connections with the bilevel rail cars to accommodate maximum number of passengers. High-speed rail isn’t very viable in Finland at the moment as most of the track is quite old and mostly single track.

[@Wezqu]

@@Diletantique Yeah I think the only really viable route for them would be the one they used to go to St. Petersburg from Helsinki to Lappeenranta and from there they might be able to go to Joensuu. They just recently upgraded the tracks to the east to be double tracks at least to Imatra (next city after Lappeenranta). Still don't know if there would be enough passengers to make it worth it to run them on that route though as VR is already running their own trains there too.

[@klapiroska4714]

@@Wezqu From personal experience, there most certainly would be more demand for services between Lappeenranta and Helsinki, especially on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. In the afternoon trains run to Helsinki every 3 hours, and it's not uncommon for 2 or 3 services to be sold out. Adding more services would increase capacity and make services more frequent (increased frequency makes train travel more convenient). Another route that would most certainly benefit from extra capacity is (Helsinki-)Kouvola-Kuopio, as it has only 5-6 trains per day per direction, and those services are quite often sold out. Of course these routes might have issues with capacity, as they do contain single tracked sections (and mainline in Helsinki is somewhat congested). Getting staff to run these trains might also be a problem. I don't think VR has enough double decker cars, because if they did, they could increase the capacity of a sold out service by adding another car to the train. The biggest problem is probably that the trains are not owned by VR, and in the current political situation it's likely a huge PR risk to rent these trains from a company that is 50% owned by Russia.

[@qjtvaddict]

@@Diletantique build new track then

[@justskip4595]

Last time I used a train here in Finland was during my time in the army in 2011. Trip took place in December in about -20C weather well after sun had gone down (We get just couple of hours of sunlight at that time of the year) and at least the part of the train I was in and the adjacent carriages were out of power and heating. It was about 3/4ths of the trip that I spend sitting in pitch black steadily cooling carriage with just couple of people in there with me and we stayed completely silent the whole way.

[@xijinvegg]

Sounds like an interesting experience

[@Mazaroth]

I had the complete opposite happen to me few years ago while traveling from Helsinki to Kajaani, the whole trip from Helsinki to Kuopio (where i had to change trains) midsummer (+30C/+86F sunny day) and the AC was busted in my carriage and the whole train was packed to the gills or as we would say in Finland "Kuin sillit suolassa" (Like herrings in salt) , the carriage would steadily heat up and for the 5 hours steadily heating sauna wasn't really not that pleasant of experience, i could taste the sweat and anguish of the other passengers in the air and sure, you "could've" gone to other carriages and block the movement of other passengers by sitting or standing in the middle of the walkway. Thank god i had stocked on soda water, 4 liters (about 1 US gallon) and i had to drank all of that to stay sane, provide electrolytes and hydration and some form of cooling effect, there were streaks of sweat running down my mides from the pits of my arms and i wasn't the only one, holy shit that trip was the worst i've ever had during 30 years of my life and after i finally got to Kuopio i was so happy to change the train and thank god there was AC in the next train. I'd rather take that trip in the frigde over the oven any time :D

[@Moosemonni]

I've been living in Finland my entire life and there were so many things in this video that I didn't know about our railway history. You would be a wonderful teacher. I'm usually doing bunch of stuff when watching (listening to) a KZbin video. But just now you got my full attention. I watched the entire video and paid attention to every single thing you said. Keep doing this, you are great at it!

[@studebaker4217]

In November 2017, I took the train from Helsinki to Vaasa and back, despite advice in the UK to fly ("as it's just trees and snow"). It was a lovely trip, with clean, comfortable rolling stock, and punctual too. It gave me a FAR better idea of Finland than flying could ever afford.

[@liimapuikko6625]

You uploaded this video 3 days before VR announced that its going to order some new trains

[@mikaelleskinen1349]

The clip at 4.20-4.24 is filmed at Kungsgatan/Sveavägen Stockholm city. Some 430 km west of Finland.

