Summary

The organisation of the railway activity was adapted in Finland in 1995 according to the principles of the EU Guideline 440/91. For this purpose a new authority was established which owns the rail network and performs the necessary work on the rail network. In Finnish this rail administration office is called Ratahallintokeskus which is shortened to RHK. For the operating activity on the rail sector, societies were founded which function in accordance with the general legislation for public limited companies. These companies form VR-Track Ltd. which is responsible for engineering and maintenance work on the track. It is an integral part of the Finnish model that the market for railway tasks is open to all contractors who fulfil the competence criteria.

The total length of the Finnish rail network is 5,800 track kilometres. 2,400 km of these are electrified and 2,300 km are under centralised traffic control and equipped with modern safety installations. It is characteristic of the Finnish network that the greater part of the rail network, almost 90%, is single track. With regard to renewal of the rail network, the technical standard has been defined so that a speed of 160 – 200 km/h should be possible for passenger traffic and an axle load of 25 t for freight traffic.

The administration office (RHK) carries the full responsibility for the rail network. For the larger part the RHK purchases the necessary services. These purchased services include planning tasks, inspection and maintenance of the rail network, the management of engineering projects and the implementation of projects. In recent years renewal of the infrastructure took high priority within the costs of the overall maintenance work. The extent of the tasks was rather large for our circumstances. Since the mid 90's approximately 5% of the total length of the main lines have been renewed. Further important tasks for the improvement of the efficiency and safety of the rail network are the modernisation of the safety installations, the introduction of the automatic train protection (ATP) and the extension of the electrification.

VR-Track Ltd. is the only company on the Finnish market that offers a complete service. Almost 70% of the orders placed by RHK are handled by VR-Track. To meet the requirements of the customers and to uphold the competitiveness of the company, VR-Track must continually develop its activities and also improve its competitive edge. One example of this is the existing management and task control system of the company consisting of quality, safety and environmental systems which has also been certified externally.

The modernised data systems support the production processes of the railway contractor. The material strategy is based on rolling stock in their own possession, the capacity of which covers the demand on the market.