Safety of shunting
The situational picture monitors the safety of shunting. The data are updated once a year. The information is produced by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.
Shunting refers to the moving and sorting of vehicles to support train traffic. More accidents and incidents usually occur in shunting work than in train traffic because, unlike in train traffic, technical safety systems play only a minor role in shunting, and the shunting staff is mainly relied on to ensure the safety of the work. Because of the low speeds involved, however, the consequences of shunting accidents are typically less serious than those occurring in train traffic. Nonetheless, extremely serious accidents may occur in shunting, too, because of the great masses of the vehicles and the potential of dangerous goods being present. One such accident happened in 2024 as a shunting foreman working at a round timber loading site lost his life when a shunting composition collided with a truck at the overpass of the loading site.
In 2024, 30 derailments and 25 collisions were reported in shunting. Five of the collisions occurred between rolling stock, while the rest were collisions due to various obstacles (such as a buffer stop or building door). In 2024, slightly fewer derailments and collisions were reported than in the year before.
In previous years, the safety of shunting has been examined based on statistics compiled by VR Group Plc, as VR handles a large part of shunting in Finland. In 2024, a decision was made to extend the examination to all operators, and the figures mentioned above consequently include all shunting incidents reported to Traficom – not only those that occurred in shunting work of VR Group Plc but also derailments and collisions during the shunting operations of others.