Rail transport in Finland

Rail transport in Finland
Operation
National railway	VR Group
Infrastructure company	Finnish Transport Agency
Statistics
Ridership	13 million / year long-distance, 54 million / year in Helsinki commuter traffic
System length
Total	8,816 km (5,478 mi)
Electrified	3,172 km (1,971 mi)
Track gauge
Main	1,524 mm (5 ft)
Electrification
Main	25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead wiring
Features
Longest tunnel	Savio, 13.5 km (8.4 mi)
Map The Finnish railway network in 2010. Lines marked in green are freight- and passenger routes, brown are freight routes and grey are no longer in use.

Map
The Finnish railway network in 2010. Lines marked in green are freight- and passenger routes, brown are freight routes and grey are no longer in use.

13 million / year long-distance,

The Finnish railway network consists of a total of 5,919 km of railways built with 1,524 mm (5 ft) Russian gauge track. Passenger trains are operated by the private state-owned VR Group. They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, though railway connections are available to fewer places than bus connections. Most passenger train services originate or terminate at Helsinki Central railway station, and a large proportion of the passenger rail network radiates out of Helsinki. VR also operates freight services. Maintenance and construction of the railway network itself is the responsibility of the Finnish Rail Administration, which is a part of the Finnish Transport Agency (Finnish: Liikennevirasto). The network is divided in six areal centres, that manage the use and maintenance of the routes in co-operation. Cargo yards and large stations may have their own signalling systems.

Finnish trains have a reputation for being spacious, comfortable and clean. The scenery surrounding the railway lines is considered to be of outstanding natural beauty, especially in Eastern Finland where there are many lakes. Because in most parts of Finland the density of population is low, Finland is not very well suited for railways. Commuter services are nowadays rare outside the Helsinki area, but there are express train connections between most of the cities. As in France, passenger services are mostly connections from various parts of the country to the capital, Helsinki. Currently there are c. 260 passenger round trips driven daily in Finland, excluding Helsinki commuter rail. Nightly passenger trains only operate on the busiest lines between Helsinki or Turku via Oulu to Lapland (minimum distance of c. 650 km (405 mi.)). This leaves most of the tracks free for nightly freight traffic (c.40 M tons/y). In addition there are also good ExpressBus and aeroplane connections, both of which are generally little or a lot more expensive than trains. Buses are sometimes faster and/or cheaper than trains (e.g. Helsinki–Pori).