Catching a train to the RUSSIAN BORDER in 2023... (Is it safe!?)
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2023
- Time to take a train ride to the Russian border with Elron, the Estonian national railway company. I'm riding one of their Stadler FLIRT units in First Class, through this amazing country on a winter's day.
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Journey Details:
Origin: Balti Jaam (Tallinn)
Destination: Narva
Company: Elron
Train: EE 2300 'Stadler FLIRT'
Accommodation: First Class Seat (1st)
Distance: 209 kilometres / 130 miles
Price: €14.96 (£12.60 / $16.80)
Time: 2h20m, 1 minute early
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What funny names for stations have you seen? 💬👇
Theres a place called Ars in France. Not sure if it had a station but worth a mention anyway. I can now say "France has a nice Ars". And it was as well 😂
I have never been to Japan, but I know the Shitte (尻手) station.
In Sweden, terminus is called "slutstation".
Raasiku)
is it possible in korea😶
The inner-child in me smirked so hard when I saw Püssi come up on screen 🤣
as always? :D
that was cheeky
Hehe... You saw Pussi COME up on screen...
😂
Fun fact - there's an estonian city, not far from this route actually, called "Kunda", which in Czech means roughly the same as what "Püssi" means in English.
The USA needs more trains like these. The last photo of the train framed by falling snow is magical.
It’s a very popular build in the USSR steam locomotive. And what is more interesting - still freight is being exported from Russia…
I was laughing when author called the situation as ‘Putin regime’, he should have read data about off-sore assets of even russian governors and their Miami and their etc holdings. No one normal wants that war and such decisions. We are people and feel sorrow, grief and pain for that happened , but money made such impossible things happen, too many greediness
@@olegdc40 all of us Russians want war to end as soon as possible, but majority still support continuation of it, if it's necessary for victory
@@mrobocop1666 you can always go to the frontline and help your regime end this war faster, why don't you?
@@osasunaitor modern industrial war is very complex and requires much more people in economy and researches than it was in WWII or even earlier. We develop and produce all the stuff by our own, unlike Ukraine.
It's Ukraine which supplied by everything and pays for it by a lot of blood and country's destruction, absence of future even if they aren't conquered (since most of economy will be destroyed, young working-age population fled or died/disabled in battles) so Zelenski can throw it's entire grown man population to death/handicapping, since 40 countries give them enormous credits (which never be paid back with destroyed economy and demography, heavy debt payments will also stop Ukraine's development for generations), NATO supply them rusty weapons which they gladly ready to dump to Ukraine and rearm their own armies to newer ones
@@mrobocop1666 blablabla [yawn] too many words to say that you are Putin bootlicker, come back when you have something interesting to say
The power pack being separate from the trains ensures good passenger comfort with less vibrations and noise reaching the passengers. I gotta say it's my favourite feature about these trains.
And also that you can build diesel-electric on same production line or retrofit existing trains.
Serbian Railway bought many Stadler Flirt for electrified lines, but they are electric only. And Russian Diesel Hydraulic for non electrified lines.
Problem is, that there are many lines that are electrified partially, but given current situation, they have to run on diesel on whole journey. For example, line Belgrade - Pančevo - Vršac (- Timisoara, Romania) is electrified from Belgrade to Pančevo and section in Belgrade uses commuter rail tunnels, where 2 stations are under ground. And Belgrade Centar station is underground, so you have Diesel idle while passenger get on board.
Seems to be a Stadler feature like the UK Class 755/756 trains.
a Stadler specialty
The speeds on the line have been increased since your visit. Between Tapa and Narva the maximum speed on large parts of the route has been raised ot 135 km/h. Tallinn-Tapa-Tartu route will be electrified by 2025 and Tapa-Narva by 2027. New trains will also be introduced made by Škoda, specifially designed for express services and will provide extra comfort as well as vending machines.
When the new trains were introduced in 2013 and 2014 the dwingling numbers of rail passengers skyrocketed and are now twice as high as they were before the arrival of the new trains.
By the way, I must say your pronounciation of the local names was very good!
You 100% need to travel in standard (not premium) Russian sleeper train. Best way - from Saint Petersburg to Moscow on a double decker train. It coust only about 25$, but very comfortable.
