VR prices nearly killed me

[Dalmatinac]

did you check prices for flights to Tampere.
I'd purchased airplane tickets to Oulu and they were 100€ cheaper then train.
by airplane 1h, and with train 5-6 h.

[Alex.Sm]

The prices have been hiking day and night and nobody really cares? For a round trip to Helsinki from Tampere I paid freaking 80 euros today. Bus takes really long time or else they have decent price of roundtirp at 50 euros. For a half decent quality train (Inter City) with WiFi facility 80 euros is really really expensive. VR prices are really killers. I guess even the fuel cost for roundtrip wouldn't reach 40 euros for decent car.

prices are like this due to VR monopoly?

If I eat only frozen pizza from Lidl, bloody 80 euros would be the dinner for my whole month.

I never heard about a country that has more than one train company for public transport ... so yes VR has monopoly (at least in Finland). If train is too expensive and buss takes too long time why don't you buy a car? Ohh wait probably you will make another post crying about how expensive a car is (taxes, fuel, maintenance) ... what about building yourself a sledge and take some dogs to drag your ass around? In winter you put skates and in summer wheels ... and btw don't forget to pay the dog tax in Tampere is 34€/year and in Helsinki is 50€/year. But I guess if you have money to go shopping to other city or partying ... hei you can afford also the expenses for transport.

If I eat only frozen pizza from Lidl, bloody 80 euros would be the dinner for my whole month.

Then you will become fat and you will get your ass removed from any public transportation or they will charge you some extra fee ...

[Karhunkoski]

prices are like this due to VR monopoly?

Nope.

In truth, the real cost of your ticket is much higher. But VR is subsisided by government to get the ticket price down to the 80€ you're crying about.

[Alex.Sm]

The prices have been hiking day and night and nobody really cares? For a round trip to Helsinki from Tampere I paid freaking 80 euros today. Bus takes really long time or else they have decent price of roundtirp at 50 euros. For a half decent quality train (Inter City) with WiFi facility 80 euros is really really expensive. VR prices are really killers. I guess even the fuel cost for roundtrip wouldn't reach 40 euros for decent car.

prices are like this due to VR monopoly?

If I eat only frozen pizza from Lidl, bloody 80 euros would be the dinner for my whole month.

I know some finnish people that are coming to work to Helsinki from Tampere, Salo, Porvoo, Hämeenlinna and even from more far away ... and they come almost every day to work or at least few days a week. They come by train, buss, or own car and sometime they also take hotel room if they stay 2 days in a row ... and yes they don't complain about it because that's the situation they live wherever they live and their job is in Helsinki ... and that's it but you roger_roger took a leisure (probably) trip to Helsinki and start crying for 80€ ticket price ... do you really think is some kind of mistake? Will you like to travel for free? That's life my friend and this is Finland. I'm sure you haven't been forced to come here against your will so deal with it! Finns also pay same ticket fare and they don't complain!

[Pursuivant]

I never heard about a country that has more than one train company for public transport ...

Ever heard of the UK?

Though the same lament of price hikes is daily here as well.

[riku2]

For a round trip to Helsinki from Tampere I paid freaking 80 euros today. Bus takes really long time or else they have decent price of roundtirp at 50 euros.

Are you comparing like with like. Advance inter-city tickets helsinki-tampere by train are 18e return.

Buy changeable tickets at the last minute and you pay more, just like with airlines.
VR have moved from the "same price for every train and same price regardless of when you buy the ticket" system to the typical airline pricing model.
[/quote]

[riku2]

I never heard about a country that has more than one train company for public transport

As well as the UK (eg a choice of rail operators/routes for london-birmingham or london-edinburgh) also japan (in Tokyo suburbs often a choice of JR or private train companies. On the subway two networks run by two different operators and JR network as well). In france a sort of choice of operators (OuigoTGV services are web only sales through different branding to normal SNCF although actually run by SNCF so a kind of virtual operator). Also amsterdam - brussels has a choice of operators.

[AldenG]

Visit Alaska sometime.

You'll be so grateful to return to your low-price paradise.

[Honest]

I know some finnish people that are coming to work to Helsinki from Tampere, Salo, Porvoo, Hämeenlinna and even from more far away ... and they come almost every day to work or at least few days a week. They come by train, buss, or own car and sometime they also take hotel room if they stay 2 days in a row ... and yes they don't complain about it because that's the situation they live wherever they live and their job is in Helsinki ... and that's it but you roger_roger took a leisure (probably) trip

You are not right. Those people complain about headache of travelling but they don't complain about travel costs because they get their money back from their taxes. But on a leisure trip you have to pay from your pocket. Note the difference!!

[Bavarian]

Advance inter-city tickets helsinki-tampere by train are 18e return.

really? I could only see some 9 euros tickets for some special discount categories in VR site, may be you are calculating 18 e for roundtrip like that, but its not always, its just for some period.

