ROVANIEMI STATION (FINLAND)

Santa Claus Express rides Arctic rails

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Norikazu Tateishi

By Ryoji Kanno

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

As the 11-car Santa Claus Express was about to complete its 800-kilometer journey, the train conductor moved around compartments to rouse passengers so they would be awake for the final stop, Rovaniemi, capital city of the Sapmi region of northern Finland.

The train arrived at Rovaniemi Station at 7:55 a.m., ending a journey of 12 hours and 35 minutes that started in Helsinki at 7:20 p.m. the previous evening.

The station is bereft of decoration, and serves a town on a latitude of 66 degrees north — the edge of the arctic circle.

Although the town, which has a population of about 40,000, is famous around the globe as the "town of Santa Clause," the austere station has no references to the jolly man in red.

The station — used by about 600 people a day — has no ticket gate either. People who alight from a train can get on a bus or go to the parking lot to get their cars without passing through the station building.

According to Jarmo Kariniemi, 52, the managing director of Santa Claus Village, the town welcomes about 400,000 visitors every year who come from around the world to see Santa Claus. "Many of our visitors from Japan are young women," Kariniemi said.

Risto Kemilainen, 51, the assistant stationmaster who sells tickets at the station, said tourists came to Rovaniemi by plane. "Mostly young people and local families use the trains, because, although this is the town of Santa Claus, this isn't his station."

In midwinter the temperature falls to as low as minus 50 C. Therefore, station employees do not worry about decorations, instead concentrating on the clockwork operation of trains that support the daily lives of the local population.

But despite the severe climate, a wonderful gift of nature — the aurora — can sometimes be seen from the station, Kemilainen said.

No wonder the station needs no special decorations.