My INCREDIBLE trip on the Arctic Circle Sleeper Train (2019)

[Music] hello and thanks for joining me for another video I'm Paul Lucas and in this video I'll show you a journey that I wanted to do for years and years 18 hours on a sleeper train from Stockholm Sweden up to Narvik in Norway well inside the Arctic Circle I'm going to be taking the Arctic Circle sleeper train in a solo sleeper and it's going to be fantastic also a big shout out and thank you to dashlane who are sponsoring this video keep your digital life secure and never forget a password again our journey today begins at Stockholm Central Station which is 148 years old following the opening of a new station for commuter trains a couple of years ago nowadays Stockholm central serves mostly regional and intercity trains there are self-service left luggage lockers at various points on the station and I made good use of these as I was actually connecting from an intercity service which had departed Gothenburg earlier in the morning the station is a pleasant enough place to wait for a few hours but if I were you I would head out into stockholm city itself especially if you've got a long connection there is a first-class lounge here but unfortunately my sleeper ticket didn't grant me access the restaurant cars onboard the Arctic sleeper train are reasonably good but if you don't fancy taking your chances or you just want something to eat before you leave there is an extensive food court and shopping area underneath the station I was really looking forward to getting on board so I headed out to the platform's early our train actually arrived from the depot headed quite an RC class locomotive if you do take this train be mindful that the rear half actually goes to Lou leo in Sweden only the front half goes to Narvik so be careful check your ticket and make sure you're in the right carriage and berth don't worry too much though there are extra signs on each carriage for extra reassurance you'll need to book in advance for this sort of trip with SJ Swedish railways this is the first time I'd ever booked with SJ so I needed a customer account to buy and retrieve my tickets you seem to need an accountant password for everything these days - Elaine creates and remembers unique and secure passwords for everything you do online it'll store your passport information different credit cards and home address - Elaine also works across multiple devices something else I really love about - Elaine I said it will alert you if any of the accounts that you linked to it get breached online and it even checks the dark web for added security I travel about a hundred times a year and I know that this product is going to save me hours and hours and hours of time Doh - - Elaine calm former / Paul to sign up the first 200 people that do so using that link and using the coupon code Paul a checkout will receive a sweet 10% off - Elaine premium go check it out I already use it and I love it now let's get to the Arctic Circle Sweden is like much of content or Europe in that the platforms are much lower than the Train floors therefore there are a few steps up should be careful if you have large bags the corridors are actually much wider than the fisheye lens on my GoPro camera makes it look in this footage so don't worry if you have big bags that will certainly fit down this corridor each bed space is called a berth and comes with a berth number which you can see handily signposted on the walls next to the relevant doors now I've actually got a solar occupancy of four five and six this entire room all the way up to Narvik the cost 824 Swedish Karuna that's around about 68 pounds a bargain for 18 hours of comfortable travel access to a shower and your bed for the night 494 as we speed north from Stockholm now is a good time to have a look Abram all the way up to the Arctic Circle the first thing that comes to mind is this large window this can be opened using a catch at the top here it is a lot more easy if you use two hands of course I've got my camera in one hand here accompanying the window is a blind this can't be set to go just halfway down the window using this latch or you can pull it all the way down and secure it using a button at the bottom and that will block out about 95% of the light during the day there are actually three beds in this room and therefore there is space for three people on this long bench seat this is the center bunkers here and will fold down we'll have a look at that later at the bottom here is a sofa bench seat and that will convert into the lower berth if necessary there's also a top bunk which I won't need to use today but it is a handy storage place for all the bedding finally there are detailed instructions on how to make up and put away the beds but if you're stuck you can always call the sleeper cabin attendant there is one per carriage although my cabin isn't an ensuite it does have a private wash basin although the pressure as you can see here was pretty disappointing there's also a conveniently located electrical socket which you could use I suppose for shaving or for charging anything else a vanity lamp and a large mirror there's also controls above the sink for the air conditioning and climate control above the sink is a good sized rack which holds my cabin case with no problems there's also a ladder here which is very useful in case you need to reach the top bunk this actually pops out and you need to stand on the first couple of rungs to even get into a position where you could swing yourself into the top bunk it's definitely not something for the less flexible there are also coat hangers and hooks here for hanging clothes this is pretty useful because you're going to need I hope a change of clothes for the next day the light switch is located next to the door there are also duplicated controls above each birth including attendant call buttons and individual reading lamps there's also another charge socket just above the second birth the toilets are located at the end of every corridor everyone I used on this train was spotlessly clean at every point of the journey there's also additional rack space in the corridor for very large bags a lot of people take this train to go skiing other accommodation includes the cassettes now these are six berths compartments with basic bedding there's also a seated carriage but