jamesontheroad
OBS Chief
I had to make a quick trip from the UK to northern Sweden last month. My destination was Umeå, in Västerbotten, which is Sweden's "mid-north." In current tourism material for the city, a cartoon character is overlaid on a map of Sweden to emphasise that Umeå is roughly where the 'heart' of Sweden is, so it's still a long way from the northernmost point of the country. That said, it's the northernmost point I've ever been in my travels - 63º 49' N - so it was quite an intriguing prospect.
Given work and family commitments before and after the trip, I had to use KLM from my local airport (KLM provide feeder service from 14 UK airports to the KLM / Delta / Air France hub in Amsterdam Schiphol). However, KLM only serves a few airports in southern Sweden. Umeå Airport's only international carriers are SAS and Norwegian (through Stockholm Arlanda) and Finnair (through Helsinki). What turned out to be the best option in turns of timing was to fly through Amsterdam to Gothenburg, in Västra Götaland County in the south-west of the country before continuing overnight by train.
KLM delivered me to Gothenburg with all the usual efficiency and punctuality. What was remarkable for me was that this was the first trip I've ever completed end-to-end using digital boarding passes in the iOS Wallet. Swedes are far more receptive to this technology than I've found elsewhere. One of my contacts in Umeå explained that this was because Swedes absolutely hate making small talk with strangers, so they embrace anything that lets them board a bus, train or plane without talking to someone else.
Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, with a metro population of more than a million people. I arrived mid-afternoon in late-November, and the sun was already getting low in the sky. About a month until the winter soltice, the sun had risen at 08:18 and would set 15:39.
Flygbussarna provides a regular shuttle from the airport to the city, which dropped me off outside Gothenburg Central Station. The return trip departs from the Nils Ericson bus terminal, which is adjacent to the train station. I explored the downtown a little on foot, before returning to Central Station.
I don't know much about Gothenburg's tram system, but even on a Sunday there were extensive and busy services running through town, on a mixture of modern low-floor AnsaldoBreda units and older refurbished vehicles, some of which (above right) have had new low-floor carriages inserted between the original cars.
Much of Gothenburg was already decorated for Christmas.
Gothenburg Central Station is the oldest still in use in the country, and the terminus for the > 450km Western Main Line from Stockholm. Inside, it has two beautiful arcades of shops, cafés and restaurants.
There are 16 platforms, and about 27 million passengers a year use the station. There are high-speed trains to Stockholm, as well as various regional services.
I was holding a first class ticket, so I had access to the SJ Lounge before departure. There are lounges in Gothenburg, Malmö and Stockholm. I spent a couple of hours here (sorry, no photos because of the large number of passengers passing through), and enjoyed a couple of hot drinks, some cold pasta and a lovely slice of apple and cinnamon tart for my first Swedish fika.
There are two scheduled sleeper trains in Sweden: the famous Arctic Circle service from Stockholm to Umeå, Luleå and onwards to Narvik in Norway; and my train from Gothenburg to Stockholm, Umeå and Luleå. The two trains travel a few hours apart providing two options between Stockholm and Luleå.
Boarding for my train opened about 15 minutes before departure. The formation varies from day to day, with 9 carriages tonight, including a R12 bistro car (built circa 1968-69, and refurbished since then) in the middle of the consist. My first class sleeper carriage was a WL4 (built circa 1990-92) second from the front of the train.
Carriages are numbered from front to back, helping passengers locate their carriage.
At the head of affairs was Rc class #1336, built 1967-68 and still the backbone of loco-hauled passenger and freight in Sweden. The majority of passenger trains are now electric multiple units.
My berth was #10, the lower berth of a two-berth first class compartment.
The upper berth has been folded up out of the way, and instructions on the wall provide guidance on how to raise or lower it.
In day mode, the lower of the two back cushions have been pulled down and forwards to create a comfortable seat back. The pillows were tucked in behind them.
First class on SJ night trains entitles you to lounge access where available (before departure and after arrival) and a complimentary breakfast - either a boxed meal and hot drink onboard or a voucher for breakfast in a local café or restaurant if you leave the train before breakfast starts. But more importantly...
