Finland - General Information

Country Name

Finland (Suomi)

National Railway System

National Railway Operator

VR Oy (VR AB). This used to be the official abbreviation of Valtionrautatiet (= State railway), but is now the full company name.

Language

Finnish and Swedish are both official languages of Finland. Swedish is the first language of only 6% of the population, who live mainly in the south and west. Many public notices and signs are in both languages. In towns where the Swedish place name is used, the Finnish version is almost always shown as well.

Currency

Euro

UIC code

numeric 10; alpha FIN. This is not shown on VR rolling stock, which is not numbered according to the UIC system.

Timetable

Journey Planner

www.vr.fi/en/index/aikataulut.html

Downloadable Timetable

VR Timetables for long distance trains by route are available only in Finnish at Kaukoliikenteen aikataulut web page. The English version gives only station departure lists in PDF format. A diagrammatic route map is available for the Long-distance Service Network. There is a link to the section for Helsinki suburban services, where there are station departure lists in PDF format, but not full timetables.

Printed Timetable

VR Oy publishes four timetable booklets. Kaukoliikenne (in Finnish), Fjärrtrafik (in Swedish) and Rail Pocket Guide (in English) show all main line trains, plus outline details of the Helsinki suburban services. Lähiliikenne Närtrafik, which is bi-lingual Finnish and Swedish, gives full details of Helsinki suburban services. Suomen Kulkuneuvot (in Swedish Finlands Kommunikationer) is produced by Edita Oy, PL 800, 00043 Edita. It shows rail, bus, air and boat services throughout Finland and contains explanatory notes in Finnish, Swedish, English, French, German and Russian. It is not sold at railway stations, but can be purchased at large bookshops.

Engineering Information

www.vr.fi/en/index/aikataulut/liikennetilanne/ratatyot.html

Maps

Printed Maps

• European Railway Atlas: Scandinavia and Eastern Europe by M.G. Ball (1993) (ISBN 0-7110-2072-4)
• European Railway Atlas by M.G. Ball (2008 onwards)
• Railways are depicted well in GT Tiekartasto Suomi-Finland, a road atlas with maps at 1:200,000 (1:400,000 north of Oulo).

Web-based Maps

• Thorsten Büker's Map of Finland

Ticketing

Supplements or enhanced fares are payable for travel on IC, IC2 and Pendolino trains. These include a seat reservation. Reserved seats are not marked as such on any type of long-distance train.

If tickets are purchased or a supplement paid on the train, an additional charge is made, unless the passenger boarded at a station where there was no facility to buy a ticket. If a ticket is purchased from a machine there is a small rebate on the price. A penalty fare system operates on Helsinki suburban trains, and passengers without a ticket must board a carriage where tickets are sold by staff. Carriages in which tickets cannot be purchased are indicated by prominent signs on the outside.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure Authority

Ratahallintokeskus (in Swedish, Banförvaltningscentralen) was responsible for infrastructure but in early 2010 was merged with the Roads agency into Liikennevirasto (in Swedish, Trafikverket), the Finnish Transport Agency.

Network Statement

The Finnish Railway Network Statement can be downloaded from the Network Statement, Railways page.

Gauge

1524 mm. There are 1435 mm gauge lines at Turku, Uusikaupunki, and Hanko, which were used in connection with the train ferries there. None of these lines is now in operation as the last train ferry, at Turku, closed 31 December 2011.

Electrification

25kV 50Hz

Rule of the Road

Right but most of the network is single-tracked. Double track lines are mostly equipped with bidirectional signaling. Unusually, on four-track lines the directions are ↓↑↑↓ - i.e. the right hand pair of lines is left-handed. From Pasila to Kerava the tracks are southbound fast; northbound fast; northbound local; southbound local. Similarly on the coast line (Pasila - Leppävaara): eastbound fast; westbound fast; westbound local - eastbound local.

Distances

The 2016 Network Statement (see Network Statement) gives overall distances for each section on p.64 onwards and detailed distances for each station from Helsinki in alphabetical order on pp 69 - 82.

