From Narvik and Kiruna to northern Finland by bus and train

Does this route work in one day?

As an interrailer in Scandinavia, I've always had three destinations: Stockholm in Sweden, Narvik in Norway and Helsinki in Finland. A logical connection was therefore obvious: Narvik-Helsinki via Kemi in northern Finland, then onto the night train there.

I searched for a long time and tried to work out timetables so that the Narvik-Kemi route wouldn't take a whole two days. I really wanted to cover this route on a sunny day. You can find out whether it works and what the time zones have to do with it here!

Opposite direction and update

Our author Flo from rail.cc travelled this route in the opposite direction some time ago. You can read his blog read here.

However, things change over the years, so I try to keep my report up to date. (Status 2025). I'll share the planning details with you first, followed by the travel report with pictures.

Planning the route part 1 - Start from the back: Night trains to Helsinki

I recommend that you always put the cart before the horse when planning. There are several night trains in Finland that you can "aim for". Here is a list: (days of service in brackets) The current days of service are also noted on Vagonweb.

1st night train IC266 Rovaniemi - Helsinki

Access (early variant): Kemi 1924 Clock (daily) (Wagon order here at vagonweb.cz)

2nd night train IC274 Kemijärvi - Helsinki

Access (late variant): Kemi 2228 o'clock (daily) (Wagon order here at vagonweb.cz)

3. night train P262 Kolari - Helsinki

Access: Pello (1551); Tornio-Itäinen (1735); Kemi (1810) Clock (normally only Sat) (Wagon order here at vagonweb.cz)

4. night train P276 Kolari - Helsinki

Access: Pello (2032); Tornio-Itäinen (2216); Kemi (2250) Clock (partly daily, partly only Thu+Sat.) (Wagon order here at vagonweb.cz)

Source journey times: Deutsche Bahn

Journey times may vary by up to 20 minutes depending on the day!

So you have to get there by bus. Again, you have to bear in mind that there is a one-hour time difference between Sweden and Finland. In the direction of Finland you LOSE an hour (set your watch forward), in the direction of Sweden you GAIN an hour (set your watch back). This makes it much easier to make Kemi-Narvik in this direction in one day and all the more difficult if you want to drive towards Finland.

TIP: The first two trains on the list seem more reliable to me. When I travelled in 2019, trains no. 3 and 4 were not to be found in the timetables. In 2025, however, I can also find night trains from Tornio again via Deutsche Bahn. I consider DB to be very reliable.

Planning the route part 2 - Narvik to Boden/Lulea

Then you should check which trains take you to Boden or Lulea, because that's where the trains and buses to Haparanda/Tornio start.

In the following table I have listed all trains from Narvik to Boden and Lulea. Please note that the train only runs in summer and only as far as Kiruna. The Norrtag trains only run from Kiruna, but can be used free of charge with Interrail.

Please be sure to check the journey times on bahn.de a few weeks before your journey. Booster trains may be cancelled at short notice and the timetable may be delayed by a few minutes.

Status 2025:

Type	Night train to Stockholm NT93	IC95 to Lulea	Amplifier train	Norrtag	Norrtag	Norrtag	BUS
Narvik from	3:11 pm	10:25 a.m.	6:30 pm	X	X	X	04:00 a.m.
Kiruna	5:54 pm	1:47 pm	approx. 21:30	05:XX a.m.	10:48 am	4:12 pm	06:55 (railway station)
Floor on	21:50	5:40 pm	X	approx. 09:00 a.m.	1:53 pm	7:23 pm	X
Lulea to	22:43 (partly with change in Boden)	6:25 pm	X	approx. 09:30 a.m.	2:21 pm	20:05	X
Traffic days	All year round	All year round	Summer (mostly only July+August)	2019: daily. Currently possibly only summer	daily?	daily?	?

In 2019 there was also a Norrtag at 05XX from Lulea. I don't know whether this might run again in the summer months, but can be checked at short notice on bahn.de.

There used to be an early bus from Narvik to Lulea (departing from Narvik at around 6am), which was operated by Länstrafiken Norbotten. However, this seems to have been cancelled. Instead, I found the bus that is also listed in the table: https://kirunabussab.rezdy.com/630339/narvik-riksgr-nsen-bj-rkliden-abisko-kiruna

This bus at least goes to the railway station in Kiruna, but costs 709SEK (approx. 80€) and is (presumably) not included in Interrail.

Planning the route part 3 - from Boden/Lulea to Haparanda

You can travel from Boden or Lulea by train or bus.

The train has a somewhat peculiar route: it starts in Lulea and travels VIA Boden to Haparanda. The journey takes approx. 2 hours (from Lulea) or approx. 1 hour 30 minutes (from Boden). So if you are coming from Narvik, it is quicker to change trains in Boden.