[@kimreinikainen]

I remember when they were building the Lahti-Kerava shortcut (before that you had to make loop via Riihimäki if travelling between Lahti and Helsinki). There is this big bridge after 15 minutes or so leaving the Lahti station. It crosses one huge ravine. I still remember when they used those wooden constructions when building the bridge. At that time i was about 6-7 years old. For a little kid that was exciting to look at.

[@WhiteOwlet]

That's amazing! My girlfriend has family in Lahti; we should take that train trip some time!

[@xItzSpruce]

Mikä vuos se oli?

[@kimreinikainen]

@@xItzSpruce rataa rakennettu 2003-2006 joten tolle aikavälille ajoittuu myös sillan rakentaminen

[@xItzSpruce]

@@kimreinikainen aa ok. Synnyin 2005 btw

[@kimreinikainen]

@@xItzSpruce vois jopa sanoo et jonnet ei muista😏

[@UnclePutte]

Allegro starting in 2010 was really peak of Finnish optimism toward the normalization of our neighbour to the east... ah, what a shame. Betraying a Finn's trust is done once in a lifetime, never twice.

[@vulc1]

And now to think how Finns were joking about their southern neighbor's suspicions on Russia...

[@MikkoRantalainen]

As a Finn, I feel pretty sad that in the old days, Finns were able to build these railroads in 2-5 years. Nowadays, it takes similar time to implement smallish local building projects and building long distance railroad would take maybe two decades, despite the fact that technology has improved A LOT in the meantime.

[@DSBMAC13]

Took a sleeper train from Helsinki to Kolari about three years ago, and that was an amazing expierience. There were some double-deck cars, some for seating, most for sleeping. and at the front of the train there were three very old single-deck wagons, also sleepers. they were a lot cheaper than the modern doubledecks, so I took one of them to go there, and ist was still a very smooth and chilly ride, no matter of their age. The only "rough" part was the last part from Tornio to Kolari, but that was in the morning and I was awake anyways. When I got back from Lapland I went on from Helsinki to St Petersburg with the mentioned Allegro. And every few minutes I thought we would derail, because this thing was bouncing up and down the rails like a squirrel on Pervitin. But Finnish rail is a good, reasonably priced network, which can definately be used. And if you have to go to those regions withour railway connection, there are usually good bus services around.

[@MrSorbias]

It works, because companies are not allowed to compete in the Finnish railways. It would very fast become worse if there was few competitors trying to save some money by not doing the important infrawork and other important things. They would only try to maximize their income. Now it's build on idea that it just have to work as good as possible and it has to be safe, and that's it. But there is lots of powerful people who want to sell it to the private sector and eventually make it worse. That would generate money to the private sector and they could try to make government to pay the infra work for them, while they themselves would try to only get as much money from it as possible.

[@nitzan3782]

One note - Finnish words always emphasize the first syllable. It's HELsinki, TAMpere, TURku, HÄMenlinna, etc. I personally felt that drop in performance, living outside of the Helsinki metropolis, suddenly instead of once per hour or two, post-COVID train service is 4-5 times a day.

[@aurin_komak]

bit nitpicky

[@CaptainBuzzBee]

Recently rode the Intercity service between Helsinki and Tampere Finland. This video was very informative.

[@mikaelbohman6694]

04:20: The clip shows Kungsgatan ("King's street") in Stockholm, Sweden. But why not, Finland used to be the eastern half of Sweden until 1809 and they kept Swedish law throughout the era as a Russian grand duchy. Many would say that today's Finland is like Sweden used to be and should be.

[@Wilzzub0b]

Have to also add that the trains are very modern and clean. There's individual rooms you can buy just for yourself, but even the lowest class seats feel very private and clean. The trains have a restaurant coach or sales trolleys, and separate coaches for animals and children with dedicated play area. Also pretty cheap considering how comfortable they are, 8.90€ from Tampere to Helsinki (190km).

[@Sgublaka94]

Very nice and clear educational video, good work!

[@tuomasronnberg5244]

6:50 that's probably the single most bureaucratic looking building I've seen in my life 😄

[@petrhajduk9955]

If you want brutal architecture, Pasila in Helsinki is the place to go.

