The name VR-Yhtymä OY (in short cut the VR) means state railway Finnish. Until 1995, the VR was called Valtionrautatiet. The VR is, except some minor ways of museum, the only railroad company in Finland.

History

The construction of railways started relatively late in Finland. The first line was open on January 31st, 1862 between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna and was already exploited by company VR. A line towards Saint-Pétersbourg was open into 1870 which made it possible to connect Helsinki to the Russian capital on which Finland depended then. Thus, broad spacing of 1524  mm (to be compared with the European standard spacing 1435  mm) then into force in the Russian empire was adopted.

The construction of the network continued with the opening of the connection Helsinki - Hämeenlinna - Toijala - Tampere on June 22nd, 1876 and of the Toijala branch - Turku, thus connecting the three plus big cities of the country. The development of the network towards the north of the country continued by the installation into 1878 of a Tampere line - Haapamäki - Seinäjoki - Vaasa and by the construction of the Vaasa section - Oulu six years later. Rovaniemi, the capital of the Finnish Lapland, was however connected to the network only in 1909.

Many lines were open during the XXe century, in particular of the important sectios as the line Parkano - Seinäjoki in the Années 1970 which made it possible to shorten considerably the journey time between the south and the north of the country.

A great programme of electrification in 25 Kv 50 Hz was set up in 1968. The first section electrified between Helsinki and Kirkkonummi was brought into service in 1969.

Present

Importance

As in the majority of the European countries, the share of the rail-bound transport stupid exhausted. In 1996, the transport of passengers in Finland was distributed between the various means of transport in the following way:

• automobile Transport: 79,4%

• Transport by bus/bus: 12,6%
• Railroad (VR): 5,2%
• Air transport: 1,2%

However, the absolute number travellers increased, put has share during the economic crisis of the beginning of the year 1990. Only in 1996 the number of traveller-kilometers thus increased by 2,2%. As for goods transport, it especially developed between 1960 and 1998, without undergoing regression during the economic crisis. The following table presents the evolution of the goods and passenger transport between 1960 and 1998:

• (1) : In billion traveller-kilometers
• (2) : In billion ton-kilometers

Network

In 1996, the network of RHK ( Ratahallintokeskus , Administration of the railways) measured 5.660  km length, of which 2.073  km is 37% is electrified. The share of the electric traction in the whole of transport is of 65%. Exploitation of 381  km however was abandoned since 1982, date on which the network still counted 6041  km of ways. Only 8,5% of the ways are doubled.

Run time and speeds

The maximum speed of the conventional trains is of 160  km/h

The trains run however only to 140  km/h, except in the event of delay being caught up with. In 2003, the lines Helsinki - Kerava - Tampere - Seinäjoki and Helsinki - Espoo - Karis - Salo - Turku was opened at the commercial exploitation at the speed of 160  km/h.

Pendolino constitute an exception: they can roll to 200  km/h on the sections Kerava - Tampere and Karis - Salo and with 180  km/h between Salo and Turku.

Future

Finland being a country little densément populated, railway high speed presents only little interest. However a new line adapted at a speed of exploitation higher than 200  km/h between Helsinki and Lahti was inaugurated in September 2006, reducing times of way between Helsinki, the North-East of the country and the Russia. In addition, a line at high speed between Helsinki and Saint-Pétersbourg (and in a more distant future towards Moscow) is being studied.

See too

• rail-bound Transport in Finland