Train number	R7182	R7188	R7194	R7184	R7190	R7186	R7192
Lulea from	05:05	05:44	10:23	11:30	13:15	16:35	18:39
Floor C. from	05:34	06:13	10:52	12:04	13:43	17:16	19:07
Haparanda to	07:00	07:41	12:17	13:29	15:09	18:40	20:32
Traffic days	Monday-Saturday	Sunday	Sunday	Monday-Friday	Saturday	Monday-Friday	Saturday-Sunday

Source journey times: Deutsche Bahn (as of January 2025, journey times for the 2nd half of 2025 not yet published).

TIP: Boden can be found by entering "Boden Centralstation".

You can also take the bus from Lulea to Haparanda/Kemi. The journey time is approx. 2h40. There are between 2 and 10 departures per day, which you can look up here: https://lanstrafikennorrbotten.se/sok-resa

Planning the route part 4 - from Haparanda to Kemi

There are buses from Haparanda/Tornio-RC to Kemi almost every hour. The journey takes 30-40 minutes.

You can look up the timetable here: https://www.matkahuolto.fi/passengers/timetables

When I tried this, it seems to me that only a maximum of 5 journeys per day are displayed. Nothing has been published for the summer yet either. I recommend that you search again a few weeks before travelling. The Matkahuolto app might also help. I also find an IC train (IC408 towards Oulu) on 1 June 2025, which is scheduled to depart from Tornio at 21:55 and arrive in Kemi at 22:20. However, I cannot find this train on the German and Finnish railways.

Planning the alternative route - from Kiruna to Pello

Länstrafiken Norbotten also operates buses from Kiruna to Pello. There are up to three departures a day. However, I couldn't find out the days the buses run. The journey time is between 3:50 and 4:30 hours. You can look them up here: https://lanstrafikennorrbotten.se/sok-resa

Kiruna bus station from -> Pello Pellohallen to

07:05 -> 10:55
13:30 -> 18:00
17:15 -> 21:45

Funnily enough, the buses continue to Haparanda, but then take six hours in total. I haven't yet checked whether it's worth travelling directly from Kiruna to Hapranda by bus.

I don't know if Interrail is accepted on these buses. If not, you have to pay extra (approx. 30EUR).

Planning the route 5: Routes

If you want to take the night train from Tornio, you have to plan a long walk from Hapranda station or from the bus stop "Haparanda-Tornio-RC/Rescezentrum" (where the bus arrives) to Tornio-Itäinen station. According to google 3km in 38 min.

The same as for Tornio also applies to Pello, as it is the same train. Also in Pello you have to plan another 2.8km in 34 min from the bus stop "Pello-Pellohallen" (on the Swedish side!) according to google. By the way, the railway stations in Pello and Tornio look like village stops, so don't be surprised.

NOTE: You arrive in Sweden at both Haparanda (railway station) and Pello and cross the border on foot, where the clocks are set one hour ahead.

In Kemi, on the other hand, the bus stops not far from the railway station. This station is also quite small, but at least it has a nice bus shelter. More about this in my travelogue.

Routes:

Haparanda railway station à "Haparanda-Tornio-RC/Resce centre": 2.0 km/28 minutes

"Haparanda-Tornio-RC/Resce Centre" à Tornio-Itäinen: 3.1 km/43 minutes

Haparanda railway station à Tornio-Itäinen: 4.7 km/64 minutes

Pello-Pellohallen à Pello railway station: 2.8 km/38 minutes

Kemi bus station à Kemi railway station: 0.2 km/5 minutes

Source: google maps, running times vary individually

Planning the route 6: Joining

I think this step is logical. Just choose the right times, research the missing bus times and put the journey together. Make sure you take into account the routes and the time change at the border between Finland and Sweden.

Interrail

As it's been a while since I travelled, I'm not quite sure where Interrail is recognised. But it should be the case that ALL trains can be used free of charge. Also, in 2019, the Lulea-Haparanda/Tornio bus was free with Interrail (it counted as a "train"). Buses between Haparanda and Kemi depend on the operator as to whether they are free of charge. In case of doubt they usually cost about 9€. As I don't know if it's still allowed to buy the ticket directly from the bus driver in 2025, it's best to have the app and/or 9€ ready.

The long buses from Kiruna to Pello are certainly not available at no extra cost, nor is the Narvik-Kiruna bus.

What is the best way to get from Narvik to Kemi in one day?

At the time of my trip (2019), there were no trains from Boden to Haparanda. That's why I travelled to Kiruna the day before, visited the ore mine there and stayed overnight. Then I took the 10 a.m. Norrtag train to Lulea, and from there two buses to Kemi, where I took the last night train late in the evening. That still works today.

