Although it fulfilled serving its main purpose, the Norrland Night Train in Sweden is not exactly as advertised. We traveled on it as passengers from Stockholm Centralstation to Kiruna station, which is an overnight trip of greater than 1,200 kilometers whose duration was supposed to be 15 hours and six minutes.
Norrland Night Train in Sweden: Not Exactly As Advertised. Rail Review.
The operator of the Norrland Night Train is Vy Tåg AB, which is a railway company that operates franchises in different parts of Sweden. Because other modes of transportation were either too cumbersome or more expensive, the Norrland Night Train sounded like a good option — especially as the official Internet web site for this specific line specifically states the following verbiage:
Yes, there are 1st and 2nd class sleeping car compartments on the Norrland Night Train. In 1st class, you have en suite shower and toilet facilities in your compartment.
A first class compartment in the sleeping car sounded like a potential option to consider…
…but no matter what dates and times I researched, no first class option was available on the Norrland Night Train at all; so we chose to purchase two fully flexible tickets in a sleeping car compartment, which seemed to be the next best choice as it holds three people…
…but unbeknownst to us, only one bathroom was available for up to 39 passengers in each sleeping car — and queues of passengers did form to use this bathroom.
A premium is added to the purchase to keep a third person from occupying the compartment. The text clearly shows three made-up beds…
…but after we arrived at the compartment in the sleeping car, we were told by an employee of we had to prepare the beds ourselves. Towels, pillows, and other items were stored up in the upper bunk. The bedding overall was reasonably comfortable; but I thought that the compartment would have been slightly wider overall.
We never used the sink that was included in the compartment. One reason was that the soap dispenser was not attached to the wall, as it appeared to have broken off of the wall. The three containers of water were a nice touch, though.
The following claim at the official Internet web site of Vy Tåg AB is that:
On our long-distance trains, you are warmly welcome to visit our restaurant carriage/bistro. On board the Norrland Night Train, we proudly serve Norrland-inspired dishes that are all prepared from scratch from fresh ingredients. Of course we also serve the classic shrimp sandwich, snacks, good drinks and freshly brewed coffee.
…but all of the food was already prepared and stored in refrigerated units. Not that I expected a full-service kitchen aboard the train; but to me, “restaurant carriage/bistro” and “all prepared from scratch from fresh ingredients” indicates more to me than prepared food stored in plastic containers, wrapped in paper, or contained in boxes.
I asked about the “classic shrimp sandwich” as I wanted to see what it looked like but could not find it. “I think they stopped making that”, I was told by an employee behind the counter.
Why advertise the “classic shrimp sandwich” at all then?!?
They do offer hot food. Simply choose the cold item that you want; and one of the employees will stick in the microwave for you for a couple of minutes.
I ordered the Grillad svensk kyckling, which is a grilled chicken with a salad of greens, roasted parsnips, carrots, and beets and served with cloudberry sauce — all of which was made from scratch in Luleå in Sweden. It was microwaved without the cloudberry sauce for a couple of minutes.
The breast of chicken was actually good. The cloudberry sauce tasted like a remoulade or a flavored mayonnaise — but some hard seeds were in the sauce that were inedible, in my opinion. The root vegetables had good flavor — but the greens were quite bitter.
Despite the list of ingredients stating otherwise, the wrap with green falafel of peas and red cabbage contained no mango or tomato bean hummus.
The outer part of the wrap itself was wet in an unappetizing way…
…and the falafel was mealy and dry, with an abundance of red cabbage and mystery greens — which were not included in the description and whose ingredients were not in English — that were so bitter, they burned inside of the mouth. With a bottle of soda, the entire meal cost 223.00 in Swedish krona or $20.99 in United States dollars. I thought that was a bit overpriced — especially as the food did not taste all that fresh.
After an unexplained delay of greater than 40 minutes sitting still just short of Kiruna station, the train finally arrived.
Final Boarding Call
Unfortunately, no other option exists to take an overnight train from Stockholm Centralstation to Kiruna station without changing trains in the middle of the night — but as Kiruna is north of Boden, passengers will now be required to change trains to any destination north of Boden as stated at the official Internet web site of Vy Tåg AB:
Important message for those who wish to travel north of Boden
We are currently changing our sales system. This means that those who want to book a sleeping or couchette compartment with a change in Boden, needs to split the journey into two separate bookings. A booking with a sleeping or couchette compartment for trains 91 and 92 between Stockholm and Boden and a booking for a seat for trains 95 or 96 north of Boden.
Access to Wi-Fi aboard the train was better than expected in terms of speed; but it was unstable, as sometimes it was unusable.
The train ultimately accomplished its main goal: getting its passengers from their originations to their destinations safely. I am not a luxury traveler by any stretch of the imagination; but I expected this experience to be somewhat better than it actually was.
The total cost for two passengers to get from Stockholm Centralstation to Kiruna station via the Norrland Night Train was 2,849.00 Swedish kronor or $278.40 in United States dollars. Flight options were available between Stockholm and Kiruna — but although the travel would have been considerably less time, they were slightly more expensive; at inconvenient times; and the cost of lodging overnight would need to be considered.
All photographs ©2024 by Brian Cohen.
