HEL-TMP VR Ekstra Class

Operator: VR

Headcode: IC41

Route:    HEL-TMP

Class:    Ekstra Class

Seat:     C2 S71

Date:     Wednesday 22^nd May 2024

Arriving into Helsinki on the Tuesday afternoon (read about my flight here), I’d spent the evening settling into my accommodation and exploring some of the local area, and you’ll be able to read about that when my Helsinki post is published in a few weeks’ time. However, before I explored Helsinki proper, I’d decided to also see another part of Finland and so headed to Helsinki Central Station to catch a train to Tampere.

To make the most of my day in Tampere, whilst also allowing me to try out both of the train types on the route, along with having the late afternoon/evening back in Helsinki, I was booked into service IC41, the 0720 departure from Helsinki to Vaasa on the western coast of Finland. I arrived at the station around 40 minutes early to find the train already at platform 7 and displayed on the departure boards. Even heading to grab a coffee first, I was able to get plenty of photos of the train and get on board around 25 minutes before departure.

The service was formed of a semi-fixed set of five double-deck carriages including an ‘Edo’ control car, and was hauled by a Siemens VR Sr3 locomotive. These locomotives are a variant of Siemens’ ‘Vectron’ locomotive which is widely used across Europe, including Czechia, Germany and the Netherlands. The Finnish variant has a top speed of 200km/h and in addition to being powered by the overhead lines, have a small diesel engine to allow for shunting withing unelectrified rail yards.

Departing on time at 0720, my destination was the third of six stops for the service, with intermediate calls at Pasila and Tikkurila before Tampere. After the stop at Finland’s third largest city, the train would continue and call at Seinäjoki and Tar River, before arriving into Vaasa some three hours and 45 minutes after departing Helsinki. A distance of around 440km or 275miles, this is slightly slower than a comparable London to Carlisle journey in the UK, but is around an hour quicker than driving between Helsinki and Vaasa. My own journey of Helsinki to Tampere was due to have a journey time of one hour 38 minutes, comparable to two hours by road, showing that rail is definitely one of the quicker way to travels between the cities in the southern part of Finland.

VR’s first class is marketed as ‘Ekstra Class’ and on the double-deck Intercity services is located on the upper floor of carriage 2, towards the southern end of the train. My seat was seat 71, a single seat at the far end of the carriage from the stairs, providing me with a quiet spot from which I could do some writing and also people watch throughout the journey. Ekstra Class, as with most ‘first class’ offerings around Europe is in a 1-2 configuration either side of the aisle, with a mix of ‘airline style’ seating or groups around tables. Rather than a member of staff provide an onboard service throughout the journey, free tea and coffee is available at one end of the Ekstra Class section.

All seats either had a fixed table or a decent sized seat back table along with ‘wrap around’ headrests, reading lights, coat hooks and a recline function. Unfortunately, the design of the headrests seemed to not intend the seat’s use for people with shoulders and as a result I had to slouch for most of the journey so as to not having digging into the top of my shoulders. Other than this the seats were pretty comfortable and I was certainly happy with my seat at the end of the carriage as Ekstra Class was full after our stop at Tikkurila.

As someone who works in the freight sector of the rail industry, I’m fascinated by how this sector in other countries differs from our own and so am always keeping an eye out for rail yards and freight trains when travelling around. As we approached Riihimäki, a town around 70km north of Helsinki, we passed a rail yard which gave me a first glimpse of Finland’s rail freight industry, two or three stabled log trains. With dense pine forests across a large portion of the country, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see logs being transported by rail, although the fairly limited number of these services in the UK meant it was nice to see something a bit different.

Whilst pine forests and artic tundra are prevalent further north, much of the landscape during my journey actually reminded me of home with lots of green fields accompanying the smaller forests in this southern part of Finland. As the journey progressed, we passed through a number of smaller towns with railway stations, all seemingly served by a fairly regular regional service which manages to be timetabled in such a way to not impede the Intercity services on the two-track mainline.

Another rail yard at Toijala was mostly empty, however as we approached Tampere after around 90 minutes of travel, large rail yard bordered the mainline to both sides, acting as both freight marshalling and stabling yards as well as maintenance locations for VR’s locomotives and multiple units. At just before 0900, the yards were mostly empty, although a diesel freight locomotive was just being started up and making its presence known by the ‘clag’ emitted from its exhaust.

Arriving into Tampere on time at 0858, the journey with VR had been uneventful but both pleasant and relatively comfortable. With no dedicated ‘Ekstra’ lounge at Helsinki (or any station from what I can tell), VR scores 0* for lounge provision, and the problematic headrests lose it a point for the seat. In addition to the free tea and coffee, there is also an onboard restaurant car where a wide range of meals can be purchased, but these aren’t included in Ekstra class and I didn’t partake during this journey. Finally both the customer service and punctuality were great, giving VR full marks in those categories. Another test of VR’s offering would be coming up, but first I had a few hours to explore Finland’s second city, Tampere.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     4*

Food               3*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      17/25 (read about my rating system here!)