...first class also includes an en-suite bathroom, shown here. The tight dimensions meant I had to take two photographs, but the bathroom has a sink unit over the shower tray and a toilet to one side. There's a shower curtain to keep toilet paper, towels and the hairdryer dry. Due to my early arrival time (and planned early check-in to my hotel) I didn't try out the shower.
There are nice touches throughout. SJ provided four cartons of water, in this beautifully simple tetra-pak box. The cabin had a variety of reading lamps and two EU-style power plugs high up on the wall (good to have, but very awkwardly located for charging phones, etc overnight). There's also a fold-down table between the two seats, and additional storage space in cutaways above the corridor, beside the window and above the neighbouring bathroom.
We left on time at 18:20, and the train began it's ~1500km journey north. The current timetable is available as a PDF here. Following the Western Main Line, we passed through Herrljunga, Skövde and Hallsberg before reaching Stockholm around 22:30. SJ receives a public subsidy for the section north of Stockholm, but the train operates on a commercial basis between Gothenburg and Stockholm. I walked back through the train, passing a couple of sleeper and couchette wagons and one seated coach before reaching the bistro car. Again, apologies for no photographs but you can find some here. A recent menu is here. I had a (typically expensive) beer and did some work, and spent some time people watching. There were a handful of passengers who were heading to Stockholm and Uppsala, and the night train appears to offer an additional (sometimes cheaper alternative) to travelling from south-west to the midlands to the highspeed day trains.
I returned to my berth before Stockholm and fully intended to wake up and stretch my legs there or at Arlanda Airport (where the train station is right below the airport). However the call of my cosy bed was too much, and I was out like a light.
Ride quality was superb ... I slept soundly until about 04:30 when curiosity got the better of me and I opened the curtain and blackout blind to watch the countryside roll by in the darkness. Although it was many hours until sunrise (08:35-14:15 on the day of my visit) the snow-covered forests and fields were being dramatically illuminated by the sparks emanating from the locomotive's pantograph as it stripped the overnight ice from the catenary wire. From Stockholm the train follows the relatively new Bothnia Line, a semi-high-speed railway that runs along Sweden's east coast, dramatically shortening the journey time compared to the older inland route.
I walked back to the bistro car, which was closed and locked shut from around 23:30-06:30. The first class breakfast box retails for 69 crowns but is free for first class. It included a hot drink from the urns, a slice of rye bread and cheese, some yoghurt and muesli and fruit juice.
We arrived in Umeå around 07:00, calling first at the new Umeå Ostra (East) station and then the downtown Umeå Central. I alighted here and took a few photographs of the train in the pre-dawn light. The train would follow the old inland route to Boden and Luleå, about 350km to go, ending its journey in Luleå after midday.
There was a crew change at this point, with a new driver taking over (although I'd noticed that the bistro attendant was the same person on duty the evening before, so I presume the overnight closure of the bistro is to give him/her a statutory break).
Standing on the platform, I was further north than I had ever been before... although Narvik beckons for a future trip at 68º 26' N!
Umeå is a rapidly growing city of about 120,000 people, with lots of tech companies, a big Volvo plant and a growing university. A huge amount of infrastructural work has been undertaken in recent years. In addition to the new Bothnia Line and the new station at Umeå Ostra, in the city itself, there has been a dramatic remodelling of the public square in front of the station, with a light sculpture guiding pedestrians and cyclists beneath the road and tracks to the north side of the city.
What was remarkable about Umeå was the number of people cycling instead of driving - even in -10º C temperatures. The city clears bike paths as often as it clears roadways, and no-one thinks anything of moving about like this.
My hotel was a five-minute walk from the station. Sunrise was another hour away, but the city was coming to life, and commuters were beginning to populate the beautiful new bus interchange at Vasaplan, pictured above.
I had a couple of days of meetings and appointments, before flying home. It was possible to get a SAS (Star Alliance) ticket to interline with KLM (SkyTeam) so I wasn't able to mirror the train journey back, but I'm hoping to get another reason to visit Umeå soon...
