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4rail.net
- Reference - Finland Welcome to Finnish Main Page! Please pick the category or article below! |
 Created for 4rail.net by Ilkka Siissalo, Stanislav Voronin and John McKey. Pictures by Stanislav Voronin, Ilkka Siissalo and John McKey.  123 | |
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 | General information on Railways in Finland Finnish railways have developed much on their own due to geography and politics. The gauge is (almost) Russian, due to common history with Russia at the time when railways in Finland were first started. However, Finns newer preferred Russian built rolling stock, so most were developed and/or license built by Finnish companies. This was a demanding operation, even with licensing arrangements, for companies of a country as small as 5 million people! While Finland now is part of the European Union, a lot of things are changing, though extremely slowly. The following years for the EU member country will probably see the opening of the competition. One of the things that is problematic for this aim is the geography: Finnish rail network with its 1524 mm networks is separated from the rest of the EU members. There has also been plans on building a tunnel under the Finnish gulf for connections south, but so far this tunnel is just in prestudy stage. More information on arrangements of operations and infrastructure... | ||
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Finnish High Speed Operations Finland has a respectable 18 unit fleet of 6 car Alstom/Fiat Pendolinos. These high speed tilting trains are operated by VR-Yhtyma, the Finnish State Railways with 100% market share in this segment. It is doubtful if there will be any competiton in this segment any time in the near future, because of the isolation and the gauge differences. Russian railways could compete seriously, but since Russia is not part of the EU, RZD (the Russian Railways) is not a threat to existing operator. Finnish VR-Yhtyma has also pooled efforts with the Russian RZD on international traffic to St Petersburg for starters and a joint venture Karelian Trains will receive additional four seven car Pendolino type Allegro units from 2010. These will start their revenue traffic in 2010 connecting Helsinki Finland and St Petersburg Russia in 3,5 hours! Currently it takes an incredible 5 - 6 hours to travel between these cities by rail, while the road connection takes about 4 hours. |
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 | Finnish Rolling
Stock Types and Classes  Multiple
Units in Finland... Electric
Locomotives in Finland... Diesel
Locomotives in Finland...  Types and Classes Page of Finnish
Rolling Stock... Types and Classes Page of Finnish
Heritage Rolling Stock... Hunting Sr1 Wolfpacks in Finland... Finnish Picture Page in Gallery  Finnish RR
Picture Gallery... | ||
 | Finnish Rail Operators and Rolling Stock Owners
Because of the long lasted isolation all the Finnish national operators come from Finland. Number one is still the state owned VR-yhtyma with 100% market share on passenger transportation and almost 100% share on the freight market. The change is however slowly taking place. Junakalusto Oy of the metropolitan Helsinki cities and VR is going to own a fleet of Flirt-EMUs in the next few years and there are also rumors about small operator start ups on the freight business. Finnish Operator and Owners
Page...
Finnish Operator and
Owner VR-Yhtyma...
Fenno-Russian
Operator and
Owner Karelian Trains...
VR-Yhtyma Roster and Technical Info
page... |
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 | Helsinki
Metropolitan Area Operators and Rolling Stock Owners The only place with high volumes of both passengers and freight to transport in Finland is Helsinki area with its surroundings. Like any other bigger city, Helsinki has a multimodal commuter system. On rails narrow gauge trams add to the capacity of the normal trains. Finnish Train Owner Junakalusto Info
and Roster Page... Operator and Owner HKL (City of
Helsinki) Info and Roster Page... | ||
 | Russians
in Finland Being right next door from Finland it is obvious you see a lot of Russian rolling stock in Finland. Locos are not allowed too far beyond the border areas, but there is a lot of other rolling stock always to be seen. Russians in Finland... Hunting for Sr1 Wolfpacks in
Finland... |
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 | Field Guide to
Finnish Railroads Visiting in Finland? Ask us on the Finnish Railroads Field Guide! |
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 | Historical Rolling
Stock and Railways Guide "Chicken"/Vr1/L1 Steam Picture and
Technical Info Page... |
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