Premium variant cost about 50$
Luxury - 500$ for 2 person, you room have private shower!
I took a sleeper train from Talinn to St. Petersburg 20 years ago. We were woken up in the middle of the night for passport and customs checks. Us foreigners were asked to say some of the bags were ours, so the customs people didn't check what was being smuggled.
Once i took a train from Moscow to Kaliningrad, it takes about 20 hours, and guess what? Three country borders, with passport checks on each! All checks are happening in the middle of the night, so don't expect sleeping well there :D
I really love the design of the canopies and the lamp posts. Really something unique and beautiful. Classic scandinavian design. What an interresting video.
Stadler is a Swiss company and they also design the interiors on order.
They might look nice, but most people here don't actually like them as the protection from the elements is... A bit lacking 😅
@@greendude96 Oh, Yeah, I see.
Maybee they should have gotten to a compromise. You can certainly design beautiful canopies that still protect you from the weather. Or a small glass cabin with doors at the platform, so you are protected from the elements.
May I say as a recent subscriber to your channel that I love your voice with its clear and accurate enunciation as well as the warm cadences. Your obvious interest in, and communication of, geography, landscapes, scenery, history, art and architecture is charming, informing and absorbing without in any way detracting from the central topic...the train. Keep up the good work while i do my best to catch up! 🥰
Fabulous video. Very informative and thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
Awesome trip idea! Thanks for sharing :)
I took this train to Tartu and Valka while doing a border run from Russia. Really lovely.
Narva was lovely as well!
Hi, very nice and informative video :D! Btw, I have a recommendation for where you should travel next! I think you should travel to Bergen in Norway from Oslo. There are very beautiful views with many hills, water and trees. I would recommend traveling to Bergen while it’s bright outside so that you can enjoy the views, and I think there is WiFi on board as well with a restaurant (it was on the train I took). Anyways, Great video :)
You also passed "Lilleküla" station on the way between Balti Jaam and Kitseküla. It literally means "flower village", although the surroundings of the railway station mostly consist of a big parking lot of a shopping center. Once I was on a bus driving through Lilleküla and some childrens were upset about the fact that they didn't see any flowers.
By the way, to save some money in the project to literally renovate every single meter of the country's rail network, some rural station were only rebuilt with a very short platform. At these platforms, it's always the door next to the wheelchair & bike area which opens.
He only passes Lilleküla on a bypass track and not on one of the commuter trains that stop.
@@timectrl The lines going to Tartu and Valga also stop there, so it's a bit weird that Narva trains don't
Kudos for the (handcrafted?) subtitles, they match your production quality perfectly👏🏻
Thank you! They come directly from my written script, more accurate than automatic ones. :)
Interestig video. I have never seen this part of the world before. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very good videos you make thank you enjoyed
Thanks! 😁
I laughed at your little comment about Pussi. Interesting video as well.
Ammmmmazing trip report! Loved it :)
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
So weird to see a Russian TEP70 right beside an American diesel locomotive... worlds collide! Very cool video, I really enjoy the minor graphics for station names and line diagrams.
Excellent report! 👍
Thank you so much 😀
Thank you for this Video... It was a little throwback to my own trip with ELRON to Narva last summer! I found the trains clean and pleasant. Better than here in Germany. It's a pity that the old trains were no longer in service, I would have liked to try them too.
find those old trains in Latvia. One of them even goes to the Estonian town of Valga so you can connect there.
Great video as always👌maybe you could try the Thalys next time? Would be pretty interesting I think. Anyway keep up the good work💪
Remember taking one of these trains to Tartu in 2015.
Great trains and very modern
Yes, I agree!
I love ELRON 🥰 I traveled on my vacation in Estonia with it and the next time with my journey to Russia. I always enjoyed it 👍🏻
This is a fun day trip. Did it last month while visiting Tallinn. That BK is pretty good too as it's one of few places with free drink refills.
Too bad it doesn't open until 11! 😅
@@SuperalbsTravels true! When I got back that evening from Narva I had dinner there!
@@roaddogg800 Oh perfect, I should have done that myself! :)
I am delightfully surprised by the seeming quality of these Estonian trains and infrastructure.. I never really seen any of Estonia’s train world before, but with it being another ex soviet country my expectations were quite low. It’s nice to see good investment in the railroads, which can help a lot. Nice video
The EU membership has brought development to the Baltic states.
