Train service | The train on its way from Helsinki to Kajaani broke down in Kouvola, resulting in a hotel night for dozens of passengers

Wednesday night the journey of dozens of train passengers from Helsinki to the north froze in Kouvola due to the breakdown of the train. The Pakkasilla train journey was replaced by a hotel night in Kouvola.

One of the passengers on the train was from Mikkeli Simo Salowho had set off from Helsinki's Pasila and was on his way home to Mikkeli.

According to its schedule, the train that left Helsinki at 19:19 should have arrived in Kouvola at 20:41. According to Salo, the train arrived in Kouvola more than half an hour late, i.e. well after nine o'clock.

In Kouvola, passengers were told that the train could not continue its journey due to a fault in the locomotive. The passengers waited in the train, the doors of which remained closed.

“It [vika] seemed like the toilets didn't work either. You couldn't cook food in the train's kitchen, you couldn't even boil water. Phone and laptop chargers did not receive power. And soon the lights went out in one of the carriages so that there was a dim emergency light,” says Salo.

Salo estimated that the passengers waited on the train at the station for maybe an hour, but the time seemed long.

“The temperature of the wagon noticeably dropped,” he says.

Finally, the waiting area of ​​Kouvola station was opened for passengers. People got there to warm up and use the bathroom.

“Finally, the conductor came there to announce that the VR line is open to the hotel next door,” says Salo.

of VR communications manager Mira Linnamaa confirms that the locomotive of the Pendolino 73 train on its way from Helsinki to Kajaani broke down in Kouvola on Wednesday.

According to Linnamaa, an attempt was made to arrange replacement bus transport for the passengers, but there were not enough buses available late Wednesday evening. Tens of train passengers were eventually directed to spend the night at the Scandic hotel located next to Kouvola station.

“When it seemed that the bus transportation couldn't be arranged quickly, and it was already a little late, it was decided that it would be better to move them to the hotel at VR's expense,” says Linnamaa.

“Late in the evening, however, we were able to arrange one bus, on which some of the passengers wanted to continue their journey.”

Linnamaa cannot say how many passengers stayed overnight in Kouvola and how many continued their journey by bus at night. According to him, there were a couple of hundred passengers on the train, some of whom had missed Kouvola and before that.

Simo According to Salo, about 80 passengers transferred to the hotel.

“There were quite a lot of people there in the small respa of Scandic in Kouvola. That crowd was arranged so that families with children and groups of schoolchildren got the room first,” he says.

According to Salo, there was only one clerk at the hotel reception at the time, who checked in passengers.

“One clerk handled it with a smile and calmly.”

According to Salo, the atmosphere remained calm among the passengers as well.

“Everyone was patient. No one shouted, not even in the hotel, where the situation was quite demanding. A couple of kids were crying. However, no one started shouting.”

Salo says that he got to the hotel room around two thirty in the morning. He says that he heard from the hotel's reception in the morning that it took more than two hours to register passengers at the hotel at night.

of VR According to communications manager Mira Linnamaa, the replacement bus that left for the north at night was able to leave Kouvola after midnight. The bus had arrived in Kuopio around six on Thursday morning.

For passengers who stayed at the hotel, VR offered the opportunity to travel on the Thursday morning train.

Simo Salo continued his journey home on Thursday afternoon, because his spouse had reserved a train ticket for him on the train leaving at one o'clock.