VR Class Sm3
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Sm3 ''Pendolino'' (originally branded as Pendolino S220, and usually referred to simply as the Pendolino) is a class of high-speed body-tilting trains operated by
VR Group VR-Group Plc (, ), commonly known as VR, is a government-owned railway company in Finland. VR's most important function is the operation of Finland's passenger rail services with 250 long-distance and 800 commuter rail services every day. With ...
. It is a member of the
Pendolino Pendolino (from Italian language, Italian "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of high-speed tilting trains (and non-tilting) used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, the Czech Republic, ...
train family; its design is based on the
ETR 460 The ETR 460 is an electric multiple unit (EMU) tilting train produced by FIAT Ferroviaria (now Alstom Ferroviaria) since 1993. It is also known as the Pendolino after the family of trains from which it comes. The ETR 460 is a development of th ...
. The first two trainsets were assembled in Finland by Rautaruukki- Transtech in the mid-1990s. The rest of the series of eighteen EMUs were built by Fiat Ferroviaria (later
Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...
) between 2000 and 2006. The trains serve most of Finland's major cities such as Helsinki, Turku, Oulu and Joensuu with a maximum speed of , although this speed is only attained between
Kerava Kerava (; ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Kerava is situated in the centre of the Uusimaa region. The population of Kerava is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality ...
and
Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...
. The train has a power output of and weighs . The Sm3 had a long prototype phase before the main series was ordered, with reliability issues being brought up by the press from time to time. Negative reporting continues to haunt the series' reputation. Reliability problems cannot be proven, as no statistics of specific train types are available. The train has not managed to cope with harsh Finnish weather conditions, and the time benefit of the tilting mechanism has not be taken into account since the timetables of winter 2011–2012. Nevertheless, the Sm3 has also received positive feedback from passengers and has led to increased operating speeds on the Finnish rail network.


History


1992: Ordering

VR announced its 2 billion
Finnish Mark The markka (; ; currency symbol, sign: mk; ISO 4217, ISO code: FIM), also known as the Finnish mark, was the currency of Finland from 1860 until 28 February 2002, when it ceased to be legal tender. The markka was divided into 100 penny, pennies ...
Pendolino order on 7 February 1992, consisting of two firm orders and twenty-three options. ABB's X 2000 and the Talgo Pendular were considered in addition to the Italian train; the latter was chosen due to its lower price (70 million FIM per unit) and because it was already running. Only these two tilting trains were considered due to the twisting nature Finland's railway network. Thanks to its tilting mechanism, the Pendolino – unlike such other European high-speed trains like the
TGV The TGV (; , , 'high-speed train') is France's intercity high-speed rail service. With commercial operating speeds of up to on the newer lines, the TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects such as the Ariane 1 rocke ...
,
Thalys Thalys (French: ) was a brand name used for high-speed rail, high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptba ...
, and
AVE is a Latin word, used by the Roman Empire, Romans as a salutation (greeting), salutation and greeting, meaning 'wikt:hail, hail'. It is the singular imperative mood, imperative form of the verb , which meant 'Well-being, to be well'; thus on ...
– does not need to run on specialised high-speed lines, which was important to VR; instead, it runs on existing lines, and was expected to surpass the speed attained by traditional trains by 35%. This has both beneficial and negative consequences. The trains cannot run at as high a speed as, for example, the TGV, due to the lines. However, the Pendolino can also run alongside normal non-tilting trains, allowing for greater use of the railway. Building trains that could ensure passenger comfort at high speed on these routes by tilting through the curves was seen as a much cheaper solution than reconstructing the railway network itself due to Finland's low population and long distances. The train was originally called the Sm200, but in May 1995 it was officially named Sm3 according to VR's nomenclature for multiple units. It was expected that the train would, as in Italy, run at a maximum speed of and significantly shorten the travel times between major cities. As an example, the 2-hour and 7-minute travel time between Helsinki and Turku was expected to drop to 1:28 by 2010; however, the top speed of the train was limited to and the advertised times were never achieved. As of July 2011, 1:44 is the fastest train link between the two cities (on the S126).