The network is gradually being upgraded to 160 km/h. The Tallinn-Tartu mainline will be fully electrified by 2026, Tallinn-Narva by 2028. 16 new Škoda EMUs will arrive in 2024-2025. There are also plans to use the under-construction Rail Baltic tracks also for local traffic, but that will mean new trains again, since it is European gauge.
Estonia is very modern and technologically advanced. These trains are not super special (they look like the ones we have in the Finnish capital region commuter lines, though those have a different interior and more…commuter-y seating) but otherwise Estonia is heads above many Western European countries when it comes to e-services. They’ve got e-citizenship, electric voting, Starship (the delivery robots) is Estonian as is (partially) Skype. You never need cash anywhere - you don’t in Finland either but I know in places like Germany or the US you still do.
Great video 📸
Thanks for the showcase! The train network here in Estonia isn't very large, but I must say it's pretty modern with step-free access and the trains. And yes, we used to have a straight train connection from Tallinn to Russia, but it was closed when the pandemic happened
Yeah, only a few international trains to Latvia now. :(
@@SuperalbsTravels There are no international trains to Latvia. Estonian trains stop at Valga, Estonia, where you have change over to a Latvian train.
@@henrikmanitski1061 Valga, Estonia to Riga you say? ;)
That rai-car was really something else indeed 🤭
Very informative video. What did you do once you got to Narva? You should definitely make videos about the destinations (and their stations!) as you're a very engaging presenter :)
Thank you! I had a quick look around, but had to go back to Helsinki the same evening.
Interesting video. I had no idea the Estonian freight locomotives were in fact second hand American ones. And the train service looks really good. Surprisingly comparable in terms of the train to whats seen on provincial regional services in Denmark by the likes of Arriva and Nordjyske Jernbaner, who have similar trains with similar comfort levels on similarly long journeys. Though some of the Danish trains, especially Arriva in central Jutland, are much more expensive than Elron on routes like Aarhus to Skjern (I mean 215kr c'mon). Nordjyskes main corridor from Aalborg to Skagen is however very similar in both comfort, price, speed, and travel time to Elrons service (like 100kr thats more like it).
Dr Dewot
Estonia should import brand new Indian diesel locos instead of second hand US engines , I think at a cheaper price also and causing less pollution.
@@sureshbhatia9408 Any NEW locos that Estonia will acquire in the future will be electric. Also, old American diesel locos are being modernised, with only the undercarriage remaining of the original.
Those ex-Union Pacific locomotives in Estonia are the General Electric C36-7 design. As for these Stadler Flirts, the power pack set-up reminds me of their UK counterparts (Classes 231 and 755, of course).
They are now entering service in Wales as the class 231
GE C36-7i *
Flirt DMUs (British Class 231 stock) was specially developed by Stadler to meet the train order Estonia placed back in 2009.
I stayed in that hotel in April 2022. Nice it is too…
How many takes did you have to do for the Pussi joke until you could say it with a straight face? lol. Nice video. Impressive that they're step-free already, although probably easier when you only have 8 lines in your entire country. Stadler steadily taking over the world I see!
I'm from Russia. I'm looking forward to the normalization of relations between Russia, Finland and the Baltic states, so that all routes (from Moscow and Saint Petersburg) become active again. Btw, the train is very similar to the Russian "Swallow"
Elron is not similiar to Lastochka(Swallow)
@@SuperKillburn why u so angry? what I was doing to u and ur country?
Чувак, зникни кудись!
@@user-fq8sj8pl1l where did u see i'm angry lol?
@@jetblack044 did you say it to me?
That train is looking good
i took the train to Chop (UA) from Cierna nad Tisou (SK) a week ago and its pretty safe if you ask me, i got arrested when exiting the train and carried to an interrogation room because of accidentally filming military/police personell so i dont reccomend recording everything. but for the rest visiting Ukraine was lovely and im visiting this 25th of february again
Stadler Trains are always amazing
The best bit is the low-floor! 😃
This does me thinking at the "GTW" driving on regional lines in The Netherlands.
