HomeAll PostsCamCabIs It A Tram OR Light Rail?

Is It A Tram OR Light Rail?

October 18, 2023 105Comments 0Likes

Helsinki Line 15 Opens On Saturday

The PR for the launch is impressive!

They call it a Carnival!

Half fare …

… a day of frolic and fun …

… with special information points at main stops.

That is what fbb calls a launch!

What is more remarkable is that this line does NOT serve the main areas of the city of Helsinki – it is an orbital route between busy suburbs.,

In the video that follows, your ride will start from Keilaniemi …

(map, lower left) and orbit the city area remaining in Zone B …
… until arriving at Itakescus (above map upper right).

From the above maps, you can see that there are connections with Helsinki’s Metro at both ends of the “Light Rail” and at Otaniemi. There are also links with suburban rail at three stations en route.

These are at Leppavarra, Huopalahti and Viikin Tiesespuisto.

And what is Raide-Jokeri as in the heading of the above map? fbb cannot tell you because he is parlously ignorant of the Finnish lingo AND Google Translate doesn’t translate; well, it offers “track joker”.

Before enjoying about 5 min of spectacular speeded up video, we can look at the two termini. Streetview is far from up-to-date, so pictures are not easy to interpret. At Keilaniemi we just have an aerial view …

… and a picture of the shiny new Metro station.
The video starts quite abruptly at the terminus stop.
At the other terminus we see, again, an aerial view, the tram/light rail stop and the metro.
The metro stop is underground …
… well hidden beneath a block of flats and the co-op!
Of course there is a substantial bus station!
This is how public transport should be.
Here is the video, obviously recorder before opening and under test – hence the lack of passengers.

Well; is it a tram or a light rail route? Is it really a “new mode of travel”?

fbb reckons it’s a tram ; but how different is it from “normal” Helsinki trams?  See tomorrow’s blog.
Possibly the view of Helsinkihat is most well known.

Helsinki Cathedral is the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki. The church was originally built from 1830 to 1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. It was also known as St Nicholas’s Church until the independence of Finland in 1917. It is a major landmark of the city, and possibly the most famous structure in Finland as a whole when viewed globally.

But not served by Tram/Light Rail 15.
Snippet
It look a bit like, after months (years?) of speculation …
… Deutsche Bahn is about to sell its Arriva business.
The reports are probably right as the Financial Times agrees …

… but seems to think that Arriva only has buses in London.

The feeling from the financial gurus is that this may take some time as Arriva needs to be unknitted from Deutsche Bahn and this process may be “complicated”.

Therefore yet another UK bus group is in the hands of an Investment Company – i.e. very much NOT in the hands of a transport group of any kind.

Customers and employees should be worried!

 Next Helsinki blog : Thursday 19th October 
Categories: CamCab

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