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Finland is particularly irritating as they run trains without mandatory reservations but do not use internal displays or tickets so there is no way of knowing which seats are reserved.
I recall using the Finnish ticket machines to see which seats were reserved before boarding a train. I'm pretty sure they had a seat selection option showing the occupied seats! Maybe the VR website has this as well.
If you have a smartphone, download the VR Matkalla app and do a dummy booking for the train you’re about to take. It’ll show you a seat map on the second page.
Alternatively, adjourn to the wonderful VR restaurant cars and drink cold draught Kaaru Lager and eat a hot cooked meal on a proper plate for the duration of your journey.
VR Intercity and Pendolino trains are technically all-reserved, but in practice you don’t need one. State supported and procured local trains are not. I was surprised to discover that there are no routine ticket inspections on the handful of Dm12 diesel railcar routes in the remoter regions. VR don’t bother routinely checking tickets on them because they are not revenue dependent.
If you have a smartphone, download the VR Matkalla app and do a dummy booking for the train you’re about to take. It’ll show you a seat map on the second page.
Alternatively, adjourn to the wonderful VR restaurant cars and drink cold draught Kaaru Lager and eat a hot cooked meal on a proper plate for the duration of your journey.
VR Intercity and Pendolino trains are technically all-reserved, but in practice you don’t need one. State supported and procured local trains are not. I was surprised to discover that there are no routine ticket inspections on the handful of Dm12 diesel railcar routes in the remoter regions. VR don’t bother routinely checking tickets on them because they are not revenue dependent.
All Finnish long distance trains have mandatory seating. It is possible to buy a ticket without a seat reservation, but you will (can) be challenged. Now, VR's guards are in my experience very pragmatic so YMMV. The commuter trains and certain branch lines ( Dm12 diesel railcars and the electrifed Kouvola-Kotka line do not have seat reservations).
Seating maps can be found when booking a ticket, either on the website, ticket machines or on the app. I recommend the app, works very well and acts as your ticket too.
There is reserved seating in the restaurant cars now - personally not a fan of travelling "side-ways" - and these can get very full very quickly. The unreserved seating is for customers of the restaurant, so again, YMMV
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I recall using the Finnish ticket machines to see which seats were reserved before boarding a train. I'm pretty sure they had a seat selection option showing the occupied seats! Maybe the VR website has this as well.
All Finnish long distance trains have mandatory seating. It is possible to buy a ticket without a seat reservation, but you will (can) be challenged. Now, VR's guards are in my experience very pragmatic so YMMV. The commuter trains and certain branch lines ( Dm12 diesel railcars and the electrifed Kouvola-Kotka line do not have seat reservations).
Seating maps can be found when booking a ticket, either on the website, ticket machines or on the app. I recommend the app, works very well and acts as your ticket too.
There is reserved seating in the restaurant cars now - personally not a fan of travelling "side-ways" - and these can get very full very quickly. The unreserved seating is for customers of the restaurant, so again, YMMV
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Yes, it is the same software IIRC - or at least uses the same backend.
The VR website and app do not provide any means for those already with tickets (interrail) to obtain reservations, so none of that is any use to these people.
Interrail themselves mark all Finnish trains as reservation possible but NOT required and they will only sell reservations with postal fulfillment which is slow and expensive.
Either you are incorrect, VR are not marking those trains correctly so the Interrail engine has them displayed wrong or Interrail has screwed up the data.
I would agree that trains with most passengers reserved and no reservation displays are by default reservation only, even if staff will normally be pragmatic about non-reserved boarders.
The guards being pragmatic may well be they regularly encounter regular foreigners without reservations who find no labels and at best having to play musical chairs at stops throughout their journey, at worst having to stand through being misled and not provided any viable options.
Sadly this type of nonsense is an altogether too familiar story with a number of national operators happy to take their cut of Interrail revenue but actively blocking those customers from travelling in any sort of reasonable way.
A truly shameful way of treating foreign visitors, something I expect to an extent from certain countries who have form for that sort of thing and also constantly whinge about being over-touristed as an pre-planned excuse for bilking or poor service. Maybe I am being naive but I'd expect better from the likes of Finland and Norway.
The VR website and app do not provide any means for those already with tickets (interrail) to obtain reservations, so none of that is any use to these people.
Interrail themselves mark all Finnish trains as reservation possible but NOT required and they will only sell reservations with postal fulfillment which is slow and expensive.
Either you are incorrect, VR are not marking those trains correctly so the Interrail engine has them displayed wrong or Interrail has screwed up the data.
Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB planners don't show VR trains as having compulsory reservations either, so that indicates to me that VR doesn't include that attribute in the timetable data they send to MERITS (European Timetable Centre). So reservation is not mandatory and if VR want people to make reservations, then they should let the world know.
AFAIK reservations aren't compulsory for VR long-distance trains, but all of the tickets they sell in Finland come with a reservation, so technically nearly every passenger has a reserved seat. I'm not sure whether they would take you if every seat is occupied, but I wouldn't count on it.
The VR website and app do not provide any means for those already with tickets (interrail) to obtain reservations, so none of that is any use to these people.
You can't use them to make reservations, but you can use them to look up the occupied seats and take note of the available seats before you board the train (without a reservation). This way it is unlikely for your seat to be claimed by somebody else who made a seat reservation.
Would (officially) be of no use if the trains do actually have compulsory reservation for Interrail passengers.
All Finnish long distance trains have mandatory seating. It is possible to buy a ticket without a seat reservation, but you will (can) be challenged. Now, VR's guards are in my experience very pragmatic so YMMV. The commuter trains and certain branch lines ( Dm12 diesel railcars and the electrifed Kouvola-Kotka line do not have seat reservations).
Seating maps can be found when booking a ticket, either on the website, ticket machines or on the app. I recommend the app, works very well and acts as your ticket too.
There is reserved seating in the restaurant cars now - personally not a fan of travelling "side-ways" - and these can get very full very quickly. The unreserved seating is for customers of the restaurant, so again, YMMV
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Yes, it is the same software IIRC - or at least uses the same backend.
Thank you so much for all that fantastic information I'm afraid I won't get chance for Going this trip but thanks for you great offer of help I've been to Helsinki once and took a train out to the depot