I imagine the vast majority of people in here are not taking the train all the way overnight this train stops in a number of places in Sweden and also acts as an intercept eat rain finally there's a dining car around about the middle of the train this is a very convivial place to get the meal there's a reasonably good selection of hot and cold meals on offer for reasonable prices payment must be done with cash or card at the counter as you see here there is no waiter or table service on this train having eaten a good sized lunch in Stockholm I wasn't in the mood for another cooked meal and just settled for a cold pasta salad it was pretty good around an hour after leaving Stockholm the line becomes very rural and quite remote there is an awful lot of countryside here the countryside is fantastic as long as you like trees there's also the opportunity to see small quiet Swedish towns where you would never normally visit it's quite a surreal experience at about 10:00 p.m. I decide it's time to go to bed I actually convert the middle bunk instead of the bottom one because it's easier for me to have a look out of the window the bedding on these trains is very fresh and comfortable there's also a fabric style safety guard which you can just about see here it's kind of connected with a seat belt and this will stop you from rolling out of the bed during the night I tend to sleep pretty well on trains but I surprised even myself by getting a full 8 hours unbroken sleep on board the next morning the scenery looks much the same but there is a lot more snow we're now in the Arctic Circle it's time for me to take a shower the showers are only accessible by keycard to passengers in the sleeper accommodation not couchette sore seats these are some of the smartest showers I've ever seen on a train they're smart and clean towels and shampoo are provided and there's also a hairdryer here for good measure I think the best thing about this train is effect that it has a shower on board ok don't expect any miracles with a pressure but it's so nice to be able to wake up have a shower and feel like a completely new person in new clothes anyway we're about half an hour away from a talent of Karuna in the north of Sweden I'm gonna go and check out what there is for breakfast in the dining car the narvik portion of this train my train has split overnight and there's a different dining car which is now at the back of the train it certainly got interesting decor much more retro than the one that I was on the previous evening this dining car works in exactly the same way as the one that I visited the night before there's still a reasonable selection of food and drink one thing that's really interesting about this dining car is that all of the seats appeared to be moveable they're almost like wicker chairs that you can move around on the floor I really can't place whatever the deck or in this carriage is from why don't you have a go at guessing in the comment section below however the scenery outside is absolutely fantastic as to be expected I had a small role and coffee for breakfast apparently this is turkey and cheese it wasn't too bad I paid about 50 kroner for it something I really love about these old carriages is it if you're at the end of the train like I am here you can look out of the back window and see the track disappear behind you it's certainly a novelty this whole carriage just feels like a complete time walk I'd be really interested to find out exactly when this carriage was built shortly after half past 9:00 we approached Karuna a mining and tourism town in the very north of Sweden in Lapland there's also a spaceport and space research centre here apparently Virgin Galactic are going to be a tenant of spaceport Sweden located next to Karuna the train stops here because the locomotive needs to change ends however most of the people I can see getting off the train here appear to be skiers and not astronauts it's actually not quite as cold as these pictures make it look this was filmed in April and it was about 2 degrees above freezing so before had just started after Karuna the train heads even further north towards torna trask a giant frozen lake and the mountain ranges that stand between us and Narvik [Music] the railway line we're currently on is the Swedish iron ore line the first section opened in 1888 and it was fully open all the way to Narvik in 1983 incredibly this line was fully electrified as far back as 1923 it's an engineering marvel there are enormous snow canopies like this to protect the overhead line the track and infrastructure from the risks of rockfall and avalanche [Music] 1634 kilometers from stockholm we approach the lonely place of Rick's granson this is the last town in Sweden both Norway and Sweden participate in the Schengen free travel zone and therefore there are no customs or passport formalities to be sorted out here the only clue that you're actually going into a different country is located on the side of the tunnel wall here you can see the flags change from Swedish to Norwegian blink and you'll miss it just a few hundred yards later the train bursts out into the open and were in Norway [Music] [Music] narvik lies 1674 kilometers by rail from the Swedish capital Stockholm and we arrive bang on time at 12:54 just in time for lunch this is the end of the line and it's also the furthest north I've ever been in my life and so that's it here I am in Narvik Norway right in the heart of the Arctic Circle what an epic 18 hours have travel that was a really hope that you enjoyed coming with me don't forget to head to dash Lane comm slash Paul and enter coupon code Paul at checkout to receive 10% off premium courtesy of the nice people at dash Lane as for me I'm off to my hotel I'll see you in a few days with another video bye [Music]

Channel: Wingin’ It! Paul Lucas

Views: 1,343,497

Rating: 4.8684716 out of 5

Keywords: arctic circle train, 2019, Paul lucas, wingin it, sweden, norway, arctic circle sleeper, train, railfan, arctic sleeper train map, arctic circle train review, sleeper train, dining car, stockholm, narvik, nordland, europe, trains in europe, cheap train tickets, dashlane, interrail, train 94, sj, swedish railways, lapland, winter, stops, remote, barren, kiruna

Id: w3kxQveQ23Y

Length: 14min 43sec (883 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019