“to rest of Europe” or “to European rail network”(?) might be more accurate?
Actually the rails aren’t directly linked, as our Finnish cars apparently still use some old Russian standard, so you’re gonna have to change trains on the land border of Finland and Sweden, in Haaparanta (swe Haparanda).
So idk, which is more accurate with that in mind?
What I wish for is a that it’d be possible to have a train from Turku to Stockholm. But that’s a bit of a way to build a tunnel or a bridge.
“As far as I can tell Kolari to Lagos, Portugal, is the longest journey you can take on multiple trains within the EU,”
5000km in a week probably. Does Portugal even have high-speed rail? And if it did, I’d be surprised if they had one in Lagos.
Meanwhile, Ranne has backed a long-range plan to build a parallel European-gauge track alongside the existing Finnish tracks from Haparanda to Kemi and perhaps eventually Oulu.
That’s great! Eventually getting rid of Russian gauge will be good for Finland. If they are ever successfully invaded, it won’t be easy to transport everything by rail through the country.
Finland and Russia already use different rail gauge, because Finland still uses the older Russian (Empire) gauge and Russia uses “Soviet” gauge. Its only a 4 mm difference but still any trains that would have to run both gauges have to be designed for both, which most of russian trains are not.
Also the electrical system is completely different
IIRC Portugal isn’t even well connected to Spain by train. I think there’s a twice a day connection between Porto and Vigo in the north. Not sure about the southern part.
I think it’s twice per day between Entroncamento and Badajoz too, not sure if there are other cross border connections. But maybe they’ll finish the direct connection between Lisbon and Madrid some day! 🤞
Hopefully the Iran war takes longer and pushes the governments to invest in rail and public transport.
