TMP-HEL VR Pendolino Ekstra Class

Operator: VR

Headcode: S178

Route:    TMP-HEL

Class:    Ekstra Class

Seat:     C1 S21

Date:     Wednesday 22^nd May 2024

With the morning spent exploring Tampere and a wonderful lunch at Ravintola Tampella, I had headed back to the station a bit earlier than necessary ready to catch my VR service back to the Finnish capital. I’d be once again travelling in Ekstra (1st) class but this journey would be a little bit difference to my journey to Tampere earlier in the day as I’d be travelling on one of VR’s Pendolinos. This is the fourth post from my Finland trip and you can read the first three here, here and here.

The Sm3 Pendolino is the flagship of VR’s fleet, with 14 of the 18 units still in regular use between Helsinki and a number of Finland’s main towns and cities. The Pendolinos are formed of six carriages, with ‘Ekstra’ class in coach 1, usually at the Helsinki (southern) end of the train. I would be catching service S178, the 1404 service from Tampere and Helsinki with a journey time of one hour and 50 minutes, reaching top speeds of 220kmph enroute.

Pendolino 7×06 arrived into Tampere on a service from Vaasa around 75 minutes before my service was due to depart, giving me plenty of time to get some photos of it and VR’s station teams to get the unit prepped ready for the run to Helsinki. This seemed to essentially be an extra service built into the timetable, departing Tampere just four minutes after a regular InterCity service and calling at some additional stations. Seemingly since my trip VR have replaced the Pendolino with an InterCity set on this service and its now IC178 not S178. However the service remains otherwise the same, with six intermediate stops at Lempäälä, Toijala, Hämeenlinna, Riihimäki, Tikkurila and Pasila.

I was able to board the Pendolino around 30 minutes before departure and quickly settled into seat 21 in Ekstra class. As with Ekstra class onboard the InterCity sets, Ekstra on the Pendolinos is set out in a 1-2 formation, however there were a few differences between the two types of train. On the Pendolinos the free tea/coffee station was located in the middle of the carriage and partially separated the carriage into two cabins. The other main difference I noted was that the seats were of a different type with these not having the wrap around headrest that had caused me issues that morning.

Seat 21 was on the single side of the aisle and had a fixed table rather than a seat-back one with a seat opposite, as well as a well-placed window. With an InterCity service departing for Helsinki a few minutes ahead of us with a faster journey time, my service was relatively quiet, with Ekstra class being around a quarter full. Despite this, when we departed a minute late at 1405, I had still ended up with someone sat opposite me and sharing the table.

It was only about 10 minutes after departure before we reached the first stop at Lempäälä, and the second, Toijala, was only another 10 minutes after that. Having settled in to the journey, I decided to give the onboard restaurant a try along with the ‘at seat’ ordering available in Ekstra class. I went for what I certainly feel is a traditional Nordic dish even its not necessarily traditionally Finnish, Meat Balls! Served with mash potato and what I believe was cranberry sauce, it was quite expensive at €17.70 but was really good train food! The portion size was also pretty good and it did come with a bottle of water, so overall I felt it was worth it.

As I was eating we reached the third stop at Hämeenlinna, around 40 minutes out of Tampere and in the station goods loop I noticed that we had caught up with the train of steel coils that had passed through Tampere as I was waiting for the Pendolino. The stop at Riihimäki was unremarkable, although by this point the carriage was about half full with a few people joining at each of the stops. The 35 minute run between Riihimäki and  Tikkurila was the longest gap between stations and as we approached the latter we started to make our way past the towns and villages that make the outer edges of the Greater Helsinki area.

From Tikkurila it was just 15 minutes to Helsinki, including the final stop at Pasila, Finland’s second largest station located at the junction of the Finnish Mainline and the Rantarata line to Turku. After an hour and 50 minutes of travel, we pulled into Helsinki Central Station at 1555, maintaining the single minute of delay from Tampere through to our destination. All in all I really liked Finland’s Pendolinos, certainly more than their UK namesakes with them being really comfortable and an added bonus of have excellent food available onboard. Following my journeys with VR, I have a return to Finland firmly on my to-do list along with their sleeper service to the Artic Circle.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     4*

Food                4*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      18/25 (read about my rating system here!)