And I'm talking about the high speed train!

First of all, I would like to tell you that this is not a Trip report, since it doesn't contain anything related to aviation. However, this will be a sort of TR style documentation, so I hope you'll enjoy reading!

Before you read this documentation, I would like to inform you that it does not contain anything that is related to aviation. However this I will be making a comparison between the High speed train, and flying, describing the advantages and disadvantages.

I will tell you that my experiences were pretty much the same as flying an airline in Business Class, and of course I will include "high quality" pictures in the report. (Using a Nikon D80 + Nikkor AF-S VR 18-105 and AF Nikkor 50/1.8D lenses)


BACKGROUND
Finally it's summer! My hectic schooldays are over for now, and with all the EASA exams passed, and straight A+ in all subjects except for two, it was time for some well needed rest.

I had already made up my plans for this summer, and I was planning to take a trip down to Dubai/Abu Dhabi to visit my uncle. I was also looking forward to try SWISS's new Airbus A330-300, and their new Y product. Sadly things rapidly changed from good, to bad. My uncle was having some work and family issues down in Morocco (where he lives), and couldn't make it to Dubai for now.

I was frustrated, and dissapointed, so I wanted to just get away somewhere quick. But since it was holiday season, all flights were fully booked. In the end, I found out that SJ (the Swedish railway company) had their annual summer sale, with 50 percent discount on all First Class tickets, for members of their "frequent flyer programme". So I booked myself a daytrip to Gothenburg, this would in fact be the first time I visit the city (for real), and it was also a good oppritunity to try out SJ's F product on their so called "flagship", the X2000 High speed train.

The booking was done at their website, and it only took about five minutes. In the ticket price breakfast was included, and you had the option to select a three course dinner, so I did that as well. Seat reservations were included, and as a matter of fact, they are mandatory on all X2000's. The ticket costed a reasonable €50 return including all meals, which was a lot cheaper than flying SAS (that would have costed me around €150 r/t).

The day before I was scheduled to travel, my friend Farid decided that he also wanted to join me, which was a great surprise! Since I had choosen to sit in the "quiet area" in F class, in order to get seated close to each other, he had to take that option too.

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE X2000
Before going on with the report, I would like to give you guys some information about the X2000 train.


(Copyright SJ)

The X200, is the flagship of SJ's fleet, and has been with them since 1990. It's basically a high speed train, with the operating speed of 200 kilometers per hour. This may not be very much in European standards, but you must take in account that the railway net in Sweden were constructed in the late 1800's.
The railways are rather curvy, so in order to travel at 200 km/h on such old rails, the X2000 has a tilting feature which enables the train to keep a constant speeds when traveling through curves.

The X2000 has played a major roll in the enviromental debate, since the government and many companies now, only allow their employees to travel by train, domestic. And the fact that it takes just as long time, if not even faster to travel domestic in Sweden with the X2000, as it does with the plane.

In order to make the X2000 more competitive, to the plane. They had recently been refurbushed, with a new "Scandinavian" interior. Featuring grey seats, beige fabrics on the walls, and lots and lots of wooden details. (you know that nice typo wood, not the Mahogany style, that EK seems to be rather crazy about).

Take the STO-GBG trip for example, with the X2000 it will only take around 3,5 hours door to door. Compared to nearly 5 hours by plane (door to door, i.e). And in terms of CO2 emissons, the X2000 doesn't produce a single gram! Yes that's right, because the electricity used to power the train is made from 100% renewable energy sources, such as wind or water.

Well enough about that then, and let's finally move on to the report itself, shall we.

TUESDAY JULY 7th
It was a rainy morning, I had to get up by 4.30 in order to take the connection train to Katrineholm at 5.44. I hadn't slept much that night, I did only manage to get 2hrs of sleep, but strangely, I didn't feel tired at all (at least for now). I was going to meet up with my friend Farid, onboard the train, since he was was traveling from Vasteras (I live 10 mins away from town).

I took the 900 meter walk to the train station, and waited for about 5 minutes, before my train to Katrineholm showed up. As I made it onboard Farid, was already sitting there waiting for me. He was just as excited as I was, and we spent the 1hr ride talking about things to do in Gothenburg, reading, and listening to some music.

Soon it was time to get off the train, and make a platform change. It was about 10 minutes to our connection.


Both me and Farid were tired and hungry that morning, luckily we had a smooth and comfy ride ahead. That's Farid btw


Soon our train turned up at the station, this was going to be my first ride on the X2000 on 2 years

We were seated in the car number 1, the first out of two F class cars. With a total of 96 seats (48 per car). The boarding was very quick since there were only four people boarding car 1.


The F class cabin. The load today was around 80%


My seat for this trip, which was rather comfy. Note that Farid was seated behind me.


