Finland-Sweden passenger trains return after 38 years
CROSS-BORDER: The first scheduled passenger train from Finland to Sweden since 1988 reached Haparanda on 10 August. Finnish state operator VR now runs two daily return services from Oulu under a state-purchased contract.
InterCity 401 left Oulu at 05.08 Finnish time and crossed the Torne river into Haparanda shortly after 06.00 Swedish time, carrying Transport and Communications Minister Lulu Ranne, VR chief executive Elisa Markula and representatives of transport agency Traficom. The route runs via Kemi and Tornio, with 28 services a week.
Traficom purchased the service from VR as an addition to their existing public service agreement, signed in June. The state funds most of the operation, with contributions from the cities of Tornio and Oulu and the Sea Lapland Development Centre.
Electrification preceded the return
The reopening follows the electrification of the last gap on the Finnish side, the section from Laurila through Tornio to Haparanda, on a route that belongs to the TEN-T core network around the Gulf of Bothnia. A 2020 appraisal by infrastructure agency Väylävirasto had found the electrification socio-economically unprofitable; the government programme backed it regardless, citing freight and passenger links through northern Sweden towards Norway and the rest of Europe.
Finnish railcar services to Haparanda ended in 1988, and the last Swedish passenger train left the town in 1992, cutting Finland off from the European Interrail network by land. The final regulatory step came in April, when the Finnish and Swedish safety authorities completed the cross-border approvals.
Passenger trains now also return to the centre of Tornio for the first time in decades.
Trains end at the gauge break
The Finnish 1,524 mm gauge ends at Haparanda, so the InterCity services terminate there. Passengers continue on the standard-gauge trains of Swedish regional operator Norrtåg towards Boden and Luleå — services that VR also operates after winning the regional operator’s tender.
Transfer connections in Haparanda are planned to improve from December, when timetables on both sides are adjusted. Traficom said it will follow how the new route attracts passengers.