Journey to Saint Petersburg

The flight from Hong Kong lands on time at Helsinki Vantaa airport.

It is 06:00 local time. There will be time to kill…..

Immigration and customs are cleared, luggage collected, the passengers emerge into the early morning. It is foggy. Fog often precedes a nice sunny day. Hope springs eternal.

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An airport to city coach has just pulled away. It is no problem. Another will depart 20 minutes later. There will still be time to kill…..

The €6.30 airport coach fare is paid. The thirty minute coach ride, in morning peak hour, is quite smooth and enjoyable. The Central Station is reached before 08:00. Much of the outside of the station is hidden by scaffolding. The fog is lifting.

The train will not leave until 10:00. Time to kill…..

Helsinki Central Station is warming to the buzz of morning travellers on their way to work. A coffee shop beckons; coffee and pastries go down well.

There is still time to explore. Each in turn minds the luggage while the other takes in the surroundings. The opportunity presents, and is taken, to change some euros into rubles.

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The station Booking Hall is quite beautiful and reminiscent of times past. It is quiet. There is a large model steam engine and model railway. One small boy appears to enjoy looking at them.

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The train from/to St Petersburg is called “Allegro”. It arrives at the allotted platform. Passengers from St Petersburg alight.

Passengers going to St Petersburg head towards the train. The doors are locked while cleaners do their work. One young woman seems agitated that she can’t board. Eventually, the doors open.

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At 10:00 precisely, Allegro #784 pulls out of Helsinki station. Soon it is speeding through forest landscapes at up to 220 km/hr. Snacks and drinks are offered and accepted. The sun comes out.

After a couple of hours, Finnish Customs and Passport Control officers pass through the carriages. Passports are stamped to indicate departure from Finland. At Vainikkala Station, the Finnish officers leave the train.

At the same station, Russian Customs and Immigration Officers board the train. Soon they move through the carriages. Few words are exchanged. With Passports and Visas in order, they are stamped to indicate arrival in Russia. The processing goes smoothly.

Three and a half hours after leaving Helsinki, the train pulls into St Petersburg’s Findlandsky Station, its journey complete.

For some, the journey is just beginning.

Great Train Journeys V : Kuranda Scenic Railway

It is time to come closer to home and tell of an Australian rail experience, one which provides joy to millions of visitors to Cairns, major centre of Far North Queensland.

In the 1880s, miners working on the Atherton Tableland inland from the coast were often isolated by flooding rains in this tropical part of Australia. Eight metres (315 inches) of rainfall is not uncommon in a year in these parts. Agreement was eventually reached on a route for a railway. The first sod was turned in 1886, and involved 13 km of relatively level track to the foothils. However, the second section of 24 km had to climb from 5.5m above sea level to 327m, involving some 15 tunnels, 93 curves and dozens of difficult bridges over ravines and waterfalls. Most of this work was done by hand. Many workers lost their lives. The remaining 37.4 km to Mareeba was again relatively easy to complete. The first goods train used the line on 15th June, 1891, and passenger trains followed 10 days later.  At last, the early settlers had a reliable link to the coast. Much more detail of this history can be found here.

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Leaving Cairns terminal station, the train first travels along the coastal plain, passing sugar cane plantations. As the climb begins, houses with views to the ocean are passed.

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Fairly soon, the train is entering a cutting and there is just time to snap the view looking back towards Cairns. Then come the bridges and tunnels.

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At the best vantage points, such as near the Barron Falls, the train stops and passengers are able to get off the train to take photos of the spectacular scenery. As luck would have it, this had been a fairly dry year, so the waterfalls were not at their spectacular best.

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Eventually, Kuranda Station, itself featuring tropical plantings, is reached. There are two trains each way, each day. Here, both sit in the station awaiting the return journey. 

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Kuranda is known as The Village in the Rainforest. Surrounded by World Heritage Rainforest, it has been home to the Djabugay Aboriginal people for more than 10,000 years. This vibrant indigenous culture continues to thrive today. Tourists come to experience some of this culture, as well as markets and other attractions. It can be reached by a Skyrail which traverses over the treetops from the coastal plain, or by the famous Kuranda Scenic Railway. As a train enthusiast, it is the train journey that I have taken – several times over the years.

The photos used in this post are all from the pre-digital age! Scanned from prints, with a few enhancements, I hope they give a good impression of this train journey.

