Track work will affect train traffic in the spring and summer

Right now, we are selling long-distance train tickets up to 16 June. Long-distance train tickets for the period from 17 June to 28 July will be made available on Tuesday, 19 March, at 10 a.m. Commuter trains and replacement buses for the same period will be published by the end of May in the journey search at vr.fi and in the VR Matkalla app. This means that, at 10 a.m. on 19 March, the long-distance train services that will be replaced by buses will not yet be visible in the journey search. The replacement bus services, for example between Helsinki and Turku, will be made available by the end of May.

The track work will also affect train traffic on routes other than those mentioned in this news release. Current traffic bulletins and more information on the impact of track work on travel can be found at vr.fi/radalla, Opens in a new tab. We will update the information on the page throughout the spring. Further information on the track work is available from the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Opens in a new tab.

Traffic interruption on the Coastal Railway from 24 June to 28 July 2024

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency’s track work for the Espoo Rail Line project, Opens in a new tab will cause a five-week traffic interruption starting from Midsummer on the Coastal Railway west of Leppävaara. During the interruption, we will replace all long-distance trains between Helsinki and Turku with buses. The buses replacing long-distance trains will continue from Kupittaa to Turku Central Railway Station and, around the departure and arrival times of ships, also to the Port of Turku and vice versa.

Contrary to previous information, commuter trains between Karjaa and Hanko will be normally run by train during the railway line interruption. However, the H-train's connection between Helsinki and Hanko, which runs three days a week, cannot be run by train during the work for the Espoo Urban Railway project. The H-train summer timetables will be specified by the end of May.

There will be 24-hour traffic interruptions between Kirkkonummi and Helsinki related to the same track work in May and September on 5 May, 9 May, 19 May, 26 May, 22 Sept and 29 Sept, as well as three 48-hour interruptions from Saturday to Sunday from 31 Aug to 1 Sept, from 7 Sept to 8 Sept and from 14 Sept to 15 Sept.

HSL commuter traffic’s A trains will be operated during the five-week traffic interruption starting from Midsummer in the place of late evening, night and early morning L trains. On weekends, the intervals of the A train will shorten to 10 minutes. During weekday peak hours, there will be quicker U train services between Leppävaara and Helsinki. These services run three times an hour and only stop at Huopalahti and Pasila. There will also be replacement bus services for HSL trains west of Leppävaara. Their timetables will be added to the Journey Planner on the hsl.fi website and in the HSL app during the spring.

At the beginning of August, there will be an eight-day traffic interruption between Jyväskylä and Pieksämäki as well as in Kuopio

Traffic interruptions due to the Jyväskylä–Pieksämäki renovation project carried out by the FinnishTransport Infrastructure Agency will start at the beginning of July. From 1 Julyto 31 October, we will replace trains on this route with buses on all weekday mornings, and from 1 August to 9 August, there will be an eight-day traffic interruption on the track section.

At the same time, there will also be a traffic interruption of the same length in Kuopio, where the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency will renovate the railway yard and do tunnel work. The work in Kuopio will cause 30-hour weekend traffic interruptions on 4–5 May and 22–23 June, as well as one 40-hour traffic interruption on 12–14 July.

The work on the main line will affect traffic already in the spring

Due to the Helsinki–Riihimäki railway project, we will operate HSL’s K and P trains on the main line less frequently from 2 April to 26 October 2024. There will also be changes to the departure times of other commuter trains on the main line. In addition, starting from 31 March, the departure times of several long-distance trains from Helsinki, Pasila and Tikkurila to Tampere and Lahti will be brought forward by a few minutes. You can find the up-to-date departure times of long-distance trains in the journey search at vr.fi or in the VR Matkalla app.

The M and R commuter trains will not run between Tampere and Nokia at all between 15 April and 6 August due to the renovation works on the railway bridges crossing the Tammerkoski rapids. However, there will be long-distance trains running between Tampere and Pori, which will also stop at Tesoma and Nokia. We will replace M trains with buses, whose timetables up to 16 June can be viewed in the journey search at vr.fi and in the VR Matkalla app. Tampere’s regional public transport provider, Nysse, will increase bus services on line 70 during the interruption in commuter train traffic. For more information, please visit nysse.fi/junat, Opens in a new tab.

There will be traffic interruptions between Riihimäki and Tampere due to regular maintenance work on the track on weekdays from 6 May to 24 May and from 5 August to 23 August, because of which we will replace commuter trains with buses.

There will also be traffic interruptions between Ylivieska and Oulu due to track maintenance on weekday nights from 3 June to 13 June and from 12 August to 22 August, because of which some of the night train services will have changes and cancellations.

The track work between Oulu and Rovaniemi involves renovating the railway superstructure and carrying out work on bridges, which is why we will replace the day trains on the route with buses on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 24 June to 3 October.

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency will carry out railway turnout renovations between Tampere and Seinäjoki, which will cause four 40-hour traffic interruptions starting on 12 August from Mondays to Wednesdays.

You can find more information about the train services to be replaced by buses at vr.fi/radalla, Opens in a new tab. Please note that the content will be updated during the spring and does not yet include information about all the services that will be replaced by buses.

Article updated on 28 March 2024