Wikivoyage:Tourist office/Archives/2021/September

Train from Tallinn to Brussels

I am planning on travelling by InterRail from Helsinki, Finland to Brussels, Belgium in late July 2022, if the coronavirus situation allows. I am planning on travelling by train on an InterRail pass.

In the previous years I have started my train trip from Stockholm, Sweden and then continued by train all the way to continental Europe. I have already researched trains on this route.

However, according to http://interrail.eu, the InterRail zone now includes the Baltic countries too. So there is now the option to start the train trip from Tallinn, Estonia instead. The only problem is that I don't know the train itinerary or connections. The route planner on the InterRail site wasn't of much help. It only estimated that the trip takes one day and drew the route as a straight line. The Deutsche Bahn site http://bahn.de can provide connections from Stockholm but not from Tallinn or Helsinki, it doesn't seem to be aware those cities exist.

Where can I find actual information on train connections from Tallinn to Brussels, including specific timetables for each individual leg of the journey, provided I supply the travel dates? Asked by: JIP (talk) 18:49, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Estonia#By train says:

"The widely (and somewhat blatantly) advertised Riga-to-Tallinn train connection is anything but reasonable, because it makes a long detour and takes you nearly a whole day for a simple trip between the neighbouring Baltic capitals. However, local trains from northern Latvia to southern Estonia (connection in Valka/Valga) may be useful."

Latvia#By train tells about the connection to Valka for transfer to Tallonn, and continues:

"Train service between Latvia and Lithuania is suspended for the foreseeable future due to RailBaltica track upgrades (as of August 2017)."

Seems our info is badly outdated. But Wikipedia:Rail Baltica agrees:

"As of January 2020, the high-speed railway connection from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border was expected to be completed by 2026."

I read Lithuania#By train that there are trains from Daugavpils to Vilnius, from there to Kaunas, and from there to Białystok, and our Daugavpils article says it has trains from Riga and Vilnius.

It seems there are rail connections all the way, but you need to use domestic trains, which do not connect well. The services are sparse, so you might want to schedule some sightseeing in the Baltic countries, and start on the right day of the week.

–LPfi (talk) 20:13, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Rail travel in the Baltic countries are, how to put in a nice way, not really the most effective way of getting around. In the 1920s or so it was feasible to travel from Finland to Germany via the Baltic countries by train but during the Soviet Era the rails between Pärnu and Riga for example were ripped up. I'd take a bus from Tallinn to Warsaw and continue by rail from there. --Ypsilon (talk) 20:37, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Or going through Sweden. But it depends on why you are travelling. If you just need to get to a meeting, yes, forget about Rail Baltica at its current state. But if you want to have the adventure, getting to odd places, perhaps catch the last chance to see some obsolete arrangements, I suppose it might be worthwhile. The Valga/Valka border crossing, for example, was quite exotic (now I think the Estonian and Latvian trains just use separate sides of the platform in Valga). Sorry that I don't know the current state of affairs. –LPfi (talk) 21:01, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

I'd much rather prefer trains to buses as they give more freedom to move around. In 2007, I went by bus from Rovaniemi to Kilpisjärvi in Lapland and all I could do was sit on my seat for several hours. My bottom ached when I got there. Rome2Rio says the bus trip from Tallinn to Warsaw takes 17 hours, and Deutsche Bahn tells me that a train trip from Warsaw to Brussels would take an additional 20 hours. In contrast, a train trip from Stockholm to Brussels apparently takes 23 hours. That's 14 hours less total time. The trip will be for vacation, not for business, so I'm not really in a hurry, but I think I would find exploring Brussels more entertaining than sitting on trains or buses for days. If the coronavirus situation allows, I'll be visiting Sweden anyway on separate trips in 2022, so travelling on an alternative route for once might be an enjoyable experience. In 2018 I travelled by train from Tartu to Tallinn and found Estonian trains quite pleasant. But I have no experience about Latvian or Lithuanian trains. Still, the whole thing requires that the InterRail pass really covers all train/bus travel within the Baltic countries. If I have to reserve and buy each ticket separately it will become too difficult and expensive. JIP (talk) 21:14, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

From Tallinn to Valga and onwards to Riga seems unproblematic, although not as fast as through Sweden, and I suppose the sections from Kaunas to Brussels are reasonably fast also. The problem is sewing together the sections between Riga and Kaunas into a reasonable schedule. As those trains are not coordinated to connect well, you must look at the timetables and figure out for yourself. But if you don't look forward to the Baltic adventure, you should probably keep to the route through Sweden.

Another option that I used once, was to take the ferry from Helsinki to Travemünde, saving a travel day or two on the Interrail ticket. We were a group sharing a cabin, and the ferry had a campaign to attract also non-motorists, so it was quite cheap, no idea about today's prices. We had two nights aboard, to arrive after a good night's sleep. If you have suitable work you don't even have to count that one day as part of your vacation (but I suppose there is no viable Internet).

–LPfi (talk) 08:25, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

Going through the Baltic countries & Poland to Central Europe and beyond is going to take considerably longer than through Sweden & Denmark or by boat to Germany regardless if you travel on public transport or driving or cycling or otherwise travel overland, already for the reason that the latter routes are shorter in distance as they go straight to your destination instead of making a curve. To add to it, road and rail infrastructure are much better in the latter. And rail travel through the Baltics include things like the Daugavpils-Vilnius and Vilnius-Bialystok legs that both have trains only on weekends (according to our travel guides and rail travel site seat61.com also make similar notes). I have a feeling all-rail travel through the Baltic countries would be the very slowest possible overland route to Central Europe and beyond, even slower than going via Moscow.

The bus trip could be broken up in legs with an overnight stay in Vilnius for example, and once in Warsaw there seems to be more frequent trains towards Germany and Brussels. Other than that, the ferry to Travemünde or going via Sweden & Denmark are considerably faster. Ypsilon (talk) 15:43, 26 September 2021 (UTC)

If the Baltic route is going to be both longer and more difficult than the route via Sweden, then I'll probably have to stick to Sweden this year too. Getting to Brussels without any serious troubles is more important than travelling through the Baltic countries. I would want to visit Daugavpils some day, but it doesn't seem to be worth it to make a detour there on my way from Helsinki to Brussels. Maybe I can make a separate trip to Daugavpils in later 2022 or 2023, possibly by flying to Riga and then taking a Latvian train to Daugavpils. JIP (talk) 20:18, 26 September 2021 (UTC)