In general, there are two night trains from Stockholm to northern Sweden: The NT94 to Narvik (Norway, on the North Sea) via Kiruna and the NT94 to Lulea on the Baltic Sea. The same train number indicates that the two trains belong together. One Blog about the night train to Narvik Peter has written. I would now like to report on the train to Lulea.
Journey times
The NT94 to Lulea/Narvik departs from Stockholm-Central at 18:11 in the early evening. Arrival in Lulea as early as 06:35. To Boden (arrival 05:40, onward journey 06:01) it travels together with the train to Narvik. There is also a connection to Narvik in Boden, but this is not really necessary because you could board this train directly in Stockholm after Narvik. You can find the journey times with all intermediate stops on rail.cc: https://rail.cc/de/nachtzug/stockholm-lulea-nt-94-3965/107
The return journey is not until 21:14 in Lulea. Stockholm is reached at 09:45. Return night train: https://rail.cc/de/nachtzug/lulea-stockholm-nt-3962-93/108
Alternative for late risers and evening walkers
If you don't want to spend the evening on the train from 6 pm, you can also take the NT92 (departure 21:12 in Stockholm). Arrival in Lulea at 11:03. Journey times also on rail.cc:https://rail.cc/de/nachtzug/stockholm-lulea-nt-92/485
Return journey of the alternative train as NT91 from Lulea as early as 16:58. This makes the train an early riser on the return journey, arriving in Stockholm at 06:38. The journey times here: https://rail.cc/de/nachtzug/lulea-stockholm-nt-91/386
Airport connection and feeder to Finland
Der Zug hält im Normalfall auch in Arlanda Central, dem Bahnhof des Flughafens Stockholm-Arlanda. Die Fahrtzeit mit dem NT von dort nach Stockholm beträgt 23 Minuten, sodass man die An- bzw Abfahrtszeit leicht wissen kann, wenn man die Zeit für Stockholm (siehe oben) kennt. Ansonsten einfach bei rail.cc nachschauen 😉
If you want to travel further to northern Finland, the overnight train to Lulea is also a good option, as from Lulea to Kemi (Finland) and Northern Finland Buses runwhich are included in the Interrail Pass at least up to the border. I will report on this in a separate blog. From Kemi you can take the night train to Helsinki.
UPDATE: since 2020, travelling from Lulea to Haparanda (Swedish-Finnish border) also trains from Norrtag again.
However, a more direct route from Stockholm to Helsinki with a journey time of around 14 hours would be the ferry: https://rail.cc/de/faehre-verbindungen/stockholm-helsinki/12
Tickets
You can get all tickets for the SJ (statens järnvägar, Swedish state railway) on SJ. On the train, you can choose between different options, from a seat (cheapest) to couchettes and sleeping cars (highest category), which I will explain in more detail below.
Interrail
In principle, you can also use any comfort class with Interrail. Just go back to the website of SJ. There you click on the traveller "Traveller 1", click on "Travels with a travel card" and select "Interrail/Eurail". You can get an overview of the reservation prices here: https://rail.cc/de/interrail-nachtzug/stockholm-lulea-nt-94-3965/107
Or briefly summarised by me: Seated coach 4 EUR, couchette coach 26 EUR, sleeper coach from 43 EUR (without private shower).
UPDATE: From 2021, the night trains Stockholm-Narvik/Lulea will be operated by "Vy" (Norwegian railway). Journey times and carriage material should remain the same. Unfortunately, we do not know whether the reservation prices will also remain the same.
Dining car
Unfortunately, I arrive at the station just in time to see on the display board that my train leaves platform 4 at eleven past six, the first of which I already knew, of course. I'm quite surprised when a veritable monster of a night train awaits me there. A whopping 15 carriages (roughly estimated) are waiting to depart from the station concourse.
The front section is only going to Kiruna today, as there seem to be problems further on to Narvik. The rear section is travelling to Lulea. I only have a few minutes left and decide without further ado to just get on the Narvik section. I knew it was possible to walk through on the train. I take advantage of this for my photos. The first thing I pass is the dining car.
I didn't eat here, as my Interrail tours often try to be as inexpensive as possible. Nevertheless, the prices in the on-board bistro are said to be moderate, if you are interested you can read more about this in the Blog from Peter.