If you really want to travel in one day, then you have to take the 4 o'clock bus from Narvik, for example.

If you start in Narvik with the 10:25 IC, you can still make it to Haparanda by 20:32 with a change (doesn't work on all weekdays). Unfortunately, this is too late for the 22:16 night train from Tornio, as you arrive at 20:32 Swedish time and the journey to Tornio-Itäinen is 4.7 kilometres long, for which you only have 42 minutes (you would have to run quite a bit). A taxi would solve the problem here.

What might be possible is to arrive in Haparanda (railway station) at 20:32 and walk to the Haparanda/Tornio RC (arrival there at 22:00 Finnish time if everything goes smoothly). If a bus would leave there shortly after 10 pm, you could just make the 10:50 pm train in Kemi. Close.

If you want to stay overnight in Kiruna like I did, then I can recommend AirBnB, as there are only one or two hostels in Kiruna, which may already be fully booked.

My journey from Kiruna via Lulea and Haparanda to Kemi

Norrtag Kiruna-Lulea

As I said, the most reliable are the two IC night trains in Kemi (the very early and the late one) and so I decided to take No. 2 from my list.

I combined it with the Norrtag in the late morning at 10:20 from Kiruna to Lulea. The journey time was slightly different on my trip, but that shouldn't matter. This time I took the shuttle bus from the central bus station to Kiruna's "temporary railway station", as it is officially called.

Map of Kiruna with railway station (red dot) and bus station (bus symbol).

Here are two more photos of the shuttle bus timetable in Kiruna (taken in 2019):

It doesn't really work that well, as the bus usually arrives more than a quarter of an hour before the train departs, so there is no real time advantage. The same applies in the opposite direction, where the bus is strangely not there when you arrive, but you usually have to wait quite a while. The walk is about 2.5 kilometres long. Here are a few more photos of the small bus shelter in Kiruna. Apart from a few seats, a toilet (at least it's free) and the electronic display, there's not much of a station to be seen here and there's only one track. Hopefully a nice new one will be built soon, if possible near the town!

My Norrtag regional train then comes rolling from the sidings to the platform just before the end of the journey.

I am somewhat surprised by its layout with 2+3 seats in 2nd class. I usually only know this from broad-gauge trains, which is not the case in Sweden.

In addition to 2nd class, there is also a 1st class on the train, which only has 2+2 chairs.

And a chic little on-board bistro with snacks and drinks:

I try to close my eyes a little on the journey, but unfortunately the train stops too often, including the associated announcements. The train is a kind of regional train which, as far as I know, covers all stations from Kiruna to Lulea, unlike the night train Stockholm-Boden-Kiruna-Narvik, which also has scheduled coaches from Narvik to Lulea (but not as a night train).

Lulea is reached after just under four hours. The most important stations on the route are Gällivare, where you can change to the inland railway. Peter has written a blog about this. In Boden (the third last station before Kiruna) you have a connection to Stockholm (which you can also get in Kiruna) and to Haparanda in the direction of Finland.

The penultimate stop is "Sunderby Sjukhus". "Sjukhus", the "Hus" (house) for the "sjuk", i.e. "sick people", is named after the hospital in the neighbourhood. Another linguistic tidbit of the Swedish language. And then comes Lulea. More of a village railway station, albeit with a bright yellow façade. Our train parks next to the night train from Stokholm.

Bus journey Lulea-Haparanda

Now it's time to find the bus station. I have photographed a map for you here.

Lulea C." catches the eye. To the north-west of it, just two squares further on, you can see the bus symbol. In fact, it's only about 250 metres through a park until you get there. It is also really well signposted. Quasi foolproof. 5 minutes at sprinting speed would be enough here, but only if the going gets tough.

It takes me a leisurely 10 minutes with a lot of strolling. The "Avgaende" sign (another great example of how Germans can read a lot in Sweden) tells me that my bus to Haparanda/Tornio RC will leave at 15:10. The letter indicates the bus route.

Please check the timetable of Länstrafiken Norbotten before travelling: https://lanstrafikennorrbotten.se/sok-resa

Some buses only run on some days.

There is a restaurant and a supermarket in the waiting hall. So if you are hungry, you are well catered for.

I read my book for another half hour before boarding the bus. My Interrail ticket is accepted without any problems. It's a big double-decker bus and I take a seat at the top in front of the large window.

We drive briefly along the Baltic Sea until we turn inland. The bus stops relatively often, but many of the stops are only on demand, where there is only a small bus shelter. Conversely, this means that if you want to travel by bus in Sweden, you should make yourself clearly known at such a stop when you want to get on.

In addition, there is mainly a lot of forest. Typical Sweden. There is also a speed limit of 110 on the roads, despite the fact that they appear to be quite well developed. In the middle is the border fence known for Swedish "motorways", at least sometimes.