Further reading: Kuranda Scenic Railway; Kuranda Village ; Kuranda Skyrail

Great Train Journeys IV : Salzburg to Tarquinia

After exploring Salzburg, it was time to move on and head south into Italy to spend time with family. As mentioned in the previous post, the German Railways website DB Bahn provided me with the itinerary I needed to get from Salzburg to Tarquinia (in Northern Lazio) – in just under 12 hours, using four trains.  On paper, one connection looked tight, but it was another which would nearly prove my undoing!!

08:57 Salzburg to Innsbruck. The first leg used a German ICE train ICE660, taking me to Innsbruck, about 190 km, in one hour and forty nine minutes. [I note, with interest, that four years later, this daily trip is now an Austrian Railjet instead of an ICE]. Naturally, I was on the platform at Salzburg, with plenty of time to observe activity.

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11:27 Innsbruck to Bologna. I was really looking forward to the second leg of this journey, as it would take me from Innsbruck to Bologna, passing through the Brenner Pass. However, the time in Innsbruck proved to be an interesting distraction itself. The best spot for train watching is the platform from which the train is to depart! This is especially so when there are several train movements before my inter city train EC85 is due!

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The Innsbruck station is overlooked by the Bergisel Ski Jump built for the 1964 Winter Olympics, reused for the 1976 Winter Olympics, and most recently updated in 2003.

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The next surprise was to notice that the famed Orient Express was in the station. Presumably, it did not appear on the departures indicators because it was en route from Paris to Venice and would not pick up, or set down,  passengers.

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In due course, my train pulled in, a few minutes late, but not enough to cause concern. We settled back for the scenic journey through the Dolomites. With several stops, including about 15 minutes in each of Bolzano and Verona, we covered nearly 400 km in about 5 hours – a relaxing pace.

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I am not sure why I try to take photos from moving vehicles. Just as the photo is framed, the train will dive into a tunnel, or a mass of posts and wires will come between the train and the scene! Sometimes, I do get a shot of a river, distant mountains or castles, or even the ubiquitous Golden Arches of McDonalds on a local delivery truck.

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I was really intrigued by this ‘folly’, (photos below) which was spotted near Trento, and captured in the distance from the station.

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16:47 Bologna to Rome. According to timetables, the connection in Bologna was to be rather tight – eleven minutes. However, it proved to be easy, as switching platforms left me with a few minutes to catch my breath. The platform was becoming busy! It was Friday afternoon. The Frecciarossa, Italian Eurostar train designated ES9557, scheduled 4:47 pm service to Roma Termini, was going to be quite crowded!  Ah well, we would be travelling, at up to 300 km/hour, to cover the 400 km in two hours – one of my fastest train journeys.

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I never quite established if they were Romans, who work in the north, going home for the weekend, or Milanese and Bolognese heading south for a Roman holiday, but a crowded train soon seemed to be an understatement. With sign language, I was persuaded to swap seats to allow a family (work group?) to be together. Our one stop, Firenze, came and went. I don’t recall anyone getting off. From there, some locals stood for the entire segment (on a train that has ‘compulsory  booking and seat reservations’).

My first experience of Italy’s newest, fastest train was somewhat spoiled by the crowd, the heat they generated, and the noise of too many loud conversations. But I was, after all, now in Italy! Ten hours after leaving Salzburg, I was tiring rapidly by the time we reached Rome. I regret to say that the camera stayed in its case for the rest of the day.

18:50 Friday, Roma Termini, commuter rush hour. I had a comfortable nineteen minutes to make my connection to the next train, or so I thought. There were two catches, and this is where I nearly came undone. The first – I had no ticket as the local trains could not (then) be booked in advance from outside Italy. The second, I was on the wrong end of the Frecciarossa (furthest from, and five minutes walk to, the booking hall), and the regional train platform was over 400 metres from the booking hall. Add to that I had a fairly heavy suitcase (presents etc.) and Roma Termini was crowded with people heading in all directions.

19:09 Roma to Tarquinia   I boarded the last carriage of Regionale R3268 as the train was about to move, breathless and perspiring profusely!

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With just under eighty minutes to travel to Tarquinia, I was now in the ‘home stretch’, with around 90 km to go. The train stopped at four ‘city’ stations, including Roma Ostiense & Trastevere, where more commuters piled in. I felt just a little guilty taking space for my suitcase! (Photo : Trenitalia)

Then, and only then, I made a call to my daughter to confirm I was on schedule to arrive at Tarquinia at 20:30. I remember saying that I would be ready for a nice cold beer on arrival. Would I do it again? – you bet!  One thousand and eighty kilometres on four, very different trains in twelve hours, through changing scenery, experiencing an Italian Friday rush hour, and having family to meet at the end, it was a memorable journey.