Saint Petersburg Travel Forum

Train to Helsinki
Posted: Sun April 12, 2009 03:17 AM UTC

I haven't been able to obtain accurate information about trains from Petersburg to Helsinki. I will be going on June 24. Firstly, is it the Finland station or Ladozhsky?

It seems that there are no overnight trains, and trains leave at either 7:15 or 16:30 (not counting Tolstoy). How long is the trip? I have seen travel times ranging from 5 hours to 6.5.

-Renaud
New York

montalais

5 replies

[Reply]

Re: Train to Helsinki
Posted: Sun April 12, 2009 07:41 AM UTC

Since changes in timetable in Russia (30/05) there will be the same 3 trains per day everyday besides Tuesday - 6:07-12:06 ("Tolstoy" from Ladogskii); 7:17-12:48 and 16:30-21:58 (both from Finlandskii station)
+ there are plenty of buses...

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kopvas

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Re: Train to Helsinki
Posted: Sun April 12, 2009 07:39 PM UTC

Thanks.

These trains are incredibly slow, taking 6.5 hours to cross a flat 350km. A regular train crossing a similar distance in Germany would take a third of the time and would cost less.

Are there any overnight ships?

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montalais

[Reply]

Re: Train to Helsinki
Posted: Tue April 14, 2009 02:23 PM UTC

But this is Russia, what there is to compare to Germany? If you do so while there you might be disappointed. Anyhow, if you are on a hurry, you can fly, Finnair has a daily flights and it's quick.

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Gili_S

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Re: Train to Helsinki
Posted: Mon April 20, 2009 10:18 PM UTC

We will be travelling in the opposite direction . . .Helsinki to St. Petersburg. I have been told that there is the Russian train and the Finnish train and that the Finnish train is more expensive than the Russian train. Does anyone know? I'm trying to understand why St. Petersburg is so expensive in comparison to other cities in Russia or in Latvia/Estonia. Do we bring food on the train? We will be travelling back to Tallinn, Estonia where we are leaving our car at a Bed and Breakfast homestay.

Don, Peterborough, Canada

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mgdon

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Re: Train to Helsinki
Posted: Tue April 21, 2009 10:19 AM UTC

mgdon, there are three trains from Helsinki to SPb daily, two of them are Russian ("Repin" Helsinki-SPb and "Tosltoy" Helsinki-Moscow - this one is has only sleeping cars). Plus there are one Finnish train called "Sibelius".
2 class seat in open compartment in "Repin" or "Sibelius" costs the same (at the moment 58.8 euro). Composition of the 1 class in those trains are different, so expectedly the price for the first class as well will be different...

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