OREANDA-NEWS. March 23, 2012. Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, Vadim Morozov, First Vice-President of Russian Railways and other company executives took part in an official celebrate in Helsinki to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of Finnish railways, reported the press-centre of RZD.

Finland’s railway system was founded on 17 March 1862, when a regular rail service began between the towns of Helsinki and Hameenlinna. A rail connection with Russia was established in 1870, when a line was built between the towns of Riihimaki in Finland and Russia’s imperial capital St. Petersburg.

The Finnish railway company VG Group is one of the most important partners of Russian Railways. Cooperation between the Russian and Finnish railway systems has a rich history, not least due to the common border between Russia and Finland.

In 2011, a total of 10.9 million tons of cargo were carried on direct train services between Russia and Finland via the land border crossings Buslovskaya, Wartsila, Kivijarvi and Svetogorsk.

Passenger numbers between Russia and Finland in 2011 accounted for 58% of the total volume of international passenger traffic with foreign countries (excluding those of the Former Soviet Union). As a result, services between the two countries retained first place as the most popular routes.

Daily passenger services between Finland and Russia are currently offered on the following trains:

The Leo Tolstoy night train Moscow - Helsinki (once a day)

High-speed Allegro trains St. Petersburg - Helsinki (4 times a day).

The high-speed Allegro train is a joint international project of the two countries’ national carriers, Russian Railways and the VR Group. The Allegro was launched in December 2010 and has reduced travel time between St. Petersburg and Helsinki from 5.5 to 3.5 hours.

In 2011, 442,900 passengers travelled between the two countries.

Russian Railways and VR are actively cooperating to develop freight traffic. A joint working group has been set up with VR to develop the operational process and business model to establish piggyback traffic on the Russian-Finnish route.

In 2011, a series of experimental trips with Finnish piggyback platforms between Helsinki - St. Petersburg – Moscow demonstrated the feasibility of establishing regular piggyback train services.

There are plans to hold another trial journey in the near future to develop customs clearance procedures and deliver the cargo to the consignee.

On the passenger side, Russia and Finland are working on including rail-cars in the Tolstoy train to carry the cars of passengers travelling on the service.

Russian Railways and VR are also working to develop engineering, scientific and technical cooperation between each other.

*** The Finnish rail network consists of 5,919 km of 1524 mm broad-gauge track and a fleet of 156 mainline electric locomotives and 224 diesel-electric locomotives. VR owns 1,033 passenger carriages and 10,524 freight wagons.

In the mid-1980s, Finland began a structural reform of its state-owned railways. In 1990, the state railways were converted from a government department to a commercial business, and on 1 July 1995 to a state-owned joint stock company.

In August 2009, the VR Group embarked on a reform programme. To ensure the successful implementation of the programme, the concern underwent a structural reorganisation. Under the new structure, the VR Group now consists of five divisions formed in accordance with client sectors: passenger transportation, logistics, in-house corporate services, infrastructure construction (VR Track), international business and business with Russia.

In autumn 2010, the VR concern began re-branding with the VR Group logotype, while all the logistics areas of its operations were combined in the brand name VR Transpoint.