Finland-Sweden train service to resume on August 10

Passenger train services between Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden will resume on August 10 after a break of 38 years, said National railway operator VR on Thursday.

The new route will ease travel between the Oulu in Finland and Luleå in Sweden.

In December, the plan is to further improve transfer connections in Haaparanta, from where the trains of the Swedish Norrtåg operate to Luleå.

A total of 28 services will be operated weekly.

The track connection is very significant regionally, as it will improve connections from Northern Finland to Sweden as well as to Norway.

There will be two daily services between Oulu and Haaparanta in both directions every day of the week.

At the same time, passenger train services will return to the centre of Tornio for the first time in decades.

Train tickets for the route between Oulu and Haaparanta will be available from June 30.

News agency Xinhua adds: The service will also mark the return of passenger trains to the center of Tornio for the first time in decades. Cross-border passenger rail service between Finland and Sweden was discontinued in 1988 because it was considered unprofitable.

The new route is mainly state-funded tendered traffic aimed at improving rail connections in northern Finland.

"At Traficom, we are pleased that we were able to open this new route and thus improve the service level of train traffic. We look forward to seeing how interesting the new route is going to be to passengers," Pipsa Eklund, development director at Traficom, said in a press release.

VR said the launch of the route had required close cooperation between Finnish and Swedish authorities on customs and border-crossing practices, as well as technical details related to rail traffic.

Passengers continuing their journey in Sweden need to change trains in Haparanda because Finland and Sweden use different rail gauges. Finland uses a 1,524-mm gauge, while Sweden uses the standard European gauge of 1,435 mm.