New sleeping cars in service in February
The first two of VR's new double decker sleeping cars will enter service between Helsinki and Rovaniemi at the beginning of February. Altogether 20 sleeping cars have been ordered from Talgo.
All the new sleeping cars will be introduced during 2006. The cars are being built at the Otanmäki Works and the order is worth EUR 58 million.
The new sleeping cars will raise the level of service in overnight trains considerably. The coaches have showers and each cabin has an electric socket, an alarm clock, and improved GSM reception.
The requirements of many different customer groups have been taken into account in the coaches. Customer representatives have participated in the development of the coach during the design and production stages.
Modern fittings in the coaches
The new car has a total of 19 cabins. All the cabins have two beds. There are eight cabins on the upper deck and 11 on the lower and intermediate decks.
Each cabin on the upper deck has its own toilet and shower. The lower deck has a shared toilet and shower, with a wash basin in each cabin. The showers have under-floor heating. The cabins are air-conditioned, with individual controls to set the temperature in each cabin.
The cabins can be booked for one or two persons. Some of the cabins on the lower level can be doubled up with an interlinking door to accommodate four people. For young children each car has a safety net that forms a side to the bed.
GSM reception in the new sleeping car has been improved with a booster. Each cabin has an electric socket for charging mobile phones and laptop computers as well as a multifunction panel where the passenger can set the alarm and listen to the radio with an earphone.
One of the cabins on the lower deck is designed for disabled passengers and there is a toilet for the disabled on that deck as well. The car has facilities for people with allergies and for people travelling with pets. Smoking is not allowed in the new cars, which are fitted with fire alarms.
The external appearance of the new cars is the same as the InterCity coaches made previously by Talgo. The aluminium coaches have a maximum speed of 160 kilometres an hour and can only be operated on electrified track sections.
New style overnight train in the autumn
The first of the new sleeping cars will enter service on the P61 and P68 trains on 1 February. The P61 express train leaves Helsinki in the evening at 19.20 and arrives in Rovaniemi at 7.51 in the morning. The P68 express train leaves Rovaniemi at 21.10 and arrives in Helsinki at 8.40. During the spring and summer these trains will still have some of the older sleeping cars as well as the new ones.
Starting in the autumn customers travelling between Helsinki and Rovaniemi can choose between the new style and the conventional overnight train. Two of the new trains and two of the older trains will then provide overnight services daily on this route.
In the new overnight trains, all the sleeping cars will be double decker. The trains will also have the new double decker car carriers, single decker day coaches and a restaurant car. The overnight service from Turku to the North will continue to operate with the older sleeper cars.
Separate prices for the new sleeping cars
The new sleeping cars will have different prices from the older sleepng cars. The ticket for one person travelling from Helsinki to Rovaniemi in a two berth cabin on the lower deck will cost EUR 93.00, which is EUR 4.00 more than in the present overnight train. On the upper deck the ticket costs EUR 9.00 more than in the older car.
At the most popular periods all overnight trains have separate peak season prices. In the new sleeping cars the difference between peak season prices and those at other times of the year will be more marked than with the present sleeping cars.
VR has daily overnight rail services to Rovaniemi, with regular trainbus connections from there to destinations in Lapland. During peak periods the regular services are supplemented with extra services.
In 2005 a total of 471 000 journeys by sleeping car were made. This is a decline of 0.4 per cent from the previous year. A total of 37 800 cars were carried in 2005, which is 11.9 per cent more than in the previous year.
130 years of overnight train services in Finland
Sleeping car services became common on railways around the world during the 1870s. In Finland the first sleeping cars entered service between Helsinki and St Petersburg in 1876.
The first sleeping cars in service in Finland were manufactured in Austro-Hungary. The wooden coaches had three four berth compartments. First and second class compartments were located in the same coach.
VR started to manufacture sleeping cars towards the end of the 1890s and the first cars entered service in 1898. Manufacturing of steel sleeping cars started at VR's engineering works at Pasila towards the end of the 1960s. The first of these entered service in the first half of the 1970s.
In addition to its new sleeping cars, VR has 106 conventional sleeping cars that were built in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of these will remain in service. The oldest 33 cars will be taken out of service in 2006-2008.