I welcome questions and comments, and would definitely encourage anyone interested to consider a trip on the SJ night trains. The SJ website is superb, with clear booking info in English: https://sj.se/en/home.html
Given work and family commitments before and after the trip, I had to use KLM from my local airport (KLM provide feeder service from 14 UK airports to the KLM / Delta / Air France hub in Amsterdam Schiphol). However, KLM only serves a few airports in southern Sweden. Umeå Airport's only international carriers are SAS and Norwegian (through Stockholm Arlanda) and Finnair (through Helsinki). What turned out to be the best option in turns of timing was to fly through Amsterdam to Gothenburg, in Västra Götaland County in the south-west of the country before continuing overnight by train.
KLM delivered me to Gothenburg with all the usual efficiency and punctuality. What was remarkable for me was that this was the first trip I've ever completed end-to-end using digital boarding passes in the iOS Wallet. Swedes are far more receptive to this technology than I've found elsewhere. One of my contacts in Umeå explained that this was because Swedes absolutely hate making small talk with strangers, so they embrace anything that lets them board a bus, train or plane without talking to someone else.
Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, with a metro population of more than a million people. I arrived mid-afternoon in late-November, and the sun was already getting low in the sky. About a month until the winter soltice, the sun had risen at 08:18 and would set 15:39.
Flygbussarna provides a regular shuttle from the airport to the city, which dropped me off outside Gothenburg Central Station. The return trip departs from the Nils Ericson bus terminal, which is adjacent to the train station. I explored the downtown a little on foot, before returning to Central Station.
I don't know much about Gothenburg's tram system, but even on a Sunday there were extensive and busy services running through town, on a mixture of modern low-floor AnsaldoBreda units and older refurbished vehicles, some of which (above right) have had new low-floor carriages inserted between the original cars.
Much of Gothenburg was already decorated for Christmas.
Gothenburg Central Station is the oldest still in use in the country, and the terminus for the > 450km Western Main Line from Stockholm. Inside, it has two beautiful arcades of shops, cafés and restaurants.
There are 16 platforms, and about 27 million passengers a year use the station. There are high-speed trains to Stockholm, as well as various regional services.
I was holding a first class ticket, so I had access to the SJ Lounge before departure. There are lounges in Gothenburg, Malmö and Stockholm. I spent a couple of hours here (sorry, no photos because of the large number of passengers passing through), and enjoyed a couple of hot drinks, some cold pasta and a lovely slice of apple and cinnamon tart for my first Swedish fika.
There are two scheduled sleeper trains in Sweden: the famous Arctic Circle service from Stockholm to Umeå, Luleå and onwards to Narvik in Norway; and my train from Gothenburg to Stockholm, Umeå and Luleå. The two trains travel a few hours apart providing two options between Stockholm and Luleå.
Boarding for my train opened about 15 minutes before departure. The formation varies from day to day, with 9 carriages tonight, including a R12 bistro car (built circa 1968-69, and refurbished since then) in the middle of the consist. My first class sleeper carriage was a WL4 (built circa 1990-92) second from the front of the train.
Carriages are numbered from front to back, helping passengers locate their carriage.
At the head of affairs was Rc class #1336, built 1967-68 and still the backbone of loco-hauled passenger and freight in Sweden. The majority of passenger trains are now electric multiple units.
My berth was #10, the lower berth of a two-berth first class compartment.
The upper berth has been folded up out of the way, and instructions on the wall provide guidance on how to raise or lower it.
In day mode, the lower of the two back cushions have been pulled down and forwards to create a comfortable seat back. The pillows were tucked in behind them.
First class on SJ night trains entitles you to lounge access where available (before departure and after arrival) and a complimentary breakfast - either a boxed meal and hot drink onboard or a voucher for breakfast in a local café or restaurant if you leave the train before breakfast starts. But more importantly...
