HS asked people who travel a lot by train about their experiences with VR online. Some passengers sometimes choose a bus because, according to them, the internet works better there.
“Does it work it anywhere? asks one of the commenters when Helsingin sanomat newspaper asked people’s experiences about the functionality of the VR internet in the Facebook group of people who travel a lot by train.
According to the members of the group “Travelers along the ground”, both wifi and mobile data work very poorly on trains almost everywhere in Finland. For example, on the train from Helsinki to Joensuu, you may not be able to access the internet at all, according to commentators. There is no trust in the connections even on the main line from Helsinki to Tampere.
Helsinki Aino Juhola often travels with his family to relatives in Salo and Turku. His 11-year-old child would like to play on the road and watch videos on his cell phone.
“He is really nervous about the train network. Sometimes we take the bus because then we know that Mobiilidata is working and there will be no interruptions.”
According to Juhola’s experience, it has been possible to use one’s own mobile data for remote working on the train, but wifi practically never works.
For a Helsinki resident For Matti Vahtera the online conditions of the train became familiar this spring, when he traveled almost weekly for work from Helsinki to Oulu and from there to Kemi.
Vahtera traveled by train both in normal class, extra class and on the upper floor of the restaurant car.
According to his experience, wifi only seems to work between Helsinki and Tampere. Or, according to him, it doesn’t work well there either, but somehow. In the meantime, he has also used his phone’s 5G, which has worked.
The problems start from Tampere upwards.
“It’s getting so choppy that it would almost be better to turn it off completely. A bad internet connection is worse than no internet connection at all. Infuriating.”
According to Vahtera, VR’s wifi from Tampere to Oulu works mostly near the stations. The mobile data of the phone also freezes, but it still works somewhat.
“Senseless. You could imagine that the train’s internet would be more reliable,” he says.
VR advertises the extra class as being more spacious and quieter and therefore well suited for working. However, it can be difficult to do remote work if the internet is not working.
“You could imagine that the advantage in the extra class is that only half a million people use the internet. However, it is just as unreliable,” says Vahtera.
Vahtera says that in the end he got so tired of the internet that he didn’t even try to have video meetings on the train, but settled for regular phone calls. He describes VR’s online conditions as having stagnated somewhere in the early 2010s.
Instead from Jyväskylä Katja in Kaunismäki have positive experiences with the train’s internet. He travels four times a month by train from Jyväskylä via Tampere to the office in Hämeenlinna.
Kaunismäki is also studying remotely for an upper university of applied sciences degree and has participated in Teams and Zoom video meetings from train journeys. When he has known that he needs the Internet, he has reserved a seat in the extra class or on the upper floor of the restaurant car.
“For some reason, they are reliable. I went to the extra class for comfort reasons and realized that you can do anything here, the internet will not be interrupted. I didn’t know it made such a big difference where you sit.”
Kaunismäki says that he even watched movies from streaming services on the train.
From Kuopio The wind from Miinalinen according to experience, the internet has worked surprisingly well on the train journey from Kuopio to Kajaani. On the other hand, the situation from Kuopio to Helsinki has not been good. Miinalainen says that remote working on the route from Kuopio to Helsinki is unimaginable.
“In a normal eco class, it’s really slow,” he says.
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