For the record, after reading the original post last night, I went to VR and for the heck of it looked up round trip Helsinki-Tampere for some week day over a week out (I want to say 10 December, but I don't remember which day I picked) to see what the prices on the Ennakko class were. (That is the name of the cheapest regular tickets, all the way on the left, right?) They were in the 15-18 EUR range each way. I did see the announcement of some offer for €9 tickets, but I presumed they were limited in number/time you can use them.

[riku2]

I looked up round trip Helsinki-Tampere for some week day over a week out (I want to say 10 December, but I don't remember which day I picked) to see what the prices on the Ennakko class were. (That is the name of the cheapest regular tickets, all the way on the left, right?) They were in the 15-18 EUR range each way. I did see the announcement of some offer for €9 tickets, but I presumed they were limited in number/time you can use them.

Yes, the really cheap tickets are limited in number for each train and some trains never have any seats at the really cheap price no matter how far in advance you book (eg friday afternoon from Helsinki). This is called matching supply with demand and is the same thing that airlines do. If the friday afternoon trains will be full anyway then why sell any seats at a discount even 60 days out (the most in advance you can buy a cheap ticket). You will find those cheap 9e tickets to tampere if you look towards end of jan.

I don't see any problem with this kind of pricing or the pricing levels generally
a) why shouldn't those who plan ahead and who are happy to have non-changeable, non-refundable tickets pay less than those why buy a ticket 10min before the train leaves? And those making VR increase the length of the Friday afternoon trains (and so push up VR's costs) pay more than those travelling wednesday morning on the same route?
b) I don't think VR is making a profit and it does receive state subsidies. It's not as if they are foreign owned and "profits" from high ticket prices go abroad to some spanish holding company (owners of Heathrow airport please stand up).

I don't think on a per/km level that VR prices are that excessive. Some similar length journeys in europe with one way prices for tomorrow morning:

Munich-Nuremberg: 54e
Birmingham-London: 60e
Helsinki-Tampere: 32e
Paris-Le Mans: 40e

[misu]

If train is too expensive and buss takes too long time why don't you buy a car? Ohh wait probably you will make another post crying about how expensive a car is (taxes, fuel, maintenance) ... what about building yourself a sledge and take some dogs to drag your ass around?

No need to be such a dick, FFS. He's just venting and bringing up a topic of conversation. Some people here are way too eager to pounce on other people and accuse them of complaining/whining whenever they even bring up something for discussion. If you can't be empathetic or sympathetic to others, at least try to refrain from being a total dick to others for no reason, k?

[atas]

If train is too expensive and buss takes too long time why don't you buy a car? Ohh wait probably you will make another post crying about how expensive a car is (taxes, fuel, maintenance) ... what about building yourself a sledge and take some dogs to drag your ass around?

No need to be such a dick, FFS. He's just venting and bringing up a topic of conversation. Some people here are way too eager to pounce on other people and accuse them of complaining/whining whenever they even bring up something for discussion. If you can't be empathetic or sympathetic to others, at least try to refrain from being a total dick to others for no reason, k?

Seconded. The above immigrant maybe feels better integrated with Finnish society by picking on other fellow immigrants (look at his whole text to see what I mean...)

[Honest]

Public transport in most of the Western Europe is very expensive. When I look at prices, I doubt that governments have any interest in dealing with "climate change". All these green taxes seem to be a way of stealing our money. If a person owns a car it's way too cheap to use the car instead of sitting in an empty "subsidised" bus/train going from one city to another. It seems that they want that people use more and more cars and consume as much fuel as possible. If there are two or more pessengers in a car, intercity journeys can be 2-3 times cheaper than using a bus/train. Even for a single person it's cheaper to use a car than train or bus.

Please don't take offence when somebody complains about something. It's not any attack on Finland. People always talk about things which effect their lives.

[riku2]

in the UK each company has contracted specific destinations / stops, they cannot transport you anywhere you wish to go. Which means the competition is much more limited than you might think.

There is true competition on some UK routes, since there are two ways London-Birmingham for example (via Oxford or west coast main line). And since routes are awarded on a franchise basis then if the service is not good enough then come franchise renewal time there can be a change of operator. This keeps the operators on their toes somewhat and does mean some competition for tendering, something that does not apply to VR.

Probably what is stopping a completely free market approach to rail in finland is that the main lines (helsinki-turku and helsinki-tampere-oulu) subsidize all the other low traffic routes. These are probably the only two routes that commercial operators would be interested in, leaving the other lines to close (would need massive subsidies from someone). This pruning of the rail network to just two routes would in no way be acceptable to politicians, so it's almost certain that one operator for long distance traffic remains. Only perhaps helsinki - st petersburg and helsinki commuter rail could be separated from VR.