kontulib
February 9th, 2003, 07:17 AM
Night express train delayed by large reindeer herd
A night express train that left Kemijärvi in Finnish Lapland for Helsinki Friday evening was delayed during the first leg of the trip by a herd of reindeer that had come onto the track shortly before the train was to arrive in Rovaniemi.
According to VR traffic control, the train had to creep slowly behind the reindeer for about 20 kilometres before the last of the animals would step aside and let it pass.
The train arrived in Rovaniemi at about midnight - two and a half hours behind schedule.
Passengers said that the train personnel tried to contact reindeer herders in the area to get them to help get the animals off the track, but to no avail. At times the train had to slow down to walking speed.
The scheduled arrival in Helsinki of the northern express train from Finnish Lapland would have been at 8:40 Saturday morning. However, the delay caused by the reindeer in the early part of the journey meant that it did not reach Helsinki until 11:30.
The national railway company VR says that reindeer are not an uncommon sight on the tracks of Northern Finland during winters with plenty of snow. However, they usually step aside and let the train pass, instead of walking in front of it for such long distances.
The snow in the Kemijärvi-Rovaniemi area is more than a metre deep in some places.
Cold temperatures caused other delays on Saturday's trains. The longest were about 20 minutes.
A night express train that left Kemijärvi in Finnish Lapland for Helsinki Friday evening was delayed during the first leg of the trip by a herd of reindeer that had come onto the track shortly before the train was to arrive in Rovaniemi.
According to VR traffic control, the train had to creep slowly behind the reindeer for about 20 kilometres before the last of the animals would step aside and let it pass.
The train arrived in Rovaniemi at about midnight - two and a half hours behind schedule.
Passengers said that the train personnel tried to contact reindeer herders in the area to get them to help get the animals off the track, but to no avail. At times the train had to slow down to walking speed.
The scheduled arrival in Helsinki of the northern express train from Finnish Lapland would have been at 8:40 Saturday morning. However, the delay caused by the reindeer in the early part of the journey meant that it did not reach Helsinki until 11:30.
The national railway company VR says that reindeer are not an uncommon sight on the tracks of Northern Finland during winters with plenty of snow. However, they usually step aside and let the train pass, instead of walking in front of it for such long distances.
The snow in the Kemijärvi-Rovaniemi area is more than a metre deep in some places.
Cold temperatures caused other delays on Saturday's trains. The longest were about 20 minutes.