1993–1997: Testing the prototypes

A test carriage from an
ETR 460 The ETR 460 is an electric multiple unit (EMU) tilting train produced by FIAT Ferroviaria (now Alstom Ferroviaria) since 1993. It is also known as the Pendolino after the family of trains from which it comes. The ETR 460 is a development of th ...
arrived by boat into Finland from Italy in March 1993. It was used to test how the Pendolino would cope with Finland's winter and rail network by running it in Northern Karelia between Nurmes and Vieki. The carriage had to be fitted with new bogies over night at Hanko as it was designed for
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
instead of the broader Finnish gauge. Another carriage was built by Transtech according to the specifications of the new train (nomenclature KOEV from ''koevaunu'', test carriage). It was later included in the first completed unit as the fourth car, TT 7401. Before a full trainset was finished, some test runs were made with only the first three carriages of the train in late 1994. The first finished train was unveiled to the press on 14 October 1994, and the first two trainsets started their regular test traffic on 27 November 1995 between Helsinki and Turku on the coastal track. Test traffic was stopped only after three months, at the end of February 1996, due to technical difficulties with the trains. Testing later resumed, and VR announced in 1997 that it would start normal operations with the Pendolino despite electrical problems. The ability of the train to cope with the Finnish winter was put into question, but VR denied that coldness had been a factor in the electrical failures.


1997–2006: The main series

Testing ended in August 1997, after the two trainsets had covered a total of during 3,870 trips between Helsinki and Turku. Only six of three thousand journeys were terminated due to technical issues. VR's CEO Henri Kuitunen was positive about the new train in 1998, stating that passengers feel it has been a good purchase. Passenger numbers rose by 17% between Helsinki and Turku in 1997. Eight additional Pendolinos were ordered at the end 1997 at the price of FIM 77 million per train (€13 million). They were delivered between 2000 and 2002. The main series trains differed in various ways from the prototypes. The new trains allowed Pendolino traffic to extend: they started running between Helsinki and Jyväskylä on 22 October 2001. In June 2002, the network was expanded further, and routes were continued from Tampere onwards to Oulu and from Jyväskylä to Kuopio. One of the main series trains (number 7x08) was damaged during maritime transport in October 2001. The badly secured train had come loose during a storm on the Atlantic, almost causing the loss of M/S ''Traden'', the ship carrying it. Thanks to good actions of the ship's crew, it was able to reach Le Havre and the train was sent back to Italy to be repaired. Not all passengers were happy with the new train. In 2005, a delegation of commuters between Helsinki and Tampere collected criticism from fellow passengers on the Internet and delivered it to VR's head of passenger transport Antti Jaatinen. The delegation's leader, Kaj-Erik Fohlin, had made 30 trips between the two cities in January 2005 using the Pendolino, 12 of which had been on schedule. The last eight trains were ordered in 2002 and delivered in 2004–2006, finalising the fleet of 18 trains. At that point it had become clear that the speed limits on the rail network were mostly too low for the trains to run at their maximum operating speed, even though they were chosen specifically to prevent the costly work of straightening existing lines. Work on lines has continued, and, on modernised lines, the speed difference between the Pendolino and non-tilting trains has become minimal. The Sm3 was able to attain its maximum operating speed in regular traffic only in 2006, when a new rail line was opened between
Kerava Kerava (; ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Kerava is situated in the centre of the Uusimaa region. The population of Kerava is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality ...
and
Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...
and the full Pendolino fleet was available.


