The situational picture compiles information on the most recent safety reports in rail transport. The data are updated once a year. The information is produced by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.
The railway safety in Finland has been at a good level in recent years. The passenger safety remained at an excellent level and the number of level crossing accidents was the lowest figure in the monitoring history.
The volume of train transport grew in 2023 compared to the previous year. In 2023, 47.4 million kilometres were travelled by train on the Finnish railways, while a year earlier the same figure was 48.7 million . The number of kilometres by train in goods transport continued decreasing as in the previous year, while in passenger transport, the traffic volume increased, and it has returned very close to the kilometres travelled by passengers during the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
A lot of good work is being done to improve railway safety. Operators have gradually increased their focus on taking human and organisational factors into account in their operations and its supervision. Traficom has also started to take company operations into consideration with regard to safety culture. Traficom also strives to improve the overall level of safety management by ensuring that the operating methods described in operator’ safety management systems are put into practice. Changes in working methods occur fairly slowly, but the development is headed in the right direction.
Safety of train traffic
In 2023, there were 21 significant accidents as defined by the EU in Finnish railways , in which four people died and three were seriously injured. The number of significant accidents was higher than in the previous year and was revealed to be higher than the average for the previous ten years when examined over a longer term.
Compared to 2022, the number of accidents resulting in personal injuries caused by rolling stock in motion decreased (7 in 2022 vs. 1 in 2023). Meanwhile, there was an increase in several types of accidents, which was highest in collisions. One of the collisions that occurred in 2023 was a collision between railway vehicles and in four other cases the train collided with an obstacle.
Despite the increase in the number of significant accidents, passenger safety in Finland is still at an excellent level. No fatal accidents involving passengers or personnel occurred in train transport or track maintenance, or during shunting in 2023.
Level crossing accidents
In 2023, most (n = 6) of the significant accidents were level crossing accidents, resulting in three fatalities and three people suffering serious injuries. There were a total of 14 level crossing accidents in 2023, which is the lowest figure in the monitoring history.
Casualties in railway accidents
Most of the fatalities on Finnish railways are caused by a person being run over by a train due to trespassing on railway premises. These accidents cause approximately 50 to 60 fatalities every year. Most of the people being run over deliberately trespassed. No clear trend can be observed in the annual numbers of accidents involving a person being run over. In 2021 the number of accidents involving persons and rolling stock in motion was below average, but in 2022 and 2023, it returned to the level of previous years.
Safety of shunting
The annual number of accidents and incidents during shunting decreased compared to the previous year, and the annual number of shunting occurrences has also decreased when examining the figures for the last 10 years. This decrease can be seen especially in the number of collisions and cases involving the passing of signals at danger. One of the key background factors in the decline in the number of shunting occurrences in 2023 is thought to be a shunting speed reduction trial launched in 2022. Several factors are thought to contribute to long-term positive development, such as promoting a good safety culture and ensuring safe working methods.
Safety of work on tracks
The safety of track maintenance has clearly improved with respect to the last seven years ‒ the annual number of safety deviations has decreased in all safety occurrence groups. A shorter-term analysis reveals that, in 2023, this positive trend decreased slightly and there was a small increase in the total number of safety occurrences compared to the previous year. Increases were observed in areas such as the number of track work protection errors, and as a result, several development proposals have been recently identified and implemented to reduce them (the work began in 2023 and has continued in 2024).
More information on railway safety
The more detailed descriptions of the Finnish railway safety can be found from here