[@VideoDotGoogleDotCom]

@@petrhajduk9955 Brutalist, perhaps, but certainly not brutal.

[@Brash_Candicoot]

@@petrhajduk9955 i live in Pasila lol

[@ukkomies100]

Thats true made me laugh 😂

[@hurri7720]

@@Brash_Candicoot , it's actually not that bad on the upper levels.

[@EkainMunduate]

On the Kerava Lahti section, Allegro and Pendolino trains can run at 220 km/h. It is a newly built line which allows for mixed traffic, but the geometry would allow 300 km/h operation. On the other hand, Finland is planning a 300 km/h high speed line between Helsinki and Turku. Greetings

[@klapiroska4714]

Yes, but Pendolino trains are not scheduled to be any faster than regular IC trains between Kerava and Lahti. Any minor gains in speed are offset by the slower boarding/unboarding speed due stairs and narrow doors in Pendolino trains (IC trains have wider doors and level boarding) The current plan for Helsinki-Turku line actually calls for speeds of 200 km/h in urban areas and 250 km/h outside urban areas, but the corridor geometry would likely enable 300 km/h services in the future. However, the change from 250 km/h to 300 km/h doesn't save that much time, when you consider the fact that the train has to make intermediate stops to be actually useful. I'd love to see EMU:s with good acceleration on that line, express service running once an hour, slightly slower service making intermediate stops (Vihti, Lohja, Salo) also once an hour, as well as commuter trains every 30 minutes at least between Helsinki and Vihti.

[@mikaelleskinen1349]

Whats the bloody rush?

[@michaelguerin56]

The tightening up of the gauge has also occurred elsewhere and is related to the adoption of bogies i.e., the elimination, except on small historic lines, of wagons and coaches with fixed axles. Fixed-axle rolling stock requires greater track width on curves than bogie-equipped rolling stock.

[@lukesheridan5510]

Would love a video on Ireland's/Northern Ireland's rail system :)great video!

[@davidlally592]

Plenty on the web already on both T-NIR (Translink- NI Railways) and on IE (Iarnrod Eireann/Irish Rail). Look up the joint Belfast-Dublin express (running since 1947) and called (pre S/Trek) "The Enterprise" (!!). Irish rail running gauge is almost unique in the world st 5ft 3ins..

[@TheRomanRuler]

I would add distinction that Finland was forced to ally with Germany since western allies had allied with Soviet Union, despite previously expelling Soviets from league of nations for attacking Finland. Not much a small country can do in such a situation, and Finland could not afford possibility of a German invasion.

[@harjatalonen3467]

Great video! Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮

[@RailwaysExplained]

Thank you!

[@McSlobo]

The map around 3:02 is about WW2, Winter War. Soviet divisions 44 and 163 attacking Suomussalmi (also Raatteentie) and 54 attacking Kuhmo. The war didn't go very well for those attackers.

[@bassobalalaikka5005]

good video a slight error at 2:01 "thus the country´s 3 largest cities were connected" Vyborg (Viipuri) was second largest city, thus 3 of the 4 largest cities (of Grandduchy Finland) were connected before the St Peterburg- Riihimaki line was ready.

[@aeschynanthus_sp]

The line to Vyborg was wrong in the animation. The correct route can be seen in the civil war map at 2:58.

[@Haukka790]

This is a good report!

[@jussimustonen6829]

11:02 From my experience the long distance trains are almost never late. They arrive at stations right on time. Usually they stop at the station right when the minute changes. If the scheduled time would be for example 17.24 the train is stopped right when the clock hits 17.24. Like these are very punctual in my opinion and experience.

[@TheOneAndOnlyOuuo]

I haven't had a single Intercity be on time the entire year...

[@jarskii11]

@@TheOneAndOnlyOuuo et taida paljoo sitte matkustella junalla

[@TheOneAndOnlyOuuo]

@@jarskii11 n. 20 matkaa vuodessa.