2006 onwards: The New Train Era

VR advertised the arrival of the full Pendolino fleet with the slogan "New Train Era" (Finnish: ''Uusi juna-aika''). It started on 3 September 2006, when the line between Kerava and Lahti was officially opened and timetables changed to take the full potential of the Sm3 into account. Travel times between Helsinki and eastern Finland were cut by up to an hour. The Pendolino has received bad publicity since the first units were taken in service for its serious reliability issues, mostly caused by technical problems with the tilting system and the couplers. The coupling problems grew particularly important with the expansion of the Pendolino network in 2006, requiring rapid on-the-fly coupling of two trains at intersection stations. Because the units often could not be coupled the train units had to be run as two separate trains running one after another. This consumed one extra train slot on the heavily used rail sections causing cascading timetable delays. Sometimes two trains would not separate after coupling them, caused by moisture in the couplers. Due to the problems VR ended the practice of coupling Pendolino trains on-the-fly at the two intersection stations; in Tampere in late 2007 and in Kouvola during autumn 2008. VR has given mixed statements about the fault-sensitivity of the train. Pentti Kuokkanen, project coordinator of VR Engineering downplayed the problems when questioned about the reliability of another Fiat Ferroviaria multiple unit, the Sm4, in 1999. According to him, the Pendolino had been VR's most reliable passenger train during winter 1998–1999. In 2006, VR's CEO Henri Kuitunen affirmed that the Pendolino was causing serious image problems to VR Group. In 2010, the company's head of traffic control Mauno Haapala stated that the Sm3 was not more fault-sensitive than their other trains. However during winter 2011, VR Group's head of service and production department Pertti Saarela gave a totally different answer, saying that Pendolinos are more prone to failures especially during winter. It is impossible to know if the train has more problems than VR's other rolling stock, as the company does not give out punctuality statistics for specific train types. In the 2010s, the novelty of the Pendolino has worn off and VR has even used the train in regional traffic between
Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...
and
Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland (Finland), Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately , while the Rovaniemi su ...
due to rail works in summer 2011. The problematic tilting mechanism was not used during winter 2010–2011 and the time benefit of the tilting was not taken into account in timetables of winter 2011–2012. On 19 August 2011, VR announced it would start a refurbishment of all its Sm3 units to improve the operating conditions during winter. The work will be done between 2012 and 2014 and will cost 10 million Euros. Alstom will cover half of the expenses. The problematic couplers will be changed to allow trains to be coupled on-the-fly again at intermediate stations. Heaters will be installed in the trains' undercarriages to prevent the formation of ice during the winter. In addition to these modifications, the tilt angle of the bogies will be lowered from the current eight degrees. The operating speed of the train will remain the same. , new couplers have been installed in at least Sm3 units 7x12 and 7x18. VR has been experiencing high maintenance costs and a low availability of the tilting system in its daily operations with the original Italian-designed tilting hydraulics. The original solution is based on analog hydraulics with many servo valves, which the extreme temperature differences and contamination of hydraulic oil have made very failure-prone. VR contracted Finnish scientists of Tampere University of Technology to demonstrate the feasibility of a conversion of the tilting technology using digital hydraulic technology developed at the university. Digital hydraulics replace conventional continuously adjustable servo valves with a number of smaller intelligently controlled on/off valves. The result of the study was a retrofit kit for the conversion of all Pendolinos with a plug-and-play solution that fits seamlessly into the mechanical, hydraulic and electrical interfaces of present VR Pendolinos. The kit is provided by Rexroth. Two carriages were fitted with the new system in 2012. During two years of tests in Pendolino trains in normal use there was no single failure of the system. VR has decided to retrofit the entire Pendolino fleet with digital hydraulics. Pendolino traffic on the coastal line ended in December 2012. The two remaining services were replaced with InterCity trains, which run at similar speeds.


Technical information

With its eight asynchronous three-phase AC motors delivering to move its weight of , the Sm3 does not accelerate particularly fast, reaching from a standstill only after 3 minutes and 13 seconds and a distance of . The tilting mechanism lets the body tilt up to 8° at speeds of over , which helps to lessen the G-forces in the corners and allows the train to achieve its maximum speed of . According to VR, the tilting system enables a 30 to 40% higher speed compared to traditional trains. The highest speed ever reached by the class has been during testing. Each train consists of six cars, from front to back: IM, CM, TTC, TT, CM and IM. The IM class carriages at each end of the train are powered and fitted with a driver's compartment. The CM class is a powered passenger car. Class TTC is unpowered, it is equipped with a
pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...
and a restaurant. The TT class is an unpowered passenger car which has also a pantograph on its roof. Each of the powered carriages is fitted with one motor on each of the two bogies. If needed, two trains can be coupled together. The prototype and series trains have various differences. The number of seats was increased from 264 to 309 by changing the seat configuration in second class from 2+1 to 2+2. The information screens on the outside of the carriages were moved from the center of the carriages to next to the doors. There are also differences with the light switch logic, which often leads to the trains running with both front and tail lights on at the same end. The prototypes differed also originally by their restaurant car and Extra class features. They were modified in the mid-2000s to be similar to the series trains. The doors of the two prototype trains were changed in 1999 as they were not working properly. VR does the maintenance work of the trains itself, getting expert advice from Alstom as needed. The work is done in Helsinki and Turku.


Services

The Pendolino is designed as a premium facility train. The seats are fitted with audio sockets for radio and music channels; however the radio service was dropped in 2010 due to low usage. All seats have electricity sockets for laptops and mobile phones. All Sm3 trains offer a free onboard
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
Internet access since 2010. The passenger information monitors over the aisle in the carriages show a clock and the train's current speed in addition to VR's marketing material and station information. They are also used to convey passenger information for the deaf. The train is accessible for wheelchairs, contains pet spaces and seats for allergic passengers. The train has an onboard bistro, named ''RavintoLAvaunu''. It has a Nordic theme and serves traditional Finnish foods and snacks. First class passengers have access to a self-service counter with coffee, tea and the day's newspapers. Each train has also a closed-off conference compartment for business groups.