The legroom was great. Though my only complaints were the lack of legrests, and the fact that the cup holder was tilting too much


Another view of the cabin. The seats didn't recline, instead they were sliding down, that gives the impression of recline. IIRC on this forum, that kind of feature is rather disliked.

Very soon, the X2000 rolled into action, and before i even had made myself comfy with the seat, we had already reached our cruising speed of 200 km/h. Soon afterwards the train attendant came by, to look at our tickets. There were tow attendants dedicated to F class.

I noticed that she was whispering to me, since we were in the "quiet compartment". And while she was still here, I made the rather rude question of "Where's the Breakfast?"... She looked at me

When she had left, Farid bursted out laughing, telling me just how rude my question was, and that it made me sound like some kind of hungry fool.

Soon the t/a came by with the breakfast trolley. And since we decided to stick with the complimentary breakfast option, it consisted of this:

Continental Breakfast
*
Cold plate with lettuce, red bell pepper, a slice of cucumber, Prästost (a Swedish type of Cheese), and ham.
*
A selection of breads, everything from mini baguettes to Swedish crisp bread
*
Youghurt and Orange Juice
*
A selection of Dilmah teas, and Alfred Nordqvist Coffee


The t/a promptly placed the tray on my table, and approached me with the bread basket.
I took a slice of rye bread, and a mini baguette, but the t/a still stood there with the basket looking at me, and asking me to take another one, so I went for a slice of crisp bread too. And the strange thing was that she made the same thing for Farid too.

When she asked us for coffee or tea, I went for a cup of coffee, and Farid had a cup of tea. Usually on the forum we hear about people complaining over that airlines only offer one kind of tea in Business class, but here there were 10 kinds to choose from. Everything from Ceylon and Earl Grey, to Green tea and Energising teas with Guyarana.

Of course Farid was very confused with all the tea types, so he went for what he called "A cup of regular, please". I on the other hand was very impressed with the huge selection.

The breakfast tasted rather nice and fresh, especially the vegetables, but the ham and cheese were rather dry. And when it came to the bread, it was dry, chewy and cold. Not good, no wonder that the t/a was so eager to get rid of them


On all X2000's there is a self service bar, next to the galley, in every car. There was tea, coffee, mineral water, and fruits available.So I hepled myself with a cup of that Energizing tea.


It took the t/a almost 45 minutes to clear my tray, and she walked by several times, without paying attention to me. For Farid, it was worse, he had to wait for more than ONE hour, before his tray was cleared. Meanwille I helped myself to some more tea and coffee from the bar


After the breakfast, I decided to take a walk to the back of the train. And I must say that it looked really nice.

Coach class didn't look bad at all. And the bistro looked great aswell, though I wasn't too keen on the McDonalds inspired barstools and sofas, with red leather and white "marmor" tables. I decided not to take any pics, since I didn't want people looking at me, thinking strange stuff about me.



b]The lavatory[/b]
The lavatories had also been refurbished, with nice spotlights, and wood.


And that's the only pic of me that you will ever see on this trip, though I prefer to cover up my face with a camera, hehe


The train made a quick stop at a station called Skövde, around 1 hr from Gothenburg. Durimg the entire trip from Katrineholm, the X2000 only did two stops


In case you forget where you are seated  


Farid slept through most of the two hour ride


And if you did notice, they still hadn't cleared his tray


The remainder of the ride was rather uneventful, I helped myself to some more coffee, and Farid kept sleeping

The ride comfort on the X2000 is by far superior to any other train on the rails of Sweden, it cruises very smooth, and quiet, and the tilting makes it feel like you're on a plane, or like a roller coaster, when going through curves.

ARRIVAL IN GOTHENBURG
We arrived in Gothenburg at 9.17, after a 2h 11m ride. We were both very satisfied with the service provided onboard, and we were ready to hit the streets!

Here are some pics of our day in Gothenburg


It took us some time to find the famous Gothenburg Avenue


And of course we did some photography.


We also visited a camera show, where Farid tied a Canon 50/1.8, and I looked at a Sigma 10-20... Maybe it's time to get some new lenses


The statue of Poseidon... Whoops! That was the only pic i had left of it, since the other one was deleted, sorry


Man, what I love the Nikkor 50/1.8D, one of the best lenses on the planet!


Just look at that pidgeon! I know it's up to something, by giving me that look


Hey, Pidgeon! Get back here, you little...!


Overview of the avenue. And by judging the weather, this was not a good day for using the polarizer


A closer view of the Avenue


I have no Idea, on what that house is. But I'm gueeing it's the town hall...


Farid, with the Avenue in the background.

