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4rail.net - Reference - Finland - Operators | |
 European Union has had a strong effect on the shape of the Finnish Railways structure in the past 10 years. Earlier most of the things happened arount the state owned railroad company, now things are slowly starting to diverge.  National
operators Helsinki
Metropolitan area operators OtherNational Operators Rolling stock operators within Finnish territory. Karelia Trains A co-owned startup of the Finnish VR-Yhtyma and RzD, the Russian National Railways. Karelia Trains has ordered 4 Pendolino sets from Alstom to connect Helsinki Finland and St Petersburg Russia more efficiently. These unit will be described in detail in the future, once the details are released. Karhula-Sunila Railway A short line in Kotka-Karhula area. Stora Enso The forest industry giant Stora Enso is to acquire a fleet of several hundred fraight cars of it's own. The company has expressed it's dissatisfaction towards VR-Yhtyma not been able to deliver enough cars for the clients use. The situation is said to have been similar for years. See also the news section for Stora Enso. Teollisuuden Raideliikenne Oy TR Group A new rolling stock operator, which will start it's operations probably before the end of 2008. More on TR Group in the future. United Paper Mills UPM operates a local swithing locomotive in Lappeeranta. The liberalization might lead easily to further expansion of it's existing operations. VR-Yhtyma
NEW PAGEThe Traditional large operator with adequate connections within the country and abroad. In the beginning of the 2008, VR will still has a practical monopoly on the rail traffic, but this status will start slowly deteriorating with the new emerging operators. VR-Yhtyma consists of the railroad operating company for passenger and freight traffic, railroad construction company, etc. The company operates a fleet of several hundred electric and diesel locomotives and EMUs, 18 Pendolino units, and about dozen dmu's. To serve it's customers VR-Yhtyma has probably tens of thousands of freight cars and several hundred passenger cars. More on the rolling stock in the near future.  To the top of the page
Helsinki Metropolitan area operators Rolling stock operators within Helsinki Metropolitan area HKL - the City of Helsinki The city of Helsinki operates metro and trams through it's organization HKL. Helsinki Metro is one branching line with about 20 stations. The operations started in 1982 and have expanded all the time due to the excellent service level Metro offers within Helsinki. The city of Espoo, west of Helsinki, has decided to extend the line to it's area, but the state of Finland has been unable to provide it's share of the financing so far. The tram network in Helsinki is ever extending, just like in most of the Western Europe. HKL operates daily around 150 trams on it's surprisingly narrow 1 meter gauge network. There has been recently and order of 40 new trams and 6 used from Germany. Older trams are retrofitted with a middle lower section as well to meet the ever increasing demand for an easy access. There is also one "Joker" line, and another in the planning stage. The Joker line is currently operated with large and frequent buses, but the intent is to switch to trams later. Hopefully the trams will be of broader gauge to allow interconnections with the rail networks and metro. The broader gauge would also allow for a lot more comfortable space for passengers. The current trams are very cramped inside. Pääkaupunkiseudun Junakalusto Oy The new company was established in 2004 to own and lease commuter trains needed to operate in the Helsinki Metropolitan area under the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council. HMAC is responsible for the mass transportation to outside Helsinki, but not within the city itself. The owners of the company are the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and tiny Kauniainen plus the national rail operator VR-Yhtyma. So far the company has ordered 32 FLIRT EMU's from Stadler Bussnang AG for 189 million €. The trains are 4 car units for around 250 passengers. Delivery is starting from the years 2009/2010. The production units arriving at the end of year 2008 will replace some of the older Sm1 EMU's owned by VR-Yhtyma. The trains will externally be quite identical to the Swiss FLIRT EMU below. 
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Other operators Include heritage stock operators, amusement parks, quarries, etc. Humppila-Jokioinen Museum track A narrow gauge steam/diesel museum railway in the SouthWestern Finland. The track is operated on weekends during the summer. A rare example on how a working railroad is transferred to a live museum operated by volunteers. Linnanmaki amusement park in Helsinki Linnanmaki has the oldest roller coaster in the Nordic Countries. Kept in a perfect working condition, the wooden structure offers a thrilling ride of a few minutes. The wooden roller coaster trains have a brake man in each train. Linnanmaki has several newer roller coasters as well, the monorail and the miniature track. Sarkanniemi amusement park in Tampere Sarkanniemi is probably the biggest amusement park in Finland. It too has several roller coasters including the thrilling roller coaster Tornado! To the top of the page
Finnish reference main page
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