#pendolino

Penduline (Remiz Pendulinus) 🐦

Avanti 390 128 arriving at platform 12, Crewe.

The screens said that 1st class was in the front three coaches, implying the service was in reverse formation, which it wasn't.

**"Pędziłam Pendolino w pierwszej klasie w stronę Adama Wiedemanna (pierwszego żywego poety, którego poznałam w życiu) i redakcji Pola – na skrzydłach burżuazyjnego snu 🦇. Za chwilę miała zostać podana sałatka z kozim serem 🙈.

W rzeczywistości te luksusy były trochę zrządzeniem losu – spóźniłam się na wcześniejszy pociąg, a że dla wielu był to pierwszy dzień wakacji, o wolne miejsce było trudno. Także tego...

The Sm3 Pendolino. Sähkömato (electric worm) or muovipulkka (plastic sleigh). The temperamental italian lady. Our only actual high-speed train so far. Fast and beautiful – but also unreliable and gives an uncomfortable ride.

An Sm3 at Seinäjoki station, summer 2023, on a decidedly non-high speed connecting service between Seinäjoki and Vaasa – a line which has a 120 km/h speed limit. My photo.

The story of the Sm3 begins in the early 1990s, when our leaders decided we needed high-speed trains to compete with flying and cars, but they didn't want to invest in actual high-speed lines. The answer was a body-tilting train, which supposedly could operate on existing tracks on higher speeds. At the time, there were three options of these in production: the Italian Pendolino, the Swedish X2000 and the Spanish Talgo Pendular. The Pendolino was already in service (unlike the X2000, which would have otherwise probably been a better choice, being designed for similar weather conditions) and it was cheaper than the Talgo Pendular. Thus in 1992 we ordered two six-carriage Pendolino sets, with options for 23 additional sets.

The Finnish Pendolino, later designated Sm3, was not in fact based on an existing design, but a sister class of the Italian ETR 460, which only entered in service in 1994, the same year the first Pendolino set arrived in Finland for testing.

A pair of Sm3's at Helsinki central station in the original livery, summer 2010. My photo.

The first two Sm3's entered service between Helsinki and Turku in late 1995. Although the reasoning for buying them was that they could operate without the need to build new high-speed lines, much of the rail line between Helsinki and Turku had to be rebuilt to accommodate the new trains. After just three months, the Sm3's had to be withdrawn from service due to not coping with Finnish winter. While the problems were mostly solved, the Sm3 was have remained problematic through-out their entire careers.

Despite the issues during testing, in 1997 VR ordered eight additional six-carriage sets, which were delivered in 2000-2002. Eight more were ordered in 2002, and delivered in 2004-2006, bringing the total number built to 18.

The original plan was for the Sm3's to be able to operate at speeds of up to 250 km/h. In practice the top speed proved 220 km/h, and it could be achieved only on specifically-built high-speed tracks between Kerava and Lahti (opened in 2006). While on the route between Helsinki and Turku travel time was supposed to be cut to less than 1½ hours, this was never achieved. The body-tilting system, which was to make the high speeds possible, never worked properly and in the end we decided to simply lock them permanently in upright position. With the arrival of the double-decker Intercity carriages, which could be operated at speeds up to 200 km/h, today the Pendolino's operate according to the same timetables as the Intercities.

Interior of the second-class section of an Sm3. My photo from 2014.

Of the six carriages of a Pendolino set, carriage 1 was originally a first-class car (after 2006 ekstra class) with a meeting room at one end. Carriages 2 and 4-6 are second (eko) class ones, white carriage 3 is the restaurant car. Carriage 2 has seats and a toilet for disabled passengers (however, the wheelchair lift is in carriage 3), while carriage 6 has a compartment for passengers with pets.

The two prototype units, 7001 and 7002, were somewhat different from the mass-produced ones, and the 7002 was withdrawn from service in 2015 as a source of spare parts for the 7001. However, the 7001 was also withdrawn in 2021.

Units 7013 and 7016 crashed at Tampered station in December 2021. Both were seriously damaged, and the decision was taken to use the undamaged carriages of both units to create a single working six-carriage unit. Thus only 15 Sm3 Pendolinos remain in service today.

Pride livery model train by Hornby, 2021

On 25th August 2020, Avanti West Coast unveiled a new livery for one of its trains. Billed as the biggest Pride flag the UK has seen on the side of a train, the new livery wraps the full length of the 11 carriages in the Progressive Pride flag colours.