Driving on the Swedish motorway.

Shortly before the end of the journey, you come to a roundabout. There is a "Finland" sign at the other end and this is where the bus turns towards Haparanda and Tornio Before that, it also stops at the railway station in Haparanda, but this was not served at the time (2019). Then comes the final stop Haparanda/Tornio RC. RC stands for Rescezentrum, which means travel centre. A few years ago, this station was built as a centre for both cities and is located on the Swedish side.

TIP: Trains (approx. 2-7 departures per day) are now travelling from Lulea via Boden to Haparanda again.

Bus trip Haparanda-Kemi

The next map will show you the two border towns in more detail. They are separated by a river.

Map of Haparanda (left) and Tornio (right/island)

The big "I" in the centre is the bus station, the "Tornio-Itäinen" station is in the top right corner. Theoretically, night trains to Helsinki also run there, but not on my journey. I therefore have to change trains here. I have about half an hour for this. There is a certain amount of infrastructure here too, consisting of a restaurant (but it's as good as closed in the evening), lockers, even free toilets and clocks in both time zones. As I said, Finland is one hour ahead of Sweden. There is also a tourist information office in the travel centre. The electronic display shows me the letter for the departure platform of my bus to Kemi, travelling in the direction of Oulu.

As he stands there, I want to get on. But stop! "No Interrail!" I'm told as I show my ticket. I try to explain that this actually applies, that it was on the Interrail website and ... "No Interrail!!!". I am furious! "Why?" I ask. "No Interrail!!!" replies the bus driver in the same tone of voice over and over again, without any additional explanation. They seem to be the only English words he has been taught. In the end, I have to pay a whole EUR 8, which is a relatively heavy burden on my student budget that evening. What the hell! While I spent the journey from Lulea to Kemi mainly listening to music, I spend this journey being angry. That really was explicitly stated on the website: From Lulea to Kemi, the Interrail ticket is valid as a ticket. I had written it down... When the bus stops again at the beginning, I try again to force the driver to justify himself. But once again he just unkindly spreads out his entire English vocabulary in front of me. "Give it up!" Franz Kafka would say. We pass the border river between Sweden and Finland.

After just over half an hour we reach Kemi. In the meantime, even more passengers have boarded, which I end up using to get an interpreter. It turns out that only a few bus companies recognise Interrail on this route. Mine is called "Matkahuolto" (the largest long-distance bus company in Finland) and is unfortunately not one of them. But at least it's a comprehensible explanation. Why not like this!

TIP: check beforehand whether the coach company in question recognises Interrail. It usually does not. And you usually have to decide according to departure time anyway and don't have the luxury of waiting for the free bus. At least then you are informed. Buying your ticket online, if necessary, also saves a little money.

Kemi

We have already reached Kemi during this conversation. I take a look around. The bus station here also houses a restaurant with a somewhat kitschy ambience of wooden panelling inside the building.

Everything seems quite deserted here. So I quickly move on. Towards the trees, I find the sign "Rautatiasema" and it pays off that I can say "railway station" in 14 different languages.

And indeed: just down the road and you're at the railway station. Here, too, 5 minutes is enough in a pinch. Especially as trains to Helsinki actually always run on platform 1 (without a subway), but only once or twice a day. There are free toilets and a nice waiting room at Kemi station, here are some photos:

As I still have about two hours to spare, I walk through the town in search of the snow castle. I find this nice signpost with short and distant places.

Of course, the "Snowcastle" doesn't have "office hours" in summer, but it was still a nice evening stroll. Here is another map of Kemi.

The red dot is the railway station. If you have plenty of time, I recommend a walk to the Baltic Sea. The night train to Helsinki leaves at 22:33, you can find a blog about it here.

Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed my blog. If so, please feel free to recommend us! You can buy Interrail Passes here on our website. We will then receive a small commission to support our content (the price remains the same!).
Buy your Interrail Pass here

If you want to stay overnight along the way, then it's best to look at AirBnB or Bookingas there are usually only a few classic hostels in the north.

I made the trip in 2019 and updated the blog for the last time in January 2025.

As you may have noticed, this blog has been a lot of work. So if you are travelling the route in the summer or find information that hasn't yet been included here, please let me know in a comment: I'll be happy to update the blog again in the summer!

If you have any questions, please feel free to write a comment.

Thanks for reading and see you soon on RailDude!

Important links

Timetable: it depends on the connection you choose. See above.

Buy train tickets. Price depends on date of travel and train class: SJ - Swedish railway

Book a hotele.g. in Narvik, Kiruna or Kemi: Booking.com

InterRail - a train ticket for the whole of Europe: InterRail

Information about the author of this article.