[@jarskii11]

@@TheOneAndOnlyOuuo epäilen vahvasti

[@klapiroska4714]

It really depends on the route, type of train, time of year etc. Most of the time, if there are no significant track works in progress, trains are either on time or only slightly late (less than 15 minutes). But, if there is significant track work / really bad weather etc. trains can be consistently late. Let's look at Pendolino service S7 from Helsinki to Joensuu for example (operates 6 times per week in normal conditions): From 1st of August 2020 till end of December 2020 the service was run 122 times, and it was late (5 minutes or more) a total of 10 times worst delays being 31 and 23 minutes, rest being 18 minutes or less. Not bad for approximately 480 km long route, where significant sections are single tracked with heavy freight traffic. From 1st of June 2022 till end of July 2022 the same service was run 51 times, and it was late (5 min or more) a total of 44 times, worst delay being 240 minutes, while other delays were mostly between 15 and 35 minutes. Quite bad for any service. These delays were mainly caused by significan track works, such as installing new points, tracks etc. and upgrading traffic control systems. In general, trains between Helsinki and Oulu are mostly on time, and delays are mostly caused by equipment failures, traffic control system failures, vandalism, really bad weather and suicides. In general, one should expext 1-2 more severe delay (over 15 minutes) per service per month. Services to east tend to be more prone to delays, the most common causes being (in my experience) traffic control systems, single tracking, track works and issues with electrification. Services to the west / south-west are more prone to weather induced delays, but in general they are quite reliable.

[@jermainetrainallen6416]

Great vid. The Nordic countries seem to have very efficient railways. I would love to travel on them one day. Keep it up👍

[@pakrailofficial1062]

Great to see ur video sir

[@RailwaysExplained]

Keep watching

[@Juzu89]

The rail network is VERY good when you go between "big cities." However, I had a situation in November where I was in Joensuu and needed to get to Kuopio. I got to Joensuu via train and it took about as long as doing it by car would, and it was OK (about 6,5 hours). But when I looked at trains from Joensuu to Kuopio it would have also been about 6,5 hours and I was a bit gobsmacked by that. For reference a car drives from Joensuu to Kuopio in about 1,5 hours. This is because there are no trains that go "through" Finland, they all pretty much go around the edges of Finland with a few of them going through places like Jyväskylä and that's about it. The train I would have needed to use would have gone from Joensuu back to Helsinki, then I would have needed to change trains and pretty much go back the same route to Kuopio.

[@msai257]

Yeah the rail's really only any good on Helsinki-Tampere route. You get these little side branches like Jyväskylä and there to Joensuu or Oulu and northward, sure, but to switch to another branch you need to get yourself back to Helsinki-Tampere. It's nonsensical.

[@TheChristley]

at 4:20 stock videos are shown of what i presume would try to be somewhere in Finland. However those two videos are of Kungsgatan in central Stockholm, Sweden

[@seneca983]

2:50 The civil war began in 1918, not 1917.

[@EneriGiilaan]

Pretty sure the street view at 4:20 is from Stockholm, Sweden. Probably at the year mentioned - as Sweden still had left hand traffic in 1965.

[@dirkschannel5817]

Great Video 🙂

[@RailwaysExplained]

Thanks! 🙂

[@H3artFang]

What finland lacks is a railway connection to Europe. There technically is one via haparanda / tornio but as far as I'm aware: no trains actually use that connection. No freight or passenger.

[@str6533]

An underwater railway connection from Helsinki to Tallin would help that a lot. Also possibly one from Turku to Stockholm via Mariehamn

[@SeverityOne]

There was talk of bringing the railway infrastructure in the Netherlands under the umbrella of Rijkswaterstaat, the entity responsible for national roads (there are also roads maintained by the provinces and by local councils) and waterways. The reason for this was the chaos at Prorail (not to be confused with Railpro), the state-owned entity responsible for the railway network. But nothing came from it, and Prorail has disappeared from the headlines, so things must have improved.

[@juhis5936]

bro I was in Netherlands recently (I'm from Finland) and your train system was sick you just show the card at the machine when entering the train station and don't have to care about anything else plus it took like an hour to get to the other end of the country

[@SeverityOne]

@@juhis5936 It actually works on any kind of public transport. It's indeed pretty cool.

