VR Class Sm3

The Sm3 Pendolino is the class of high-speed body-tilting electric multiple units that VR Group runs on Finnish intercity routes. It belongs to the Pendolino family and its design is based on the Italian ETR 460. VR announced the order in February 1992 after also weighing ABB X 2000 and the Talgo Pendular. The first two trainsets were assembled in Finland by Rautaruukki-Transtech in the mid-1990s, and the rest of the series of eighteen units were built by Fiat Ferroviaria, later part of Alstom, between 2000 and 2006. The trains have a power output of 4,000 kW and a maximum operating speed of 220 km/h, a speed that was first reached in regular traffic only in 2006 when the new line between Kerava and Lahti opened. The class had a long prototype phase and a lasting reputation for reliability trouble in Finnish winter weather, though passengers also gave it positive feedback and it raised operating speeds on the network.