Hi, nice video, I'm going to Narva next friday and I was planning to do it by train. Did you buy the ticket at the station? How much for the return in second class? Thank you.
There's a ticket office at the station, but I bought online.
Website is www.elron.ee, and should have details on prices. Hope this helps!
Stadler FLIRT, amazing!
That's right!
Makes me proud to see native brands at our Baltic friends. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪❤️🇪🇪
Hahaha. Thank you.
Stadler is swiss tho
@@paul_ko It has factorys all over the world including poland, germany, usa etc. Its a swissed based company thats it, the product it self is international.
@@enterIT-xl8cc it's still a swiss company, like how siemens is german even though they manufacture in china
@@paul_ko Previously almost got Stadler confused with the pencil-making company
Excellent video, and if you are wondering what it's the British version of the train is, they are class 755 Greater Anglia GEML routes Wales Class 231. The American locomotives you see are GE C36-7 or C30-7s with US signals replaced by former Soviet Union ASLN Klub-U. Regarding the Russian 2TE116 locomotive, it's also operated in Ukraine with them using KFA Wagons to carry Challenger 2 tanks to the Eastern Region from Poland and Slovakia. 2TE116 is also related to the German Deutsche Bahn Baureihe 232 Deutsche Reichsbahn Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (German Democratic Republic) Baureihe 132 TE109 2TE109 due to them being made in the same Ukrainian factory.
Thanks for the information! :)
C30-7s have not been running for more than a decade. The are being modernised to C30M, basically into a whole new loco.
@henrikmanitski1061 thank you for telling me about that because they are still being used here where I am in the United States by Short line railways or Class 1 Railways inside a Marshalling yard.
I took a train from that station to St. Petersburg in the summer of 2016. The border crossing was very time consuming BTW. Taking the bus into or from Russia is quicker through passport control.
Enoyed the video and agree that Elron is a very pleasant way to travel. Püssi btw is a derivative of the Estonian word for gun or rifle. I wonder if you saw the sign at Balti Jaam for "Rong Info"....rong being the word for train...but still funny all the same.
10:56 - quite interesting vehicle!
I took this train today. The same oil train was there, minus the locomotive
Great trip. Nice train by the way, and the town at 9:33 is very unique. I think only in Estonia where US Locomotive can meet with Russian Locomotive. Bit curious about the progress of Rail Baltica project, how about the progress?
Fascinatingly, there are US built locomotives in Russia too! 😳
In Estonia, a number of viaducts and ecoducts are being or have been built. Some of the sections are in the tender phase, while others are being designed. Construction of one 10 km section of the line will start next year.
There is no difference at all between first and second class. First class seats are reserved which one can consider when trains are crowded. Those trains run for 10 years already and still look like new. No graffiti and nothing broken. AC works, no excessive oil burning in engines, everything is good.
The snow you were driving through wasn't a blizzard it was just the light snow flying around because of the wind that train creates with it's high speed and the snow on and near the rails.
Actually, Indonesia railways needs a diesel unit like FLiRT, doesn't it? considering that Stadler also established a joint venture with INKA in Banyuwangi
I would love to go to Estonia. I reckon it’s a perfect place to film the next 007 movie in too
If you imagine a black James Bond that could time-travel, „Tenet“ has pretty much got you covered.
When i was a kid i used to ride this line every winter going from Moscow to Tallin. Back then there were two daily trains between the two capitals, one was via St Petersburg and another one was direct. The second was much faster but it would cross the border at like 5 a.m. or smth which was very annoying. Estonia wasn't in EU and Schengen zone yet though, so the process of border inspection was quite quick. But you had to get up anyway. And those Moscow-Tallin trains were pretty crowded, consisting of up to 15 cars as i recall. Hell of a traffic. But as Russia and Estonia continued to drift apart from each other this traffic got weaker and weaker with years. Now i won't be surprised if i see bushes groing from underneath the tracks on Russia-Estonia border. Shame...
The correct spelling is Tallinn not Tallin
Just to correct you, those new trains actually replaced RVR DR1B/A trains, the one you showed, i personally had never seen before.
Жил года 4 назад в отеле Go Shnelli, что одной стеной выходит на вокзал, так под окнами как раз стояли эти морковные поезда до Нарвы (а они на тепловозной тяге) и всю ночь и тарахтели дизелями. А в Кейлу ходят такие-же морковные Штадлеры, только электрические.
is there a good connection from Tallinn to Riga as well?
