Cold weather disrupts train services across country

The rail communication is facing disruption since Monday afternoon due to the ongoing severe cold weather across Finland, said the national railway operator VR in a press release on Tuesday.

Some train services were cancelled on Tuesday morning due to technical faults while many long-distance trains are experiencing delays by 15 minutes to 45 minutes. Local trains are also facing about 15 minutes delay.

Passengers travelling by Helsinki bound trains from Rovaniemi and Tampere and Oulu bound trains from Turku are suffering from the delays most.

According to VR, the cold weather caused damage to the air compressors systems and disrupted the automatic operation of many mechanical devices. For example, the operation of doors and connecting the trains are being disrupted due to the cold weather.

The lowest temperature of minus 36.3 degrees Celsius was recorded in Juuka, North Karelia and Salla, Lapland on Monday.

According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) forecast, the cold weather will continue and mercury will go down to minus 40 degrees Celsius in the northern part of the country in next few days.