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 VR-Yhtyma Oy is the traditional Finnish state owned rail operator with an almost 100% market share on alla segments. The company had a turn over of 1,5 billion ? from the year 2008 and made small profit of 56 millions. The share of the company trucking and bus part Pohjolan Liikenne was 318M? and the international MOV part VR-Rata 340M?. Operations Areas and the Company The company operates in the following areas:
For the road map the passenger and freight traffic sectors management will be seaprated during the year 2010 leading to similar situation like in neigbor Sweden and most other European countires. This can be seen wise as the requirements for these two sectors are quite different. This should also give more maneuvarability for the suffering freight section, which might also face competition for the first time in its history during the year 2010. The freight has been declining in 2009 and is making loss as the exports of Russian wood to the EU members has heavy customs on the Russian side. The aim of Russia is to process the wood with its own resources and provide work for its citizens. Finland forest industry is suffering heavily of this decision and the production plants have been transferred to South America and China to solve the situation. The VR-Yhtymas management seems to be a turbulet place with constant management changes: Mikael Aro replaced Tapio Simos as the CEO in 2009. Aro will lead the company now through the fundamental changes it is inevitably facing and the first moves look very convincing in strengthening the companys position. The year 2008 was colorful, as CEO Henri Kuitunen and chairman of the board Antti Lagerroos resigned in October because they could not accept the policy of the government deciding investments of the company over its board and management. The last drop to was the acquirement of 20 sleeper cars to support the train industry in Finland, a good cause but wrong methods. The management and board must have seen the upcoming severe recession in before hand and with the sleeper cars, 3 million Euros each, the whole company will loose now money as the cars will arrive at the worst possible moment. The sleeper traffic itself is unprofitable, but as a government owned company VR-Yhtyma has so far maintained this traffic.  The Fleet The company operates a fleet of 18 modern Pendolinos, around 150 own EMUs, a dozen DMUs, around 150 electric and a couple hundred diesel locomotives, maybe thousand passenger and thousands of freight cars. In addition to this, VR-Yhtyma operates all international trains from Russia, both freight and passenger (from the Finnish border area). VR-Yhtyma also operates the 32 new FLIRT EMUs owned by Pääkaupunkisudun Junakalusto making it the only operator on the national network for the time being.  A subsidiary Karelia trains will operate 4 pendolino sets together with the Russian Railways RZD. These units willl connect Helsinki with St Petersburg in 3 hours from the end of year 2010, still slow but a lot better than todays almost 6 hours. By road the distance is a mere 300 km!  Future Visions for VR-Yhtyma To be added soon. Other Interesting Pages in this Section  Finnish Rolling
Stock Classes... Finnish Heritage
Rolling Stock Classes...
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Finnish reference main page
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Created for 4rail.net by John McKey. Pictures by Hannu Luukannel, Hannu Peltola, Ilkka Siissalo, Sanna Siissalo, Stanislav Voronin and John McKey.  See also these pages!  Finnish Railroads Main Page, a great place to start browsing this section.  Finnish railroad organizations and railroad operators have their own pages, as well as the largest operator VR-Yhtyma and a newcomer to the field Junakalusto.  While much of the passenger traffic concentrates around the capital Helsinki, you might be interested in the roster pictures of VR-Yhtyma, Junakalusto and the city of Helsinki operator HKL. HKL operates the metro, buses and narrow gauge trams.   You might also like to see the Finnish Rolling Stock Classes Page or the Rolling Stock Heritage Classes Page!   The Finnish Infrastructure Page gives you details on the railroad projects of past, present and the future. Finnish Railroad History Page describes the beginnings of Finnish railroading.  Finnish location is quite challenging for the railroading, the European Union Railroading Page and the Rail Baltica Page shed light to this subject.  Russians in Finland Page brings you some of the exotic Russian models, many still dating back to the Soviet period.  Last but not least, Take a virtual tour with a Finnish heritage locomotive Vr1 / "Chicken". This story was brought to 4rail.net by Hannu Peltola.  Lets hunt some Wolfpacks! This is the special story page devoted to VR-Yhtyma Sr1 Wolves. | |
       
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