We had the plan to take SJ intercity train 96 to Gällivare after our one-week stay in Luleå. Then stay there overnight in Gälivare and travel by the Inlandsbanan tourist train south to Östersund next day. Train 96 with a departure time in Luleå at 10:40 appeared very convenient for us. Enough time to vacate the holiday home, park the rental car at the train station and drop the key at the reception of a nearby hotel. We booked the holiday home with AirBnB and reserved the car for the duration of our stay in Luleå ending on Aug. 13th, 2025 well in advance. I had not looked carefully enough on the timetable. Train 96 would run daily in August with one exception: the 13th. Fortunately there was one more train on this day, Vy Norrtåg service 7154, departure time 16:47. As we would have to return the car at noontime we would need to hang around in Luleå for about 5 hours with our luggage. In the middle of July a great surprise: Train 96 on Aug. 13th started to materialise in various travel planners: SJ, ÖBB, finally interrail.eu. Soon it was also possible to buy the compulsory seat reservation on vy.se. (As paper pass users we could not get them online from sj.se or the SJ app.)
On Aug. 13th we parked the rental car on a designated space near the station, handed the key to the receptionist of a nearby hotel and waited for the train to be shunted to the platform. The train which usually had only two carriages this time was composed of five carriages and a class Rc6 locomotive at each end. When the train was shunted to the platform the distinctive noise of the Rc6 demonstrated that the Rc6 and the ÖBB class 1044 (after some modifications 1144), nicknamed Alpenstaubsauger (alpine vacuum cleaner), have common ancestors.
On the train, which left Luleå with about 40 minutest delay were only few passengers. We had an entire carriage for us alone. When we asked the train conductor if we might change seats to a table he denied and explained us that the train will become full in Boden, where we had to wait for passengers from a train from Stockholm which will have up to five hours delay. Because of the long waiting time we got free coffee in the cafeteria car. On the SJ app we found out that the night train Stockholm – Narvik had be cancelled and passengers for Gällivare, Kiruna or Narvik were put on the Stockholm – Luleå night train which arrived in Boden with about four and a half hours delay. Our train filled with passengers to the north and left finally Boden 4 hours 24 minutes behind schedule.
The polar circle we crossed without any ceremonies, no horn blowing and slowing down, as I had it experienced on my first trip on that line in 1978. We reached Gällivare with 4 hours 13 minutes delay, which was still more than one and a half hour earlier than the Vy Norrtåg train which would have been an alternative when the SJ train 96 was not running. If I remember correctly train 96 did not made it to Narvik this very day but was replaced by buses from a station between Kiruna and the Norwegian boarder.
After staying one night in a hotel in Gällivare we boarded the diesel railcar of the Inlandsbanan next morning. The northern part of the Inlandsbanan between Gällivare and Östersund is only in summer served by one train in each direction. The same applies for the southern part Östersund to Mora. The travel time between Gällivare and Östersund is about 13:30 hours and there are 4 longer stops including a 35-minutes lunch and a 50-minutes early dinner stop. Food and beverages have to be ordered some time in advance and are delivered to the train (lunch) ore served in a restaurant near the station (dinner). We had our own food with us and the train attendant obviously did not appreciate it that we did not place any orders with her. Soft drinks, coffee, tea and snacks can also be bought from the attendant.
To my knowledge seat reservations are not compulsory for Interrail/Eurail pass holders but highly advisable as the trains consist usually of a single Y1 diesel railcar which can get full in the high season. Seat reservations could be purchased for SEK 50,- on the Inlandsbanan website. We could select our seats on a seat map, but it was not clear in what direction the seats were facing as the orientation of the railcars is not always the same. On the northern part this does not matter, as the train changes direction in an intermediate station. In addition to the food stops there are two stops at touristic interesting sites, the first one at the polar circle (which in fact is not really interesting). But we got certificates that we had crossed the polar circle.
We saw several reindeers which use the railway track as walking path and for which trains are really dangerous. Once a passenger shouted there was a moose in some distance, but it vanished fast in the forest. The train crossed one of the few railway bridges worldwide which are used also by road traffic and are closed for road vehicles if a train approaches. Finaly we reached Östersund in time that one passenger could catch the Duved – Stockholm night train, With a scheduled arrival time of the Inlandsbanan train at 21:35 and the departure time of the night train at 21:44 this was very courageous. The following night we stayed in Östersund.