...first class also includes an en-suite bathroom, shown here. The tight dimensions meant I had to take two photographs, but the bathroom has a sink unit over the shower tray and a toilet to one side. There's a shower curtain to keep toilet paper, towels and the hairdryer dry. Due to my early arrival time (and planned early check-in to my hotel) I didn't try out the shower.
There are nice touches throughout. SJ provided four cartons of water, in this beautifully simple tetra-pak box. The cabin had a variety of reading lamps and two EU-style power plugs high up on the wall (good to have, but very awkwardly located for charging phones, etc overnight). There's also a fold-down table between the two seats, and additional storage space in cutaways above the corridor, beside the window and above the neighbouring bathroom.
We left on time at 18:20, and the train began it's ~1500km journey north. The current timetable is available as a PDF here. Following the Western Main Line, we passed through Herrljunga, Skövde and Hallsberg before reaching Stockholm around 22:30. SJ receives a public subsidy for the section north of Stockholm, but the train operates on a commercial basis between Gothenburg and Stockholm. I walked back through the train, passing a couple of sleeper and couchette wagons and one seated coach before reaching the bistro car. Again, apologies for no photographs but you can find some here. A recent menu is here. I had a (typically expensive) beer and did some work, and spent some time people watching. There were a handful of passengers who were heading to Stockholm and Uppsala, and the night train appears to offer an additional (sometimes cheaper alternative) to travelling from south-west to the midlands to the highspeed day trains.
I returned to my berth before Stockholm and fully intended to wake up and stretch my legs there or at Arlanda Airport (where the train station is right below the airport). However the call of my cosy bed was too much, and I was out like a light.
Ride quality was superb ... I slept soundly until about 04:30 when curiosity got the better of me and I opened the curtain and blackout blind to watch the countryside roll by in the darkness. Although it was many hours until sunrise (08:35-14:15 on the day of my visit) the snow-covered forests and fields were being dramatically illuminated by the sparks emanating from the locomotive's pantograph as it stripped the overnight ice from the catenary wire. From Stockholm the train follows the relatively new Bothnia Line, a semi-high-speed railway that runs along Sweden's east coast, dramatically shortening the journey time compared to the older inland route.
I walked back to the bistro car, which was closed and locked shut from around 23:30-06:30. The first class breakfast box retails for 69 crowns but is free for first class. It included a hot drink from the urns, a slice of rye bread and cheese, some yoghurt and muesli and fruit juice.
We arrived in Umeå around 07:00, calling first at the new Umeå Ostra (East) station and then the downtown Umeå Central. I alighted here and took a few photographs of the train in the pre-dawn light. The train would follow the old inland route to Boden and Luleå, about 350km to go, ending its journey in Luleå after midday.
There was a crew change at this point, with a new driver taking over (although I'd noticed that the bistro attendant was the same person on duty the evening before, so I presume the overnight closure of the bistro is to give him/her a statutory break).
Standing on the platform, I was further north than I had ever been before... although Narvik beckons for a future trip at 68º 26' N!
Umeå is a rapidly growing city of about 120,000 people, with lots of tech companies, a big Volvo plant and a growing university. A huge amount of infrastructural work has been undertaken in recent years. In addition to the new Bothnia Line and the new station at Umeå Ostra, in the city itself, there has been a dramatic remodelling of the public square in front of the station, with a light sculpture guiding pedestrians and cyclists beneath the road and tracks to the north side of the city.
What was remarkable about Umeå was the number of people cycling instead of driving - even in -10º C temperatures. The city clears bike paths as often as it clears roadways, and no-one thinks anything of moving about like this.
My hotel was a five-minute walk from the station. Sunrise was another hour away, but the city was coming to life, and commuters were beginning to populate the beautiful new bus interchange at Vasaplan, pictured above.
I had a couple of days of meetings and appointments, before flying home. It was possible to get a SAS (Star Alliance) ticket to interline with KLM (SkyTeam) so I wasn't able to mirror the train journey back, but I'm hoping to get another reason to visit Umeå soon...
I welcome questions and comments, and would definitely encourage anyone interested to consider a trip on the SJ night trains. The SJ website is superb, with clear booking info in English: https://sj.se/en/home.html
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