The train has not managed to cope with harsh Finnish weather conditions, and the time benefit of the tilting mechanism has not be taken into account since the timetables of winter 2011–2012.

Nevertheless, the Sm3 has also received positive feedback from passengers and has led to increased operating speeds on the Finnish rail network.

[1][2] ABB's X 2000 and the Talgo Pendular were considered in addition to the Italian train; the latter was chosen due to its lower price (70 million FIM per unit) and because it was already running.

[1][3] Thanks to its tilting mechanism, the Pendolino – unlike such other European high-speed trains like the TGV, Thalys, and AVE – does not need to run on specialised high-speed lines, which was important to VR;[4] instead, it runs on existing lines, and was expected to surpass the speed attained by traditional trains by 35%.

Building trains that could ensure passenger comfort at high speed on these routes by tilting through the curves was seen as a much cheaper solution than reconstructing the railway network itself due to Finland's low population and long distances.

[2] It was expected that the train would, as in Italy, run at a maximum speed of 250 km/h (160 mph) and significantly shorten the travel times between major cities.

It was used to test how the Pendolino would cope with Finland's winter and rail network by running it in Northern Karelia between Nurmes and Vieki.

[2][9] The first finished train was unveiled to the press on 14 October 1994,[10][11] and the first two trainsets started their regular test traffic on 27 November 1995 between Helsinki and Turku on the coastal track.

[13] Testing later resumed, and VR announced in 1997 that it would start normal operations with the Pendolino despite electrical problems.

[14] The ability of the train to cope with the Finnish winter was put into question,[3] but VR denied that coldness had been a factor in the electrical failures.

[14] Testing ended in August 1997, after the two trainsets had covered a total of 815,000 kilometres (506,000 mi) during 3,870 trips between Helsinki and Turku.

[15] VR's CEO Henri Kuitunen was positive about the new train in 1998, stating that passengers feel it has been a good purchase.

The badly secured train had come loose during a storm on the Atlantic, almost causing the loss of M/S Traden, the ship carrying it.

Thanks to good actions of the ship's crew, it was able to reach Le Havre and the train was sent back to Italy to be repaired.

[22] The delegation's leader, Kaj-Erik Fohlin, had made 30 trips between the two cities in January 2005 using the Pendolino, 12 of which had been on schedule.

[26] The Sm3 was able to attain its maximum operating speed in regular traffic only in 2006, when a new rail line was opened between Kerava and Lahti and the full Pendolino fleet was available.

[27] VR advertised the arrival of the full Pendolino fleet with the slogan "New Train Era" (Finnish: Uusi juna-aika).

It started on 3 September 2006, when the line between Kerava and Lahti was officially opened and timetables changed to take the full potential of the Sm3 into account.

[28] The Pendolino has received bad publicity since the first units were taken in service for its serious reliability issues, mostly caused by technical problems with the tilting system and the couplers.

This consumed one extra train slot on the heavily used rail sections causing cascading timetable delays.

[29] Due to the problems VR ended the practice of coupling Pendolino trains on-the-fly at the two intersection stations; in Tampere in late 2007 and in Kouvola during autumn 2008.

Pentti Kuokkanen, project coordinator of VR Engineering downplayed the problems when questioned about the reliability of another Fiat Ferroviaria multiple unit, the Sm4, in 1999.

[3] In the 2010s, the novelty of the Pendolino has worn off and VR has even used the train in regional traffic between Oulu and Rovaniemi due to rail works in summer 2011.

[49] The trains are distinguished in Finnish railway timetables by the letter S. The Pendolino network radiates out from the capital Helsinki.

Five main routes serve most of Finland's big cities:[49][64] The newest service between Helsinki and Vaasa started on 12 December 2011, with the completion of the electrification work on the Seinäjoki–Vaasa line.

[68] At least two livery variants were tested on scale models, which were later exposed at VR's conference centre at Helsinki central railway station: one has a red strip for the whole length of the train, with the window backgrounds painted grey.

[71] The trains were originally marked with only a V instead of the full VR logo to symbolise the company's high speed transport.

[81] In December 2010, Karelian Trains, a joint venture by VR and RZhD, started a new service linking Helsinki to St. Petersburg, Russia using a new model of the Pendolino called the Sm6 Allegro.

[83] The train is capable of dual-voltage running due to differences between the electric systems of the Finnish and Russian rail network and is equipped with four pantographs.

[84] The service has been suspended since 27 March 2022 due to the international sanctions,[85] and in its half-year report VR Group announced that it wrote off all Allegro rolling stock and spare parts.