Railways
The Finnish railway network consists of a total of 5,919 kilometres (3,678 mi) of railways built with 1,524 mm gauge. 3,072 km (1,909 mi) of track is electrified. In 2010, passengers made 13.4 million long distance voyages and 55.5 million trips in local traffic. On the same year, over 35,000,000 tonnes (34,000,000 long tons; 39,000,000 short tons) of freight were transported.
Passenger trains are operated by the state-owned VR Group. They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, complemented by bus connections where needed. Most passenger train services originate or terminate at Helsinki Central railway station, and a large proportion of the passenger rail network radiates out of Helsinki. High-speed Pendolino services are operated from Helsinki to other major cities like Jyväskylä, Joensuu, Kuopio, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. Modern InterCity services complement the Pendolino network, and cheaper and older long and short distance trains operate in areas with fewer passengers.
The Helsinki area has three urban rail systems: a tramway, a metro, and a commuter rail system. Light rail systems are currently being planned for Turku and Tampere, two of the country's other major urban centres.
Read more about this topic: Transport In Finland
Famous quotes containing the word railways:
“There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)