Transport in Finland

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The transport system of Finland is developed. As of 2005, the country's network of main roads has a total length of 13 258 km, and is mainly centred on the capital city of Helsinki. The total length of all public roads is 78 186 km, of which 50 616 km are paved. The motorway network is still to a great extent under development, and currently totals 653 km. There are 5 865 km of railways in the country. Helsinki has an urban rail network, and light rail systems are currently being planned in Turku and Tampere. Finland has 148 airfields, the largest being Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, and a considerable number of large ports.

The government ministry responsible for transport in the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Contents 1 Roads 1.1 Coaches and buses 2 Railways 3 Trams and Light Rail 4 Air transport 5 Water transport 6 External links

[edit] Roads

Road transport in Finland is the most popular method of transportation, particularly in rural areas where the railway network does not extend to. There are around 78 000 km of public roads, most of which are paved. The main road network comprises over 13 000 km of road, mostly in the south of the country and along the west coast. 63% of all traffic on public roads takes place on main roads, which are divided into class I (valtatie) and class II (kantatie) main roads. Motorways have been constructed in the country since the 1960s, but they are still reasonably rare because traffic volumes are not large enough to motivate their construction. There are 653 km of motorways. Longest stretches are Helsinki-Tampere (valtatie 3/E12), Helsinki-Heinola (valtatie 4/E75), Helsinki-Porvoo (valtatie 7/E18). Also Helsinki-Turku (valtatie 1/E18) road is mainly motorway with last part finishing in 2008. The world's northernmost motorway is also located in Finland between Kemi and Tornio (valtatie 29/E8).

Speed limits change depending on the time of the year; the maximum speed limit on motorways is 120 km/h (75 mph) in the summer and 100 km/h (62 mph) in the winter. The main roads usually have speed limits of either 100 km/h or 80 km/h (50 mph). Speed limits in urban areas range between 30 km/h (19 mph) and 60 km/h (37 mph). Finland, like most other European countries, has right-hand traffic.

There are no toll roads in Finland.

As of 2004, there are 2,727,160 cars in Finland, giving a total of 521 cars per a thousand inhabitants. Thus, the average citizen is less likely to own a car in Finland than in other European countries. This is despite the fact that Finland has one of the highest average GDPs in Europe, and probably results in the high quality of public transport in the country.

• see also: Highways in Finland

[edit] Coaches and buses

Coaches are mainly operated by private companies and provide services widely across the country. There is a large network of ExpressBus services with connections to all major cities and the most important rural areas. Coach stations are operated by Matkahuolto.

Local bus services inside cities and towns are often tightly regulated by the councils. Many councils also have their own bus operators, such as Helsinki City Transport, which operate some bus lines on a commercial basis in competition with privately owned providers. Regional bus lines are generally less strictly regulated, leading to cartel situations like TLO in the Turku region, but strong regional regulating bodies like the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) exist as well.

[edit] Railways

The Finnish railway network consists of a total of 5,865 km of railways built with 1520 mm gauge. Passenger trains are operated by the state-owned VR Group. They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, though railway connections are available to fewer places than bus connections. 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 Joensuu, Kuopio, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. Modern InterCity services complement the Pendolino network, and the cheaper and older long and short distance trains operate in areas with fewer passengers.

The Helsinki metropolitan area has three urban rail systems: a tramway system, Helsinki Metro, and the VR commuter rail system. Light rail systems are currently being planned for Turku and Tampere, two of the country's other major urban centres.

See also: Helsinki tram

[edit] Trams and Light Rail

See also: Trams in Europe

In Finland, there have been three cities with trams: Helsinki, Turku and Viipuri. Only Helsinki still has retained a tram network. The system operates 11 routes constituting 71 kilometers of tramlines. Around 200,000 passengers use the tram network each weekday and within the inner city of Helsinki, trams have established a position as the main form of public transport.

[edit] Air transport

There are 148 airfields, 76 of which have paved runways. 21 airports are served by scheduled passenger flights. By far the largest airport is Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, and the second largest by passenger volume is Oulu Airport. Other international airports include Turku Airport and Tampere-Pirkkala Airport. The larger airports are managed by the state-owned Finavia (formerly the Finnish Civil Aviation Administration), while the smaller ones are usually managed by municipal authorities. Finnair, Blue1 and FinnComm are the main carriers for domestic flights.

Helsinki-Vantaa airport is Finland's global gateway with scheduled non-stop flights to such places as Bangkok, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nagoya, New York, Osaka, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle airline traffic routes between Western Europe and the Far East. The airport is located approximately 19 kilometers north of Helsinki's downtown area in Helsinki's northern suburb of Vantaa, thus the name Helsinki-Vantaa.

Tampere-Pirkkala Airport is served by low-fare Ryanair flights to destinations in Europe.

[edit] Water transport

Frequent ferry service connects Finland with Estonia and Sweden. Baltic cruise liners regularly call on the port of Helsinki as well. In domestic service, ferries connect Finland's islands with the mainland. Finland's cargo ports move freight both for Finland's own needs and for transhipment to Russia.

The Finnish Maritime Administration is responsible for the maintenance of Finland's waterway network. Finland's waterways includes some 7,600 kilometres of coastal fairways and 7,900 kilometres of inland waterways (on rivers, canals, and lakes). Saimaa Canal connects Lake Saimaa, and thus much of the inland waterway system of Finland, with the Baltic Sea at Vyborg (Viipuri). However, the lower part of the canal is currently located in Russia. To facilitate through shipping, Finland leases the Russian section of the canal from Russia (the original agreement with the Soviet Union dates to 1963).

[edit] External links

• VR Group (The main site of the Finnish railway company)
• Finnish Maritime Administration
• Finnish Road Administration