Seating coach
But I'm not quite that thrifty and so I don't sacrifice my night's sleep for the 4 Euro seat trolley. It looks like this (see pictures). There is also a wheelchair-accessible WC and lockers for extra luggage or bulky luggage.
Sleeping car
The sleeping car was also not for me. It is available in three versions: for one person, for 2 people or for 3. The compartment is the same, only either one, two or 3 beds are folded out. There is always a washbasin with a mirror and power socket, with the option of a separate shower, otherwise sleeping car travellers can use a shared shower in the carriage, which I don't have a photo of. All sleeping car doors can be locked. There is a lockable luggage compartment in each sleeper carriage.
My journey in a couchette coach
However, I traditionally treat myself to the couchette carriage on night trains, which cost 26 euros here. It also has power sockets, but no shower.
After walking backwards through the many carriages, I soon arrive at the last carriages. I start looking through the numbers to see where my couchette compartment is. When I see the nineties numbers, five dark faces look at me from one compartment. Don't get me wrong, but I didn't expect this in Sweden, and even less so that I would obviously have to sleep in a full compartment, even though I had seen a few empty compartments on the way (where there would logically have been much more space).
The people are friendly and even make room for "my" seat. I have the couchette right at the top, but the compartment is still in the daytime position, so there are six seats. These are also numbered, so I sit on the same number as my couchette. There is a small tetra pack of water for each passenger.
We don't talk much, but we do exchange ideas about where we come from. "Germany" I reply. A father and his daughter seem to be from Somalia, another gentleman too, but I don't know if they are travelling together. The other two are coming from India, possibly a father with his daughter. The man is already a bit frail and therefore gets the lower couch.
In Uppsala, surprisingly, an elderly Swedish lady boards the train. More people in this compartment? I remember that children travel free of charge as long as they sleep on the same couchette as a parent. That seems to be the case here, the little one is perhaps 8 years old. And so the compartment is full to bursting with 7 people.
Stop in Uppsala.
Here are a few more impressions from the trip:
But soon it's also bedtime. I've already eaten the dinner I brought with me; the Indians have some traditional Indian food, including the characteristic smell. Around ten we unfold the beds, it's not quite dark outside yet. There is also a safety rail for the upper beds.
I take a seat on the upper bed (2nd picture), the dad with his child in the centre, the Indians below. A funny combination.
The night is fairly quiet until we reach Bastüträsk. The train stands there for two hours, during which I wake up. It actually continues here after a short stop to reach Boden C before 6 a.m., but today Boden is not on the schedule until 9 a.m., I suspect construction work. Around this time, the Swedish lady starts snoring and grunting. Not entirely conducive to my sleep. As I already have experience of this, I bump into her several times and she even wakes up. I try to explain to her in a friendly manner that she was snoring and she even apologises. Nevertheless, I'm only half asleep until the end. It's time to get up in Boden. I take a look at the railway station during the shunting process. 1094 kilometres from Stockholm, it says on a sign. I assume that's the distance by rail, but still: Sweden is that big!
First, the part of the train to Kiruna/Narvik (in front) is detached, to which a daytime IC with a few carriages is then attached. Then this train continues northwards and then the section to Lulea heads southwards.
Luleå
Arrival in Lulea is (see above) six thirty-five, but today, as planned, about 3 hours later. Unfortunately there is no breakfast in the couchette coach. The town is on the Baltic Sea. Its railway station is small, yellow, but rather insignificant. From here it is well signposted to the bus station, about 200 metres away, from where you can travel to Finland. But more on that in a future blog.
Here again the link to normal tickets or reservations at the SJ: https://rail.shop/acprail
And of course we also offer Interrail passes: https://rail.shop/interrail
If you would like to stay overnight in Lulea, then take a look at booking.com
If you use these booking links, you support us at raildude.com. We will receive a small commission as a thank you for free content like this. The price of course remains the same.
If you liked my blog, please recommend us to others!
And if you have any questions about your trip: just write a comment and you will be helped!
Important links
Timetable / Journey time approx. 12:20 hours: rail.cc
Buy train tickets. Price depends on date of travel and train class: SJ - Swedish railway
Book a hotel in Stockholm and Luleå: Booking.com
InterRail - a train ticket for the whole of Europe: InterRail
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