[@juhis5936]

@@SeverityOne What was it like you put 20€ on the card and you could go anywhere in the country you want or smth like that

[@Peo_Sahlin]

4:19 - 4:23 is Kungsgatan in Stocholm, Sweden.

[@ambassadorkees]

Finnish rail traffic can be followed realtime both as GPS maps and section names on the public Julia service. It also shows the exact consist of trains.

[@jan10916f]

It's great travelling by train in Finland, but many Finns act like VR is a horrible train operator and trains would be late all the time. I really don't get their complains. Maybe in the Helsinki area trains are worse than the connections I usually use.

[@msai257]

Because so much of the route only has one set of tracks, if anything happens the entire train network is now late. That's where the attitude comes from, you have that four-hour delay on due to one train breaking somewhere that's not even on your route once and never forgive it.

[@WXKFA]

@@msai257 Certain routes also have quite a lot of "technical problems" (read: suicides, vandalism)

[@squidwardDK]

Images at 4:20 appear to be from Kungsgatan in Stockholm. Sweden had left-hand traffic.

[@raitisfreimanis]

That's correct.

[@jipasd]

Arrived on the video by accident, but found it interesting and learned something new despite being a Finn. Thank you! Also a side note, there's currently an exhibition Ratajätkät (Railway navvies) in Werstas museum in Tampere. It's free entrance and also interesting with old photos and history of building the rail network.

[@derrickstorm6976]

You pronounced the names of the cities very well 😂👏

[@tchiwam]

They also built a rail road on top of a frozen lake to Kemijärvi ;)

[@Damian_Nor]

You do great job, i like watching your videos. However I miss a detailed analysis about current and more or less probable planned international connections with Sweden and Norway. In regard to link with Norway I read about Finnish-Norwegian plans to build railway connection between Lapland and one of Norway harbour in the north to give Finland alternative access to maritime transport. Guys, how real is the project to construct? In terms of Swedish- Finnish link is it reopened for passenger trains again?

[@RailwaysExplained]

Thanks for the comment! Currently we are making new video about Arctic Railways, so stay tuned! 😉

[@petrhajduk9955]

There is a railway between Finland and Sweden, however only cargo trains use it. There is break of gauge and small unelectrified section which is getting the wires installed around this time. Soon there should be passenger trains as well, but probably only local ones. I think there should be some Helsinki - Kiruna - Narvik and Oslo - Stockholm night trains. So much potential, but not used well.

[@Damian_Nor]

@Petr Hajduk Thanks for the comprehensive information!

[@araqweyr]

Will you tell us someday about Russian railway system? Surely there must be something interesting in a railway system of such a big country

[@JimmyBoqvist]

These pictures are from Kungsgatan in Sweden 4:22

[@mbahsoero3551]

Railroads are transportation that is always a mainstay in every era and place, economical and efficient

[@pakrailofficial1062]

That's really amazing

[@pakrailofficial1062]

Love n respect from Pakistan railway

[@gostaknochenhauer3978]

Interesting story! There is, however, a small error: The clip between 4:20 and 4:25 shows Stockholm in Sweden, which I guess was not your intention?

[@mexlo1001]

11:37 damm, never hear my hometown of Kerava mentioned ANYWHERE

[@TheMasterOfNone]

I've lived long enough in Riihimäki to remember how the timetables and screens used to show departures to St.Petersburg Russia, which always felt a bit funny considering how deep in the southern Tavastian heartlands Riihimäki is. But indeed you could hop in to a train here in Riihimäki and ride all the way to a Russian metropolis.

[@joonaskosonen95]

I want to correct some facts 1) Finland didnt allied with germany, we attacked the same enemy, allied means we would been part of the Tripartite Pact that we werent. 2) Why finland keeps our own with of railways and not EU 1435mm is that a) the costs to chance it would be to huge and in the end it would go agasint EU green value limits b) with finlands own with the russians incase of attacking finland, couldnt use our railways to move gears and troops becasue they would need to chance there train withs or chance our railways witht, so it has defence meaning to

[@austromancer]

Love your railways Finland. Our "VR" was the former 'Victorian Railways', (in the state of Victoria in the south-east of Australia). We could learn a lot from Finland. Australians (who are VERY conservative) will hopefully wake up to the benefits of railways vs. over-length road trucks if fossil fuel prices keep soaring.