Soon it was time for us to head back down to the avenue. Since it was lunch time, we decided to look around for a good lunch restaurant. Hard Rock Cafe was a good option, and Farid also wanted to get a T-shirt from there. Sadly none of the dishes they had on the lunch menu seemed to fall in our taste, so we headed over to another restaurant on the other side of the avenue.


We all know that Nikon beats the crap out of Canon, hehe

The reataurant we had chosen had rather attractive lunch offerings, with good prices, and interesting dishes.

I went for the Fillet Mingón, served with Bearnaisé sause, and a red whine gravy, along with french fries.

Farid on the other hand went for the Veal steak, with creamy pepper sauce, and pommes Chateaú.

The meal also included a salad strater, freshly baked bread, butter, coffee and cookies.

My biggest complaint about the restaurant was that they had a bird flying around the place. I saw it eat from the sallad bar, sit on the glasses in the bar, poop on the floor, and make me and Farid company, while "enjoying" our lunch.

I did take some sallad from the sallad bar, but I didn't eat much of it, since it was luke warm, dry on some places, soggy on others. And when the bird came by to our table, I realised that it had also been eating from the sallad bar, so I spitted it out, and put the salad plate aside. Farid on the other hand finished his salad...


The Cola... Not much to say about it



My Fillet Mingón, which strangely turned out to be Chicken, or maybe Pork fillet, instead of beef. I was very disapointed. But hey, I only payed €9


Oh, and I forgot to tell that the Sauce Bearnaise tasted like pure lard!


Farid on the other hand, enjoyed his beef, though the pepper sauce was a bit too peppery, he claimed...


Yummy!!!


The meal was then rounded up with yet another cup of coffee, and come cookies


We sat at the restaurant for about one hour, talking about what to do next

Soon it was time to leave the restaurant, the food was pretty okay, but by considering the low price we payed it was definetly worth the money. And the staff were nice too.


We decided to take a walk through the Saluhall. Sort of like a Swedish version of a food market


Some random guy buying a bag of tea...




Fresh Vegetables


You could also have lunch at the Saluhall, and the prices were pretty reasonable


By now, both me and Farid were exhausted, so we walked down to the docks and the Operahouse, where we sat for three hours, talking about life, resting, etc


On our way back to the inner parts of town..

During our last three hours, we went to see the biggest shopping mall in town, and by now, the place was packed with people, especially kids, like us, hehe...
I maneged to find a place where they had a sale, on those infamous Björn Borg underwear, so I got myself two pairs.

With still 1h 42m to go before our train departs, we decided to head back to the train station. And since we were traveling in First Class on the X2000, we had access to the SJ lounge. Sadly we found the lounge to be closed... Closed for summer. I mean what kind of lounge has closed for summer, that's redicoulus, we had payed for a ticket where the lounge acess is included, and they just closed it. I was pissed! I'm going to send a complaint to SJ about this...


Since the Lounge was closed, we sat down at a Coffee Shop for a while. I ordered the world's smallest Espresso Macchiato, and Farid had a Chai Latte

Soon, it was time to to take the train home. By now, we were so tired that we could barely stand, and the hunger was killing me. Luckily, we had our comfy seats waiting for us, and a three course dinner was going to be served onboard.

Boarding was done very quickly this time too, basically there was no hurry for getting onboard, and we made our way to our seats 41 and 42. The load in First Class was about 40 percent this time.


The legroom was excellent as usual, and in fact the 2-seaters offered more personal storage space

As there was still a few minutes until departure, I decided to go to the self service bar, to have a little pre departure drink. When I asked the t/a if it was okey for me to take some water, she looked at me, and gave me the question with a serious voice

t/a: -"Are you supposed to be seated here?"
Me: -"Yes I'm seated over there, in seat 42"

Suddenly her voice changed from being very serious, to friendly and cheerful.

t/a: -"Oh, yes of course, help yourself to what ever you want, the water is for the passengers after all"

Just like the previous ride, there were two train attendants dedicated to F class, and the crew consisted of a younger female serving our section, and a senior female. In fact, they were more like flight attendants rather that train conductours, both by judging the way they were dressed, and the way they acted.

Soon, the X2000 rolled into action, and this time we were riding backwards. As I had earlier worried about it being uncomfortable, I turned out to be wrong, In fact I didn't even feel any difference.

Around 20 minutes into the ride, the crew began checking our tickets, and since we had ordered the three course dinner, she said that she would come by in a minute with the trays.

One complaint was the lack of menu, in fact the crew didn't even inform us of what was going to be served. But apperaently Farid heard the t/a talking to another passenger hearing her say something about salmon being served.

Dinner Menu

Starter: Bulgur salad with red onions, diced cucumber, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil.

Main Course: Oven roasted salmon fillet with a creamy parmesan and cucumber sauce, along with this summers new potatoes,

Dessert: Blueberry Pie

Swedish Crispbread, and butter

A selection of teas, and Coffee, along with a piece of 70% dark chocolate.


