Disruptions in train services between Riihimäki and Tampere during five weekends in November and December
Due to replacements of safety devices, there will be disruptions in train services between Riihimäki and Tampere during five consecutive weekends from weeks 45 to 49. These service disruptions will start at 04.00 am between Friday and Saturday and last 24 hours each time. During the disruptions, only some long-distance trains and sporadic freight trains will be able to use the track.
The Finnish Transport Agency will replace safety devices on the line between Riihimäki and Tampere in November and December. Due to this replacement work, the Finnish Transport Agency will close the line section between Riihimäki and Tampere to traffic for a period of 24 hours at a time during five consecutive weekends. The disruptions affect both passenger and freight transport.
“The railway safety devices have reached the end of their lifecycle and have to be renewed. The implementation of the new safety devices will cause temporary inconvenience, but the positive effects will outweigh this in the long term. Thanks to the new safety devices, the traffic flow on the line section between Tampere and Riihimäki will become smoother and less vulnerable to disturbance,” says Project Manager Juha Lehtola at the Finnish Transport Agency.
The renewal of the safety devices does not affect weekday commuter traffic
It is not possible to replace the safety devices without any kind of service disruptions. The service disruptions have purposefully been scheduled on weekends.
“These replacements will be made on the busiest line section in Finland. We planned the traffic arrangements with the Finnish Transport Agency, so that the busy commuter traffic would suffer the least. Saturday is the least busy day to travel, so these service amendments will affect significantly fewer customers than they would in weekday commuter traffic. On these Saturdays, we will arrange replacement bus services”, says Juho Hannukainen, Head of Transport Services Planning, VR Group.
Another reason for scheduling the works on weekends was the estimation of how long it would take to complete the work without disruptions.
“With VR, we weighed the different options and came to the conclusion that weekend disruptions would have the least effect on the mobility of people and goods. Now, we will be able to complete the contract in five weeks and limit the disruptions mainly to the weekends. Without these disruptions, it would take 14 weeks to complete the contract and the works would cause both minor and major inconvenience to train services during that whole time”, says Juha Lehtola at the Finnish Transport Agency.
Prepare for amended train services
There will be amended train services during the weekends from week 45 to week 49. The service interruptions will have the greatest effect on the line section Riihimäki–Tampere.
“We will do our best to minimise the inconvenience that this causes to train services. In practice, the line can only be opened to some long-distance trains and to sporadic important freight trains during the disruptions”, says Juha Kröger, Railway Specialist at the Finnish Transport Agency.
First, the implementation phase of the safety devices may cause some train service delays.
Schedule of service disruptions
The disruptions on the line between Riihimäki and Tampere are scheduled as follows:
Sat. 10 Nov. 04:00 am – Sun. 11 Nov. 04:00 am
Sat. 17 Nov. 04:00 am – Sun. 18 Nov. 04:00 am
Sat. 24 Nov. 04:00 am – Sun. 25 Nov. 04:00 am
Sat. 01 Dec. 04:00 am – Sun. 02 Dec. 04:00 am
Sat. 08 Dec. 04:00 am – Sun. 09 Dec. 04:00 am
VR’s information about bus replacement services and amended train services can be found on their website: http://www.vr.fi/rita
Enquiries
Project Manager Juha Lehtola,
Finnish Transport Agency,
phone +358 29 534 3892
firstname.lastname(at)fta.fi