« Go back

About 1.3 million journeys were made in VR’s long-distance traffic in November – an increase of 8% compared to last year

7. December 2023 Press releases

In November, about 1.3 million journeys were made in long-distance traffic, an 8% increase from the previous year that was mainly due to the growth of travel on weekends. This year, 13.9 million long-distance journeys were made in January–November, which is already more than in 2022, when a total of 13.2 million journeys were made. About 2.1 million tonnes of goods were transported by rail in November, and a total of 21.2 million tonnes were transported by rail in January–November. In November, the volume of freight traffic decreased by 18% from the previous year due to the downturn in the industrial sector and the end of traffic across Finland’s eastern border.

Compared to the previous year, the growth in the number of long-distance traffic journeys is mainly explained by the growth in leisure travel, especially on weekends, and the growth in business travel on weekdays. Especially night train traffic to and from Lapland grew strongly.

“The number of journeys and the customer experience were excellent in November. At the end of November, we launched a public vote on the new look of the trains and collected an incredible number of votes: more than 20,000! We will announce the winner on 11 December, and the new look will be introduced in rolling stock next year. However, before that we will focus on Christmas, one of the most popular seasons for train travel. We have added a total of 24 new train services to Christmas traffic and we are also balancing the growing demand by, for example, adding coaches to the most popular services where possible,” says VR’s CEO Elisa Markula.

The transport volumes of VR Transpoint’s railway operations amounted to 2.1 tonnes in November. The volumes decreased by 18% year-on-year due to the end of traffic across Finland’s eastern border and the downturn in the industrial sector. In January–November this year, 21.2 (27.4) million tonnes of goods were transported by rail, which is about 23% less than in the previous year.

Speed limits reduced punctuality in November

The punctuality of long-distance traffic in November was 84.5%. The causes of delays were divided among track-related causes (51%), other causes (21%) and VR-related causes (28%), which had to do with, for example, rolling stock. The punctuality of long-distance traffic was particularly decreased by temporary speed limits due to track maintenance work.

The punctuality of VR’s commuter traffic in November was 95.5%. The causes of delays were divided among other causes (57%), track-related causes (28%) and VR-related causes (14%).