The t/a promplty placed the tray on our tables, and she also went through the selection of drinks on offer. Softdrinks, juices, sparkling water, and low alcohol beer were complimentary. While Beer, wine and spirits, you had to pay for


The meal was excellent, and it was served on real china, real glass, and metal cutlery

The starter tasted very nice and fresh, and the bulgur gave it some nice chewing resistance, while the flavour of the olive oil didn't dominate the rest of the flavours.

The main course was piping how when it was served to me, which of course was good, since it didn't go luke warm after a while. The salmon pas very flavour rich, and the texture was perfect, the potatoes were perfectly boiled, though the sauce was covered by a "drop" of oil.
Fortunately it turned out to be from the fish, which meant that it was healthy fats. Anyway, the sauce tasted nice and creamy, while not being too fatty, and the cucumbers enhanced the flavours in it.

The crispbread was very nice and fresh aswell, and it had a great feeling of crunchyness, sadly it crumbled a lot.

It took the t/a some time to serve us the coffee, and when it came by, we went for our desserts. The Pie was a bit of a let down actually, it was very dry, and you could barely feel the taste of the blueberries. It tasted just like those kind of pre packed mini pies you find in the supermarket, and I was starting to suspect that they had used one   


Overall we were both very satisfied with the meal, In fact it was pretty much the same as you would get on SAS's J class in Europe, if not better!


I forgot to tell how beautiful the landscape was, frankly I didn't take much pics of it due to the dirty windows


The rest of the ride was rather uneventful. Farid decided to take a nap, and I moved over to an empty pair of seats, and helped myself to a cup of that delicious energizing tea

Around midway through the ride, the X2000 made an unexpected stop in the middle of nowhere. It turned out to be a faulty signal, and we would be standing still for at least five minutes. I was fearing that we would might miss our connection, so I went to the galley in car 2, to take a cup of coffee and have a chat with the crew. I also told them what to do in case we missed our connection. The senior t/a told me that i shouldn't worry, and in case we would miss it, they would make sure that we would get home safely.

Soon we were aproaching Katrineholm, and I was kinda hoping for us to miss that connection, because i didn't want to get off the wonderful X2000. But sadly, the crew made sure that they held the train for me and Farid, and they also made us arrive at the platform next to our connecting train, to we only had to get off the X2000 and walk on the connecting train.


Soon it was time for arrival in Katrineholm, and I would really miss the X2000... Oh well, I'll make sure to ride on it again, before the end of this summer

The connecting train ride was awful. It was an old beaten up piece of cr*p train, and we were seated near by two guys who looked like criminals, I was really scared. And the train condoctour was almost left behind on one station, when she went out for a smoke. Anyway we arrived safely back home in Vasteras, and I walked home, and went steaight to bed. Farid on the other hand decided to follow me home, and also spending the night over at my house.

CONCLUSION
The overall First Class experience on SJ was really great, though it med up with my needs, it didn't fully exceed my expectations. However by considering the low price we payed for the ticket €50, it was definetly worth it.

I would say that SJ's F class product is very much up to par with what many airlines offer in Business Class on European routes, and it sure beat SAS's domestic Y class, where you have to pay for the food, no lounge, and the price was three times higher.
In terms of convenience, I only had to walk 900 meters to and from my home to make it to the train station, which sure beats flying, where I would have had to spend 3hrs+ to get to ARN, take the flight 55mins, and make it to central Gothenburg 1hr.

In terms of CO2 emissions the X2000 didn't produce a single gram of it, which is great for the enviroment. Though I doubt that any true a.nutter or aviation lover like myself wouldn't care, but now I think it's time to.

When it comes to the meals I must say that they were very good. Especially by considering the fact that they have recently introduced a complimentary breakfast to all F pax, and the three course meal option for €9, is definetly worth it. For the self service bar, I think they should might extend that offer, instead of only offering warm drinks, fruit and water, they should have had juices and maybe some sort of snack food.

The crew on both rides were very good, and I was rathe amazed by the fact that they were more like flight attendants, than t/a's. If not even better than some f/a's.

I would give this trip a 8,5/10, mostly for it's good value of the money. And the X2000 is of course a great option to flying domestic short haul in Sweden. Not sure how it is in Europe but, I'm guessing the trains have a better service standards, but the prices are higher.

Well I guess that will mark the end of this trip, and I must thank you for reading it, despite the fact that it had almost nothing to do with airplanes.

Comments are much wanted, and feel free to say whatever you like (as long as it's nice)

Thank you, again for reading

Regards
//Jonas El said (LH4116)

[Edited 2009-07-10 10:22:14]