State of Finnish railway safety

The volume of train transport increased slightly in 2024 compared to the previous year. In 2024, 48.6 million kilometres were travelled by train on the Finnish railways, while a year earlier this figure was 47.4 million (Source: Statistics Finland, railway statistics. Key train performances, 2005‒2024). The kilometres travelled by train in goods transport no longer decreased, whereas in passenger transport the traffic volume continued to increase and has returned very close to the kilometres travelled by passengers during the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. According to VR Group Plc's statistics, record-breaking 15.3 million journeys were completed in domestic intercity services in 2024.

Safety of railway traffic

The number of significant accidents as defined by the EU on Finnish railways decreased by almost one half from the previous year (21 accidents in 2023 vs. 11 in 2024). The number of significant accidents was also clearly lower in 2024 than the average for the previous ten years (16.7). Compared to 2023, there was a particular decrease in the number of level crossing accidents and other accidents.

The significant accidents that occurred in 2024 resulted in four fatalities, while one person suffered serious injuries. Two accidents to persons involving rolling stock in motion occurred in 2024, both resulting in one fatality. One of these fatalities was a track worker. One accident, which resulted in the death of a shunting foreman, was additionally placed in the ‘other accidents’ category. The fourth person died in an accident where the train hit a car and a person leaning on it in the area outside a level crossing.

In addition to these, three other accidents occurred in which a train collided with an object or other obstacle on the railway premises. 

Level crossing accidents

There were a total of 11 level crossing accidents in 2024, resulting in one person suffering serious injuries and six people suffering light injuries. Two significant level crossing accidents took place in 2024. The first one was a collision between a railcar and a passenger car, in which a bin lorry driver sustained serious injuries. The parties to the other significant level crossing accident were a railcar and a passenger car. In this accident, both the driver of the passenger car and one railcar passenger sustained minor injuries. The accident was classified as significant because it resulted in a disruption to traffic that lasted more than six hours and caused costs in excess of EUR 150,000.

Casualties in railway accidents

A large share of the fatalities on Finnish railways are caused by a person being run over by a train due to trespassing on the railway premises. These accidents cause on average 50 to 60 fatalities every year, most of them intentional. The annual number of persons run over by a train has remained at a similar level for quite a long time.

Safety of shunting

The number of derailments and collisions during shunting was slightly lower than in the previous year. The accident resulting in the death of the shunting foreman referred to earlier in this text cast a shadow over this positive trend, however.

Safety of work on tracks

The numbers of occurrences associated with track work were mainly very similar to the figures recorded in the last few years. An increase was observed in neglecting to follow safety guidelines and track work protection errors. Track work protection errors have shown an increasing trend for several years now, as a result of which a small working group was set up to put together proposals for measures aiming to improve the safety of track work and traffic management related to it. In 2024, the unfortunate accident mentioned above occurred in track work, in which a track worker was hit by a passenger train and died of their injuries.  

Improving railway safety

A lot of good work is being done to improve railway safety. Operators have gradually sharpened their focus on addressing human and organisational factors (HOFs) in their operations, and to support these efforts, Traficom has for several years also paid attention to undertakings' activities from the safety culture perspective in its oversight. Led by Traficom, Finland’s first national railway safety plan that provides common guidelines for improving railway safety in the country was completed in late 2024. The goal is that the operators take into account the vision, objectives and measures of the safety plan as part of their safety development work and participate actively in the implementation and further development of the plan.