Rail freight traffic drops by 22 % in 2022

A total of 31.2 million tonnes of freight were transported by rail in Finland in 2022, according to Statistics Finland.

The volume of freight transported fell by 22 per cent from the previous year.

The transport performance of freight transported by rail totalled 8.8 billion tonne-kilometres, which was 18 per cent less than in 2021.

Of tonne-kilometres, 83 per cent came from domestic traffic and 17 per cent from international traffic. The average length of a freight transport journey was 283 kilometres, which was 15 kilometres longer than in the previous year.

Wood and wood products were transported most by rail, amounting to 12 million tonnes last year.

The share of the product group was 38 per cent of all transported tonnes. Paper industry products were transported second most, in total 6.5 million tonnes, followed by 5.5 million tonnes of chemical industry products. The transport performance was highest in the transport of wood and wood products, 3.7 billion tonne-kilometres, which was 42 per cent of all transport.