[@kettujabamiesukkeliukko]

I read some article that they are planning to use electric trains that can use batteries to go uphill and braking to collect energy going downhill

[@zoeblopaistinpannu5278]

our railway system never seems to be prepared for winter even though winter happens every year

[@WhiteOwlet]

If you think VR is never prepared for winter, take a look at other European countries. In the Netherlands, for example, trains rake up huge amounts of delay as soon as the first leaves fall on the tracks. Apparently, the leaves disrupt the scanning system. Maybe climate change is a good thing, because I shudder to think of what happens if snow would fall...

[@ukkomies100]

Neither are cars. I love to read each year from the papers how ”the winter surprised drivers” each and every year 😂

[@MDCrabTank]

You should do Estonia in future as we have also interesting history

[@mquentaro]

UK acquitances were surprised when they found out that long distance trains had a good chance of having a children's play area in them. Had to dig up pictures for them to confirm, yes it's a fairly common service (though not guaranteed for every train).

[@leisti]

These are just niggles to a very good video, but the clip at 4:20 is from Stockholm, Sweden. The clip at 5:45 doesn't appear to have been shot in Finland, either; the train's colours are unfamiliar to me, and one of the street advertisements says "Fête de la musique".

[@KristerL]

Indeed, was about to point it out myself but found your comment. 4:20 is from Kungsgatan. The clip at 5:45 however is from Belgium, and probably just meant to represent him talking about EU.

[@kiljucook7625]

It's funny that Sweden used to have left-hand traffic, as in the clip of the video, which was changed to right-hand traffic in 1967, but the railways in Sweden are still left-hand traffic.

[@leisti]

@@kiljucook7625 Similarly in France.

[@kwisuxk]

Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää.

[@gubbtratt1]

7:23 is that from Vaasa? I recognised it but I'm not sure.

[@juhomaki-petaja]

No. Looks like road to Vaskiluoto but actually thats fog, not sea. Might be from Tampere, haulitorni maybe ..

[@kasperjoonatan6014]

Oh so Switzerland and Denmark are ahead of us. So what, it is easy if you are very rich like the Swiss. And if your country is very flat and without snow, like Denmark. I think the bronze medal is very good in this situation. (UK and Germany, the masters in railways are behind!) Finland, the happiest nation 🤍 💙

[@12kenbutsuri]

Does the statistics include HSL?

[@ismoleppanen]

A short glimpse of Stockholm at 4:19.

[@NearCry91]

And at the time of RHD traffic.

[@espenlinjal]

Would love a video on the Norwegian railways :)

[@turkeytrac1]

The 1524mm gauge, while known as "the russian gauge" is actually 5ft gauge introduced to imperial russia by the country that built most of russia's first railways, great britain. I really wosh you'd just call it what is, 5 ft gauge.

[@jaba512]

The biggest wealth diffrence in world after ww2 was between soviet russia and finland . At the karelia pennisula

[@danielegerussi7453]

I don't know if we can make requests but i am really courious about italy if you can make a video for us😄

[@RailwaysExplained]

Will be soon. Stay tuned!

[@MMStudiocz]

Hey you could also look at the Czech republics railway

[@MoonRaven1412]

I really wish we'd get a trainline between Helsinki and Kotka...

[@jannepeltonen2036]

There is one. It goes via Lahti and Kouvola though :-P But at least you no longer have to go via Riihimäki. That trip used to take ages.

[@mikaveekoo]

Ja muutenkin pitäisi Itä-Suomeen saada paremmat yhteydet. Suunnitteilla onkin. Tamperelaisten päättäjien mielestä siinä tosin on kyse siltarumpupolitiikasta. Mutta uusi suunnitelma suurnopeusradasta Tampereelle ei sitä tietenkään ole, he, he. 😳 Terv. Poika Tampereelta.

[@ratyjoona]

Eastern tracks getting faster to Kouvola will still maybe drastically cut the time it takes to get to Kotka.

