Changing operating environment

Our business environment has undergone significant changes over the past recent years. The COVID-10 pandemic, high energy prices and accelerated inflation had a very negative impact on our business operations, and, as a result of Russia’s war of aggression, we completely stopped passenger and freight train traffic across the Russian border in 2022. VR’s profitability and net sales have improved significantly since 2023.

The company's outlook continues to be subject to uncertainties in the business environment. Among others, these include the uncertainty surrounding the economic development of Finland and the global economy, tightening railway regulations, increased competition and the pressures of making changes to transport chains caused by geopolitical uncertainty.

For a long time, one of the biggest challenges for our operating environment has been the repair backlog of the state-owned railway network, which has increased to approximately EUR 1.7 billion due to insufficient maintenance financing by state.

Our goal is to implement profit improvement measures worth EUR 250 million by the end of 2027, which will ensure not only our future competitiveness, but also our ability to finance rolling stock investments amounting to almost EUR 1 million.