As some people, who have been here, say, that traveling on budget is not possible in Finland. I am about to prove you wrong. I will cover all means of travel (bus, car, plane and train) and provide some tips that even only a few locals know. This is budget travel in Finland by Miss Mureena.
The topic of today is the train.
I have unfortunately a love/hate relationship with the train travel in Finland and the reason you can read in here. It is a typical moaning about how things work and don´t work on Finnish railroads. Finlands railways, VR a.k.a Valtion Rautatiet (further mentioned VR) has a monopoly in the country (at the moment) and there are no other companies. This makes the prices high, sometimes unbearable, but they are starting to realize what happens when the costs get too high...no customers. Train travel in general and it´s best; safe, relatively reliable, fast and comfortable. Easy as well, since all the announcements are in Finnish, Swedish and English. The network is ok, but as usual the horizontal west-east connections are failing. The latest disappointment has been to see how the company cuts off small stations and the trains do not stop everywhere anymore, then the only option will be a bus.
Click the picture and you´ll be forwarded to more detailed maps on VR site.
Most of the trains (long haul) have a free wifi and restaurant car (or a trolley) and decent toilets. The purchases in the restaurant car are limited and pricey --> bring your own snacks and water if possible, but note, that alcohol consumption is allowed only in the restaurant car, unless there the trolley moving.
There are several ways to get the tickets; online service, ticket booth and the ticket office at the train station. You can now also buy and get the tickets at any R-Kioski around Finland. And there is also a possibility to buy the ticket on the train, nut it will be very expensive and I do not recommend it.
To make a reservation/ buy the ticket go to https://www.vr.fi/cs/vr/en/frontpage. The service is available in 4 languages, Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian and it is very easy to use. The so called "pre-tickets" can be very cheap when purchased ahead through the online service. To increase the cast flow to the source there is also now a system for even cheaper tickets and it is called VETURI (locomotive in Finnish). It is worthwhile to register to be a user and you´ll get better discounts and last-minute-ticket-discounts for certain routes. This is highly recommended. the key is, book as soon as possible, and preferable through VETURI- memberpages.
Through the previous pages you can also see the live train updates. Meaning, you can see if your train is late. This can be useful while sitting on the train itself, if you do not hear the announcements (if the train is late, it is normally informed only in Finnish) and want to know when to start putting your winter coat on.
If you own a student card, but it is not issued in any Finnish institution, do not bother. You are not going to get a student discount!
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