Railway passenger traffic continued its post corona recovery in 2023

Rail passenger traffic increased

In 2023, the total number of trips in passenger traffic by rail totalled 82 million, which was 6 million more than in 2022. The number of trips increased by 8 per cent from 2022. We are still roughly 10 million trips short from the 2019 pre-pandemic record.

Of trips, 82 per cent were made in local traffic and 18 per cent in long-distance traffic. The number of trips in local traffic increased by 7 per cent and in long-distance traffic grew by 14 per cent from the previous year.

Of the trips made in long-distance traffic all were made in Finland and there was no international traffic. The average length of trips was 63 kilometres, which was 3 kilometres longer than in the year before.

In 2023, the number of passenger-kilometres in train traffic increased by 14 per cent from the previous year. Passenger-kilometres totalled 5.2 billion, of which long-distance traffic accounted for 79 per cent and local traffic for 21 per cent.

Rail freight traffic decreased

A total of 27.1 million tonnes of freight were transported by rail in Finland in 2023. The volume of freight transported fell by 13 per cent from the previous year. The transport performance of freight transported by rail totalled 7.9 billion tonne-kilometres, which was 11 per cent less than in 2022. Of tonne-kilometres, 94 per cent came from domestic traffic and only 6 per cent from international traffic. The tonne-kilometers in international traffic decreased by 68 per cent from previous year. The average length of a freight transport journey was 291 kilometres, which was 8 kilometres longer than in the previous year.

Wood and wood products were transported most by rail, amounting to 12.6 million tonnes last year. The share of the product group was 46 per cent of all transported tonnes. Paper industry products were transported second most, in total 6 million tonnes, followed by 5 million tonnes of chemical industry products. The transport performance was highest in the transport of wood and wood products, 4 billion tonne-kilometres, which was 50 per cent of all transport. Compared to 2022, the largest decrease was in transport of mineral products which saw 64 per cent decrease in tonnage transported.

Train traffic performances

The total number of train-kilometres was 47.4 million train-kilometres in 2023 which was 3 per cent less than in 2022. Train kilometres in passenger traffic by rail did not change and passenger traffic accounted for 74 per cent of all train-kilometres. Train-kilometres in freight traffic decreased by 10 per cent in 2023.

The share of the electric tractive stock was 90 per cent of train-kilometres in 2023. The train-kilometres of electric locomotives decreased by three per cent and train kilometres of electric railcars decreased by four per cent from 2022. The share of electric locomotives in the train-kilometres of the electric tractive stock was 61 per cent.

In 2023, locomotive-kilometres totalled 62 million. The share of electric locomotives was 46 per cent and that of electric railcars was 40 per cent of locomotive-kilometres. In all, 11 per cent of locomotive-kilometres were driven with diesel locomotives and three per cent with diesel railcars.

The total volume of gross tonne-kilometres of train traffic was 27.7 billion gross tonne-kilometres in 2023. Freight traffic accounted for 59 per cent of the gross tonne-kilometres and passenger traffic for 40 per cent of the gross tonne-kilometres. Gross tonne-kilometres of freight traffic fell by 11 per cent from the previous year but those of passenger traffic increased by three per cent. In passenger traffic, the gross tonne-kilometres of long-distance trains were 8.5 billion gross tonne-kilometres and in local trains 2.7 billion gross tonne-kilometres. In passenger traffic, the average train weight was 320 tonnes and in freight traffic 1,304 tonnes in 2023.

In 2023, a total of 24.7 billion gross tonne-kilometres were hauled, of which 15 billion gross tonne-kilometres hauled came from freight traffic and 9.7 billion from passenger traffic.

Energy consumption in train traffic totalled 2.6 petajoules in 2023, which is a seven per cent decrease from 2022. Measured in petajoules, the share of electricity was 69 per cent and that of light fuel oil 31 per cent of energy consumption. There was no change in share of energy sources.

Railway accidents

There were 18 accidents classified as significant on railways in 2023. The number of significant accidents increased by two compared with 2022. In the accidents, four persons were killed and three seriously injured. Most of the accidents leading to death and serious injuries involved level crossings.

The number of significant rail traffic accidents was 0.38 per million train-kilometres. In 2022, the corresponding ratio was 0.33.

Rail network infrastructure and investments

The length of the Finnish rail network was 5,915 kilometres at the end of 2023. Of the rail network, 5,201 kilometres were single-track railways and 714 kilometres two-track or multi-track railways. A total of 3,424 kilometres of the rail network have been electrified. 52 per cent of single-track track railways are electrified and double-track or multiple-track track railways are fully electrified.

At the end of 2023, the length of the Finnish rail network was 8,546 track-kilometres, of which 6,731 were main tracks and 1,815 were sidings. The length of the rail network had gone down by 31 track-kilometres from the previous year. In all, 5,355 kilometres or 80 per cent of main tracks were tracks with concrete sleepers. Continuous-welded tracks amounted to 5,474 kilometres in 2023.

Investments in track construction and maintenance amounted to EUR 433 million in 2023 constant prices, which is 20 per cent less than one year earlier.