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Finnish Electric Multiple UnitsWelcome to the Finnish Multiple Units page! While we are constructing the page an older version of Multiple Units Page exists. There are also pages for the Finnish Electric Locomotives and Diesel Locomotives as well as the MOV Equipment.
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 Created for 4rail.net by John McKey, Ilkka Siissalo, Stanislav Voronin and Andreas Ehnberg. Pictures by Stanislav Voronin, Ilkka Siissalo, Hannu Peltola, Andreas Ehnberg and John McKey.  Also in this section:  Finnish Railroads Main Page, a great place to start browsing this section.  Finnish railroad organizations and railroad operators have their own pages, as well as the largest operator VR-Yhtyma and a newcomer to the field Junakalusto.  While much of the passenger traffic concentrates around the capital Helsinki, you might be interested in the roster pictures of VR-Yhtyma, Junakalusto and the city of Helsinki operator HKL. HKL operates the metro and narrow gauge trams. |
| Karelian Trains Class Sm6 "Allegro" Pendolinos | |
  Picture above: The Sm6 Pendolino unit 01 is rounding the curve in the Kerava junction. The unit has just arrived from the high speed track and is emerging to the main line on it's route to Helsinki depot in Ilmala. Although the trains look externally at the first look very similar to the VR-Yhtyma Sm3 Pendolinos, there are significant technical differences. Picture by Stanislav Voronin.  Picture below: The motor car for the Allegro Pendolino is being lowered from the ship in the Vuosaari harbor. The new generation Pendolinos are built to withstand extremely snowy conditions and coldness associated with dampness. This means the Pendolinos went through as 1 year of testing before the revenue traffic started in December 2010, just ahead of the heavy travelling season for the Russians around the new year. Picture by Stanislav Voronin.  Above the Sm6 Allegro unit 01 of the Karelian Trains seen in Kerava in the early winter weather. The streamlined roof hides much of the added technology needed to traffic the train both in Russia and Finland. This was the first ever picture published of this train online! Many thanks to picture taker Stanislav Voronin! Below the class Sm6 Allegro Pendolino is zooming past Utti station in the eastern Finland. Winter weather is no obstruction for high speed revenue traffic. Picture by Peider Swisstrip.  |
Karelian Trains owned four Allegro Pendolino units replaced in December 2010 the trains "Sibelius" (owned by VR-Yhtyma) and "Repin" (owned by the RzD) between St Petersburg, Russia and Helsinki, Finland. The Allegro train set consists of seven tilting cars, out of which four at the ends are powered. There are first and second class compartments on the EMU. The other end has a little playing area with a slide for kids, as is custom for Finnish modern trains. The middle car has among others the accommodations for the border control on the moving train, something totally new between the two countries. Rebuilt track, new high speed rolling stock and other arrangement have cut the travel times dramatically. Further removing the need of visa from the passengers would bring a real boom to travelling with Allegro. Using the Allegro has so far lead to 100% increase in numbers of travellers between Russian and Finland, so the service can be seen as a great success. Also the trains are working extremely well for a Pendolino, so the manufacturer Alstom has quite clearly made progress on technical issues. Technical details for class Sm6 Allegro Pendolinos -> Length: 184,8 m -> Weight: 480 metric tons -> Notes:
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| PJK* Class Sm5 "Flirt" Commuter Train (*Pääkaupunkiseudun Junakalusto Oy) | |
 Picture Above: The Swiss Stadler built Flirt trains stop at Pasila station, the busiest station in Finland. Flirt trains arrived to Finland in 2009, and by 2015 all ordered 41 units will be operational. For the first time in Finland the owner for the local trains is not solely VR-Yhtyma, but the cities around Metropolitan Helsinki and VR-Yhtyma, forming a train owner company Junakalusto. Picture by Stanislav Voronin. Below a Flirt train is seen quite at home in the heavy snow blizzard. Swiss origins show. Picture by Stanislav Voronin.  Below a Flirt train stopping at it's daily route between Helsinki and Leppävaara in city of Espoo. The route has frequent stops and rolling hills to climb, so the powerful trains with their electrical brakes feeding power back to the networks are quite at home here. Picture by Andreas Ehnberg.  |
The Sm5 Flirt (Fast Light Innovative Rail Transportation) trains are arriving to Helsinki metropolitan area commuting. First 17 units out of 41 ordered have been spotted so far and 16 of them are in almost daily use. The type replaces the much aged, exhausted and technically obsolete type Sm1. Flirt trains bring more modern low floored capacity to the Helsinki local transit. This kind of easy access travelling has been a norm for a decade in other forms of transportation, but rarely on railways. Many Sm4 units which are also partly low floored were also used earlier for the local traffic, although Sm4 was built for regional traffic, where it was much needed too. The great winter operating capability of the 4 module Flirt train was proved after the two years extensive trials. Junakalusto, the owner of the trains, was convinced about the train type at late 2011 and ordered 9 more for 7,2 million euros each. Technical details for class Sm5 "Flirt" EMU of Stadler -> Capacity: 2nd class only -> Notes: |
