VR sees fewer long-distance passengers in July

A total of 1.4 million long-distance journeys were made by train in July this year, which was about 2% lower than in July 2022, when the number of long-distance journeys was at a record high, said national railway operator VR in a press release on Tuesday.

"Longer train journeys are made in the summer, for example, to Oulu, Joensuu, Vaasa and Kuopio. Compared to last year, the popularity of night trains increased by about 6%. This summer, we offered hundreds of thousands of long-distance tickets for less than 10 euros, from which our customers provided a lot of good feedback,” said Piia Tyynilä, VR's Senior Vice President, Long-distance Traffic.

The punctuality of long-distance traffic was 91.3% in July. Primary delay entries were divided between track-related causes (53%), other causes (26%) and VR-related causes (22%).

The punctuality of long-distance traffic was weakened by speed limits and malfunctions in the rail infrastructure caused by weather phenomena.

The punctuality of VR's commuter traffic was 98% in July.

The causes of delays were divided among track-related causes (60%), other causes (31%) and VR-related causes (9%).