[@NearCry91]

It's not train, but there is an hourly bus route.

[@mikanystrom7103]

I could swear that footage from 1965 is from Stockholm....

[@str6533]

The Jyväskylä-Haapajärvi line is partially electrified

[@someoneelse9637]

4:19 was there lefthand traffic in Finland?

[@emmamemma4162]

No, that footage is from Sweden.

[@Eurobazz]

No only Sweden. It all changed in 1967.

[@JuliTheFurry]

I get that some finish names are hard to pronounce but i was laughing about those city names

[@Lagrandiosapizza]

Why the Stockholm photos at 04:19?

[@raitisfreimanis]

4:19 That's Stockholm, Sweden.

[@hurri7720]

Some of the pictures shown are from Stockholm Sweden and not Finland. At 4:20.

[@geoaxis]

At point 4:24, its archival footage of Stockholm which was in Sweden at that time. Just saying.

[@dragothica4925]

Was there originally a railway line from Helsinki to Vyborg on the southern coast? I know there is a railway line there but it's further north or are the graphics just not that accurate? In Finland there is a endless debate if a new line to Russia along the coast should be constructed and it would be funny if it already existed at some point, although there are no unused tracks on the southern coast that I know of.

[@aeschynanthus_sp]

The line to Vyborg went from Riihimäki to Lahti and Kouvola, so no, it was not along the southern coast.

[@leagueofrailway101]

I am exciting for Serbian railway dmwhenever you will going to do it 😀😀. It's a n awsm videos

[@Eurobazz]

Why did the Soviet Union change the gauge from 1,524 mm to 1,520 mm? Did they do it for the entire country? Did the Allegro have to slow down at the Finnish/Russian border to facilitate the 4mm track gauge difference? Another great video BTW.

[@SaraSpruce]

I believe they changed it simply to make it a nice even number when switching from imperial to metric units (1,524 mm is exactly 5 feet). From what I can find, the Allegro was built to a gauge of 1,522 mm, meaning both Finnish and Russian tracks were well within tolerances to allow high-speed running.

[@Eurobazz]

@@SaraSpruce Many thanks. What a lot of faffing around. Did they have to change the gauge of the Trans-Siberian Railway tracks? No doubt they used slave labour and prisoners to perform the tasks. I guess all former Soviet Socialist Republics were also changed to 1,520 mm, hence the reason why Russian trains have found it easy to enter Ukraine.

[@Salarat]

@@Eurobazz The transition from 1524 to 1520 took place in the seventies. When the Second World War end and the country returned to a quiet life, they began to deal with details, thinking about how to make railways better, safer and faster. At the end of the 60s, a smooth conversion of the gauge width of 1524 mm to 1520 mm began in the USSR. This process lasted until the early 1990s. What was it done for? The question remains open to date. Various sources indicate that the purpose of this was to improve the smoothness of the ride and reduce the impact of wagons on the rails. At the same time, changing the track by 4 mm did not require fundamental modernization and re-equipment of the rolling stock. The sources also indicate that the transfer of the Russian railway gauge from 1524 to 1520 mm was the result of discussions between two scientific schools of the USSR, which had diametrically opposite points of view. It was based on the idea that a narrowing of 4 mm would increase or, conversely, lower the speed of trains due to the interaction of wagons with rails. And the wear of the wheel pairs and the rail will either be reduced or, conversely, increased.

[@Eurobazz]

@@Salarat I am very impressed with your in-depth reply. Many thanks.

[@Salarat]

@@Eurobazz In general, there are no exact answers why USSR did it. Some say it brought advantages, others say it created problems, others say it nothing has changed.

[@yagi3925]

05:43-05:50, why do you use footage of Brussels's Schuman station as an illustration of the Finnish railways?

[@kojo0ttiz316]

I don't care that we didn't get 1st place, as long as we are above sweden 🔥

[@kasperjoonatan6014]

Tätä kommentia hain. Torille!

[@cyrexxxxxx]

the footage at 4:19 is from Stockholm (Kungsgatan) and not Finland.

[@raitisfreimanis]

That's correct.