Sunday, August 12, 2007

Why can’t the NS be more like VR?

For those of you who don’t realize what I am talking about with the abbreviations, I’m talking about the Dutch national railways (NS) and the Finnish state railways (VR). I know the comparison is a bit hard to make seeing as though the network in the Netherlands is denser and used more intensively than here in Finland, but the Dutch could learn a thing or two from the Finns. For example, the train conductor will walk through the train after every station and collect only those tickets from people he hasn’t yet seen. Back in the Netherlands on a journey lasting over an hour I’m very lucky to see a conductor. I’m not saying that collecting tickets is the only thing they do. The role of a conductor is also to provide passengers with assistance and if they hide in the steering car for the entire journey and only come out when it’s time to blow the whistle and close the doors I need to be damn quick if I want to ask them a question. Here the conductor has his own booth in the restaurant (!!!) car of the train so that when he isn’t walking around anyone can find him (or her).
Enough complaining about trains, I’m here to share my experiences about Finland! Well yesterday I took the train to Tampere which is Finland’s second city, and I must say that the city is wonderful! There are a lot of museums and shopping centers as well as two lakes on which the city was built between, so plenty of parks and beaches. You can see pictures in my photo album. On the topic of museums, there is a museum dedicated to Moomins. I honestly have to say that a few days ago I didn’t know what Moomins were until some people told me to go to that museum while in Tampere! Oh well, now I know! If you still have no clue what I’m talking about here go to this site: http://www.moomin.fi and discover the Moomins!
E

p.s. Not all Germans complain, (see comments of last post). I apologize if I offended you in any way, don’t get me wrong I like Germans.

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