traffic and transport

Oku Luukkainen gigs hard in addition to his radio work. Mikko Räsänen

Radio host and DJ Oku Luukkainen was supposed to perform the night before Saturday in Tampere, but he got stuck in Toijala due to VR’s train chaos.

– At first it seemed that the train would arrive in Tampere an hour and a half late. It wouldn’t have been a complete disaster for me, because I had two hours of waiting time, Luukkainen tells Iltalehte.

However, the train in front froze and slowed down the journey even more. The train ahead was evacuated to the one behind. In the end, we arrived in Tampere five hours behind schedule.

Before that, Luukkainen had had to cancel his evening gig.

Luukkainen often relies on state railways on his work trips, and nothing like this has happened to him before.

– I was left with the feeling that when such a rare disaster occurs, maybe you could think of something specific. With quite small things, it could somehow be repaid in an instant. When you followed people’s frustration, maybe some rolls for people from the restaurant trolley could have come into question, Luukkainen reflects.

DJ says that there were also elderly people and children among the passengers.

– The restaurant car had quite a boisterous atmosphere. There, they knew how to approach the matter with good feelings. People only started to get excited that the stop would come at half past two and passengers from the evacuated train might also come to drink, Luukkainen laughs.

Luukkainen already had staff in Tampere preparing for the gig.

– In my case, without helping out financially, I’m in trouble. I don’t know yet how the compensation matters will go, Luukkainen says.

Luukkainen has made a compensation claim to VR for the loss of income.

– I have submitted a compensation claim to VR, it is several thousand euros, Luukkainen says.

Next week, Luukkainen will perform in Jyväskylä.

– I will go back to using the train, but next time I plan to go by car. I play it safe, says Luukkainen.