Not by rail, there are some good long distance busses though
Sadly no despite infrastructure being there.
Connection? Yes. Good? No, unfortunately. You're looking at one possible journey per day with a 2 hour or so connection in Valga.
Not yet. Any train journey currently would be very long and involve a transfer on the border of the 2 countries. They're both trying to change that with the Rail Baltica high speed rail project, linking all 3 baltic states to mainland europe with fast 230km/h trains. But that is still many many years away from being possible to ride.
To be fair, we don't really need one. Northern Estonia with Tallinn and Southern Finland with Helsinki mirror each other being the densest parts of both countries. Good connections of these two regions are more important than with Riga. I'm sure some Southern Estonians will disagree, but South is much less densely populated.
Great report. Any plans to do something similar in Latvia and Lithuania?
As much as i like the video, nice and informative. I do not like the title at all. Of course it's safe, why wouldn't it be? Just because we share a border with Russia, it doesn't mean it's dangerous. Ever since the war started, foreigners started asking that question... Even tho Berlin and Central Europe are closer to the actual fighting. -.-
I assume it must be wide guage in Estonia - am I correct?.
Otherwise how do those Russian locomotives you showed, get across the border?
Yes it is the same gauge. :)
damnn these trains look sick
As an Estonian, some of the pronunciations were pretty funny but otherwise pretty close to how we say them. Great video!
Latvia still uses old soviet trains but they will soon be replaced by the Škoda 16ev
Only on the electrified lines. Is Latvia going to electrify the whole network?
@@henrikmanitski1061 probably not
Love it how you spell that Rrrrr 😊
Greetings from Estonia
The title feels a bit clickbait-y lol
Yeah, gives a bad rep to estonia
@@tomatimahl Bad rep starts actually from the beginning. Why the main station called “Balti jaam” like it is some kind of terminus in Russian empire? Wouldn’t be “Tallinna jaam” much better? Why they everywhere use Russian as second language on labels? Looks like Russian integration instead of European integration. (In Finland they used 110 years ago Russian, Finnish and Swedish labels because it was part of Russian empire, but today they use only Finnish and Swedish as they are no Russian empire anymore. Estonia is nether. So it’s pretty strange that Estonians in place which supposed to be called “Tallinna jaam” use billboards glorifying Russian empire and let _babushkas_ to sell stuff like that)
@@ragnarlaine4065 balti jaam, baltic station. How hard is it to understand, its named from the Baltic Sea. I have no clue where you got empire from.
@@ragnarlaine4065 also we dont have russian as secondary language, just some PRIVATE COMPANIES choose to also put russian in their ads and such. We only learn English and Estonian in school, russian is literally banned
@@ragnarlaine4065 and Babushkas selling stuff is normal, it happens in latvia, finland, lithuania, poland, croatia, bosnia, serbia, ukraine, romania and so on
hah Finnish VR train water bottle. nice thing to take to estonian train with you from Finland
Oh yeah, I forgot that! 😅
Love those old elevated signal boxes...I assume they're signal boxes?
They are old water towers.
the 1524mm gauge railway in Finland is still the Russian gauge, Estonia uses the same gauge too along with the 1520mm one
You should try the Avala rain from Belgrade to… Well, there are a lot of destinations
Where does that go? I didn't think it was operating.
While the major cities of the world are slow to bring wheelchair-accessible transportation to the masses, Estonia already has level-boarding on all stations of its national railway system with the ever-ubiquitous Stadler trains. Accessible, affordable and convenient rail transport is always good for the customer.
*SIDENOTE:* Ah "Pussi"... ha ha ha. Is it by chance that you've owned a cat? 🐈
high platforms is a standard in Soviet / Russian Railways station. It surprises me that the rest of the world still uses low platforms.
Just to make you aware. I Want A IR4 Video from Esbjerg Or Sønderborg To Copenhagen
12:12 that fence on the platform, is that for a former passport control? internartional platform. and the headine asked if it is safe, but was it safe?
