More passengers travel by train in Mar but fewer than pre-pandemic level

About 1,080,000 domestic long-distance journeys were made by In March, which is 16% more than in March 2022 and about 10% less than in March 2019, said the national railway operator VR in a press release on Thursday.

In March, about 1,080,000 domestic long-distance journeys were made and about 1.9 million tonnes of goods were transported.

In total, 3.4 million domestic long-distance journeys were made and 5.9 million tonnes of goods were transported by rail in January–March this year.

“At the beginning of March, the number of journeys increased at a good pace thanks to winter holidays and weekend travel. However, the total number of journeys for the month was lower than expected due to the four-day rail industry strike,” said Chief Executive Officer of VR Elisa Markula.

In VR Transpoint’s railway transport, total transport volumes decreased by 28% year-on-year due to the end of Eastern traffic and amounted to 1.9 (2.7) million tonnes in March.

Domestic transport volumes remained at last year’s level. In the comparison, it was taken into account that labour action in various sectors had a significant impact on transport volumes in both years.

In January–March this year, 5.9 (7.8) million tonnes of goods were transported by rail, which is about 24% less than in the previous year.

The punctuality of long-distance trains in March was 83.8%. Primary delay entries were divided among VR-related causes (39%), track-related causes (37%) and other causes (24%).

The punctuality of long-distance traffic in March was significantly reduced due to reasons related to the condition of tracks and the resulting temporary speed limits.

The punctuality of VR commuter trains in March was 92.2%. The causes of delays were divided among other causes (43%), track-related causes (40%) and VR-related causes (18%).

The average delay in HSL commuter traffic in March was 50 seconds. The causes of delays were divided among track-related causes (49%), other causes (44%) and VR-related causes (7%).