Other Railways

Karhulan - Sunnilan rautatie (a freight line near Kotka)

Tourist Lines

• Jokioisten Museorautatie: Humppila - Jokioinen (750 mm gauge)
• Nykarleby Jernvag operates a 600 mm gauge line at Kovjoki, along 2 km of the trackbed of the former VR Uusikaarlepyy branch.
• Porvoon Museorautatie is responsible for the 1524 mm gauge line between Olli and Porvoon keskusta, but operates diesel railcars through to Kerava and Helsinki.
• Höyryraide Ay works steam trains from Nurmes, mainly to Lieksa and Joensuu.

There is a listing of Nordic narrow gauge tourist lines at the Scandinavian Railways Society website.

Rail cycling is possible on a number of lines; see the IG Draisinenfahrten website. Click on 'International', followed by 'Draisinenlinks' to obtain website details under the heading 'Draisinenstrecken in Finnland (FI)'.

Metro

Helsinki 14 km westward extension to Matinkylä is due to open in August 2016.

Trams

Helsinki

A track plan for the Helsinki tram system is available on the Gleisplanweb site.

See also Tram services over obscure routes - Finland

Recent and Future Changes

Following lines are scheduled to close from 10 December 2016. The Ministry of Transport postponed the closures from 27 March 2016 in connection with opening up the rail sector to competition.

11	Orivesi - Haapamäki
14A	Joensuu – Nurmes
17 (part)	Joensuu - Viinijärvi - Varkaus
17 (part)	Jyväskylä – Haapamäki – Seinäjoki

Following the signing in January 2016 of the Finnish-Estonian Transport Link memorandum of understanding, the viability of building a 92 km rail tunnel under the Gulf of Finland between Helsinki and Tallinn is to be assessed.

The 18 km Helsinki Kehärata Ring Line [Vantaankoski - Helsinki-Vantaa Airport - Hiekkaharju (- Tikkurila)] opened on 1 July 2015.

The last train ferry connecting with Sweden, Turku - Stockholm Värtan, closed on 31 December 2011.

Allegro high-speed trainsets were introduced in December 2010 on the 2 daytime services between Helsinki and St Petersburg, cutting the journey time from six hours to three and a half.

A new 19 km freight-only line has been opened from Savio, south of Kerava on the main Helsinki-Tampere line, to the harbour at Vuosaari in eastern Helsinki, which started operation in November 2008.

A high speed line from Kerava to Lahti, a short cut from Helsinki towards the east and St Petersburg, opened to passengers on 3 September 2006.

Upgrading of the Helsinki - Turku line was completed in 1993. The Pönttövuori tunnel, between Jyväskylä and Lievestuore, came into use in 1995 in connection with electrification from Jyväskylä to Pieksämäki. Extensive work has been carried out on the main line between Helsinki and Tampere, a major new alignment at Lempääla coming into use in 2002. Electrification from Oulu to Rovaniemi was completed in December 2004 and from Iisalmi to Oulu in December 2006. The freight line to the Russian border at Vartius is also being electrified.

A new 1524 mm gauge line was planned jointly by a Canadian mining company and the Swedish railways to link new iron ore mines at Kaunisvaara in Sweden (about 20 km WNW of Kolari) with the VR line to Kolari. However this has now been abandoned in favour of road transport to Svappavaara, south east of Kiruna.

Special notes

The spelling of proper names in Finnish varies according to grammatical case. The name of the Finnish capital is Helsinki, but this appears as Helsingistä (from Helsinki), Helsinkiin (to Helsinki), Helsingin (Helsinki's) and in Helsingissä (in Helsinki), as well as Helsingfors in Swedish. Many towns have names in both Finnish and Swedish, eg: Oulu - Uleåborg, Pori - Bjorneborg, Tampere - Tammerfors etc.

Long distance trains also include special areas to be used by those travelling with dogs or other animals. IC and IC2 trains have compartments for passengers suffering from allergies. All parts of Pendolino trains are stated to be designed for passengers with allergies, except for the carriage where animals are permitted.

The following lines are closed to all traffic:

• Aittaluoto - Parkano
• Kihniö – Haapamäki
• Pesiökylä – Taivalkoski
• Kolari – Äkäsjoki
• Niesa – Rautuvaara
• Kiukainen – Säkylä