5:58 Lähdevesi spotted 👀
Kinda funny to see those trains operating on such long and "express"-called lines. I know them as "Regio"-trains, which are the most boring and slowest trains here in Switzerland and are traveling small distances with stops at every village...
Haha, they're certainly used for lots of purposes (in Norway, soon as sleeper trains).
"Püssi, Where I'd really like to spend more time" LMAO HAHAHAH
😂😂😂
1:20 shame that this old station building was demolished by soviets
Yeah. The current one is pretty lifeless and dull.
The bottle of "Lähdevesi" (VR) is water from Finland (Valtion Rautatiet, Finnish National Railways).
The border south of the country is a bit more exciting.
Saatse boot will have you entering Russia without a visa. 😊
I love Elron!
Yeah they're pretty good! :)
Have you tried travelling on the new Siemens Desiro HC and Mireo already? They apperantly are now in use with GoAhead in the Augsburg area in Germany. I would love to see if the investment was worth it.
Nice to see even the small village of Parila got a train station, although they are just 80 inhabitants big. It is probably also accessable to other villages around.
On a German Wikipedia article the small village Straß has a "Train Station" with the small village Moos. Yes, it is written in quotation marks xD
👍
Ma arvan et, Elron on väga tore!
That's Estonian for I think Elron is very cool.
Awesome, it's a cool language! :)
@@SuperalbsTravels It's damn hard to learn!
I've been learning it for a year now at university since I study there.
I successfully purchased Elron tickets the other day in Estonian 😅
9:32
It would be interesting to go there and order Mustard there. (look up Estonian word for mustard).
Oh wow, sinep! 😂
9:30 Nice
Is it safe? Made me laugh😂
I'm not sure if I understood you right when you said that the train was driving with electrified way until Aegviidu, but if that's what you said then that's wrong. There are only two types of trains. 1. Only electrified meaning that they can't change to diesel motor. 2. Only diesel motor meaning that they can't change to electrified. Yes they drive with the same route as the electrified trains, but they can't use the electric lines above they just drive with diesel motors. They are planning to get škoda trains in second half of 2024 that can change from electric to diesel and diesel to electric meaning that when there's electrified route then it uses electric lines and when they end it continues with diesel motors. Also one of the main routes from Tallinn to Tartu and back right now is not electrfied but with new škoda trains they want the line to be fully electric.
1:52 as a German the ,,Reisibüroo" made my giggle
A borrowed word? 😂😂😂
@@SuperalbsTravels probably 😅
So now you got Sweden, Denmark and Estonia. When Finland?
Great journey, especially the Püssi part
Even Estonia has a better Train system than Canada and USA😭😂
North america has a great freight train system.
@@HeaGuerilla 😭
@@HeaGuerilla we need some normal civilian trains too 😩
@@earthandwind820Priorities. In the US, it is freight, in Estonia it is passengers. Freight trains mainly run at night, when there is no passenger traffic.
@@henrikmanitski1061 I think a country that consistently claims itself to be #1 to the world & the “richest country on earth” can do both. But we’d rather spend that $$ on illegal invasions/wars… you know the stuff our current politicians/media claim they’re (hypocritically) supposedly against re: Russias war in Ukraine.
The amount of homelessness, embarrassing civilian infrastructure away from tourists areas, Americans living paycheck to paycheck (also whitewashed to foreigners in other countries to not make the USA “look bad”) is unacceptable for such a “wealthy” country. They clearly don’t have the right “priorities” at all.
Kudos for learning how to pronounce names correctly! 8.5/10. Btw Püssi means "gun's"
Probably the funniest town name I've ever seen was a German town called "Ägypten" which litreally translates to Egypt. So random 😂
2TE116U is a locomotive model and 0157 is a serial number of locomotive built.
Correct! :)
9:31 I did not saw that one comming.💀
😂😂😂😂
11:24 will Go rail ever return ?
Honestly these days I doubt it, but maybe something will change in the future?
I love how you roasted yourself with the püssi thing, somewhere Sheree I would like to spend more time haha
LOL they have a circle K in Estonia. We have them here in gas stations in the US.
Canadian owned. Statoil sold their retail business to them.
theres a station named ''Hell'' in norway
Please come to Indonesia and Malaysia and try train in here.
I from Estonia Hello-Tere
Hi! 👋