To the top of the page| Sm4 of VR-Yhtyma, "Rabbit" "Pupu", Regional Traffic EMU | |
 Above: An Sm4 unit 6328/6428 is seen on the way from Helsinki to Lahti near Mäntsälä. This regional train still beats the cars on it's route on the motorway right next to the track, even though 160 km/h (100 mph) might seem a bit slow for the high speed track. Picture by John McKey. |
The Sm4 for VR-Yhtyma arrived to Finnish network in 1998 - 2005. The train is very comfortable and quiet for the passengers and features partly low floor, something totally new for Finland at the time. On summers heat the air conditioning works well and keeps the train dry in the winter. Each train has two very well designed roomy bathrooms, that are accessible with a wheel chair too. The trains' technology is located to the roof to keep it dry in the demanding Northern conditions. The Sm4 "Rabbit" sports interesting double doors with a round window, which also serve as an easy spotting feature. Top speed of 160 km/h (100 mph) makes the train well suitable for the regional traffic, but since the rolling stock situation around Helsinki area was earlier quite desperate, especially in the winters, the Sm4 sometimes often arrived to save the day for the commuters. Now the Sm5 (Flirt) trains have most of the time released the Sm4 "rabbits" to their intended regional use. Recently, many rabbits have been painted sallad green during their regular maintenance at VR-Yhtyma. The type has been running trials also for some more rural regional traffic, but the benches facing each other were not favored by many passengers and trains were withdrawn to back to help traffic around bigger cities. Technical details for class Sm5 "Rabbit" EMU of CAF and Alstom -> Capacity: 2nd class only -> Notes: |
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The whole Sm4 fleet is slowly receiving the new VR faded green livery with animal figures. This will make them look uniform to the long distance fleet of the operator. By mid 2012 half of the fleet has received the green paint. |
| Sm3 of VR-Yhtyma "Pendo" for Long Distance High Speed | |
 Above: A double class Sm3 Pendolino S220 unit is seen tilting slightly in Korso, Vantaa, Finland. The Finnish version of this Pendolino 400 series looking train has 6 coaches per unit. Picture by Stanislav Voronin.  Above the red Pendolino S220 unit is taking the curve at Kytömaa, just north of Kerava junction. In the background the IC2 train is accelerating to the high speed track towards Lahti. Picture by Stanislav Voronin. The future is green, even for Pendolinos. Below the first green unit seen in the new color scheme hiding at Turku service facilities before officially entering the service. Even the salmon is green at the Pendolino restaurant car (for real...)! Picture by John McKey 2010. |
The Sm3 Pendolino of VR-Yhtyma started the new era of high speed train travel in Finland. With scarce resources for building the high speed track, the tilting train solution has proved success economically and in some aspects of the system also technically. Finland also has much younger and more developed class Sm6 Allegro Pendolinos on its networks for International traffic.
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| Sm1 of VR-Yhtyma "Sami" for Commuter Traffic (fleet retiring) | |
 Above: An Sm1 number 6045/6245 seen in the snow storm in Kerava. Rough winters take toll on the old rolling stock and the availability has been lower than expected last few years for this type. Picture by Stanislav Voronin.  Above the side profile of the type Sm1 at the Kerava junction area. Picture by John McKey.  A typical face of the Sm1 number 6017/6217 seen at the Helsinki Main westward tracks. Picture by Andreas Ehnberg.  Picture above shows the main spotting feature differences on the Sm1 on the left and Sm2 on the right. Curved windows of the Sm2 can be spotted miles away as well as the stripes on the side of the Sm1. Picture by Andreas Ehnberg. |
The Sm1 local EMUs have been the backbone of Helsinki commuter traffic since the early 1970s when they replaced Dm7 diesel rail cars plus steam and diesel engine hauled local trains. At its heyday the 50 unit "Sami 1" fleet provided the commuters for the time great and reliable way to get to work and back home. Progress in EMU technology happened though and the trains have also aged severely. The handicaps in the early 2000s were already obvious: more failures on the way, high floor making it difficult of impossible to transport bikes, luggage, wheel chairs, baby carts, older passengers, etc. Year 2010 the unit 6008/6208 was the first to retire and more rusty, windows broken and fixed with stickers units are following it one by one, replaced by the air conditioned and modern fleet of the Sm5 Flirt trains.
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| © 4rail.net Railroad Reference 2004 - 2012 - Recreated 25.12.2010 John McKey, updated 26.4.2012 |