Routes

The trains are distinguished in Finnish railway timetables by the letter S. The Pendolino network radiates out from the capital
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
. Five main routes serve most of Finland's big cities: ;Regular service * Helsinki–
Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...
(–
Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland (Finland), Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately , while the Rovaniemi su ...
) * Helsinki–
Vaasa Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately , while the Jyväskylä sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately ...
-Pieksämäki * Helsinki–
Kouvola Kouvola () is a city in Finland and the administrative capital of Kymenlaakso. It is located in the southeastern interior of the country. The population of Kouvola is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland, and the 17th m ...
–
Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...
–
Kajaani Kajaani (; ), is a town in Finland and the regional capital of Kainuu. Kajaani is located southeast of Oulujärvi, Lake Oulu, which drains into the Gulf of Bothnia through the Oulujoki, Oulu River. The population of Kajaani is approximately , w ...
–
Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...
* Helsinki–
Joensuu Joensuu (; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Karelia. It is located in the eastern interior of the country and in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Joensuu is approximately , while the sub-region has a population ...
* Helsinki–Turku The newest service between Helsinki and
Vaasa Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...
and
Luumäki Luumäki () is a municipality of Finland. Its seat is in the Taavetti village. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the South Karelia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which ...
as lines are being upgraded. Only the line between Kerava and Lahti permits operation at the maximum speed of .


Livery

At least two livery variants were tested on scale models, which were later exposed at VR's conference centre at
Helsinki central railway station Helsinki Central Station (, ) (List of IATA-indexed railway stations, HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. About 200,000 people "pass through the station" every day, half of whom ar ...
: one has a red strip for the whole length of the train, with the window backgrounds painted grey. The other is more similar to the final result, but the front of the train includes more red and no grey paint at all. VR finally settled to a combination of both of them, which bore resemblance to the company's
InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...
livery. The bottom of the carriages is dark grey, with a red stripe distinguishing it from the white base colour. The top of the carriages is painted grey. Red colouring at the end of each car forms red
parallelogram In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple polygon, simple (non-list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of Parallel (geometry), parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram a ...
s when the carriages are combined. When asked why the trains were not blue and white, VR's CEO answered that red and white fits the train and its design the best. The trains were originally marked with only a V instead of the full VR logo to symbolise the company's high speed transport. The same logo was also used on the Sr2 locomotive. The text "Pendolino S220" was written on the units according to the train's original branding. On later units, VR's logo was fully painted (the same happened with the Sr2) and "S220" dropped. Since 2009, VR has been repainting its fleet in new colours according to its changed visual identity. Green colour has replaced red, and each car now has two green parallelograms instead of one larger figure between carriages. Artwork showcasing Finnish nature decorates them. , Sm3 units 7x01 to 7x04, 7x06 to 7x10 and 7x12 have been repainted in the new livery.


Incidents and accidents

On 9 January 2003 an improperly locked door came loose in a high-speed tunnel at Perniö. No-one was injured in the accident. The settings of all Sm3 doors were checked by the operator in the following days. A Sm3 derailed near Karjaa on 25 July 2003 due to a defect in a turnout. The train derailed at a low speed after mechanics turned the turnout blades manually into the correct position, but forgot to check the turnout frog, which was set to a diverging track. The first three carriages of the train derailed completely, in addition to the first bogie of the fourth car. In December 2021 two Sm3 units crashed on low speed near Tampere station. No one was hurt, but both of the trains were severely damaged.


Sm6 ''Allegro''

In December 2010,
Karelian Trains Oy Karelian Trains Ltd was a joint venture agreed on 23 November 2006 between Russian Railways (RZhD) and VR Group (Finnish Railways) to facilitate the operation of international express passenger rail services between Helsinki, Finland, and Saint ...
, a joint venture by VR and RZhD, started a new service linking
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
to St. Petersburg,
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
using a new model of the Pendolino called the Sm6 ''Allegro''. The Sm6 is technically based on the New Pendolino, but its looks are similar to the Sm3. The most significant difference is that an Sm6 unit is composed of seven carriages. The train is capable of dual-voltage running due to differences between the electric systems of the Finnish and Russian rail network and is equipped with four pantographs. The Sm6 is reserved for international passengers and therefore cannot be used to travel inside of Finland. There are four trains per day in each direction. The service has been suspended since 27 March 2022 due to the international sanctions, and in its half-year report VR Group announced that it wrote off all Allegro rolling stock and spare parts.


See also

* List of high speed trains *
High-speed rail in Europe High-speed rail (HSR) has developed in Europe as an increasingly popular and efficient means of transport. The first high-speed rail lines on the continent, built in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, improved travel times on intra-national corridor ...
* Sm6 ''Allegro''


References

;Notes ;Footnotes ;Bibliography *


External links

*
VR introduction page for the Sm3 Pendolino

Pictures of the train at Vaunut.org

VR Sm3 map and pictures at Trainspo.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vr Class Sm3 High-speed trains of Finland Pendolino Multiple units of Finland Passenger trains running at least at 200 km/h in commercial operations Fiat Ferroviaria 25 kV AC multiple units Train-related introductions in 1995 sv:Sm3