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It's not a long route, just 3.5 hours one way, but they are preparing to restart the "allegro" (St Petersburg - Helsinki) high-speed train service soon, iirc.

It's not a long route, just 3.5 hours one way, but they are preparing to restart the "allegro" (St Petersburg - Helsinki) high-speed train service soon, iirc. The fun part is: Finland now requires a proof of vaccination to enter but doesn't recognize Russian vaccines, and vice versa. So as a Russian, if you really want, you could get Pfizer or something in countries that would let you enter with a PCR test or recognize Sputnik V, and then you'll have a EU-worthy vaccination certificate. And that's on top of still needing a Schengen visa. So I really don't know who these trains are for right now, besides like 5 people I know who did that exact thing above.

fabioborellini 5y ago
They did restart it on last Sunday. Link in Finnish: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12222441 https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12222441 The link states that two daily Allegro services have been re-instantiated. Due to Russian legislation, using the service is only possible for Finnish and Russian citizens. It is true that EU and Russia do not recognise each other's vaccines, but a negative test result allows travel. Russia seems to require a test result in any cases. It is possible that Finnish government starts requiring a negative test result on the Russian border, too, due to the omicron breakout.
- grishka 5y ago
  I am a Russian citizen, so no problem here, but funnily, I have no idea what Russian rules for crossing the border are now because last time I was abroad was in 2019. But judging by my friends' posts on social media, crossing in an out of Russia by plane is a non-issue, it's crossing into other countries that's complicated. But then even if you are admitted into the EU, you would be considered non-vaccinated for any place that requires a proof of vaccination, and from what I heard there are many such places.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  Do you know if these problems have affected service to Lapland? I'm hoping it hasn't tampered with getting raw materials and seasonal workers to Santa's workshops. p.s. don't tell the kids, but the best thing about Finland: reindeer steaks. Who knew Rudolph was so tasty?
  - fabioborellini 5y ago
    Night trains were on hiatus in 2020. Daytime trains have ran daily.
thriftwy 5y ago
On top of that, the finnish embassy basically says "Yes, we can issue you a finnish visa, but you should not count on being admitted to Finland with that visa", and that is on top of having a valid PCR test. That's why I hold my expectations really low about international train travel. With airplanes it's actually much simpler, since air travel acts as a network and routes around failures (such as, even if you can't get from country A to country B directly, you can usually go transitting via country C without any restrictions).

fabioborellini 5y ago

They did restart it on last Sunday. Link in Finnish: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12222441 https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12222441 The link states that two daily Allegro services have been re-instantiated. Due to Russian legislation, using the service is only possible for Finnish and Russian citizens. It is true that EU and Russia do not recognise each other's vaccines, but a negative test result allows travel. Russia seems to require a test result in any cases. It is possible that Finnish government starts requiring a negative test result on the Russian border, too, due to the omicron breakout.

grishka 5y ago
I am a Russian citizen, so no problem here, but funnily, I have no idea what Russian rules for crossing the border are now because last time I was abroad was in 2019. But judging by my friends' posts on social media, crossing in an out of Russia by plane is a non-issue, it's crossing into other countries that's complicated. But then even if you are admitted into the EU, you would be considered non-vaccinated for any place that requires a proof of vaccination, and from what I heard there are many such places.
kingcharles 5y ago
Do you know if these problems have affected service to Lapland? I'm hoping it hasn't tampered with getting raw materials and seasonal workers to Santa's workshops. p.s. don't tell the kids, but the best thing about Finland: reindeer steaks. Who knew Rudolph was so tasty?
- fabioborellini 5y ago
  Night trains were on hiatus in 2020. Daytime trains have ran daily.

thriftwy 5y ago

On top of that, the finnish embassy basically says "Yes, we can issue you a finnish visa, but you should not count on being admitted to Finland with that visa", and that is on top of having a valid PCR test. That's why I hold my expectations really low about international train travel. With airplanes it's actually much simpler, since air travel acts as a network and routes around failures (such as, even if you can't get from country A to country B directly, you can usually go transitting via country C without any restrictions).