Railroads in Finland

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA) is infrastructure manager of the public railway network. Responsibilities include the ownership, development and maintenance of tracks, overhead lines, passenger platforms and some freight loading facilities, such as timber loading areas. Fintraffic handles the management of rail traffic along Finland's 5,915-kilometre railway network. Responsibilities include traffic control and passenger information systems on stations.

Train operating companies: VR, FenniaRail, North Rail and ArcticRail. These companies operate passenger/freight trains.

In addition, there are many private track owners who manage their own yards and spurs in ports and industrial facilities.

The ownership of station buildings is diverse: they are owned by VR, FTIA, cities, companies and private individuals. On many smaller stations the former station building has been reused as a private residence. VR is divesting its ownership of station buildings and private tracks, and for this purpose, Raideinfra Oy subsidiary has been established.

OpenRailwayMap and its successor openrailwaymap.app shows a good overview of the railroads in Finland and other countries.

All active lines and most disused lines have now been mapped. An important task for mappers is now to keep the data up to date. Basic details about rail projects ongoing, completed or in planning can be accessed through FTIA's project search. They also publish accurate track geometries, mileposts, level crossings and electrification information as open data. Fintraffic maintains open Digitraffic service with very detailed data on railways. (However, the license is CC BY 4.0, so please remember to use appropriate source=* in the changeset.)

Surveying

It can be problematic to get a proper GPS fix inside a train. Try to sit/put your GPS by a window and try to get a fix before entering the train. Best of all would be to get some train personnel involved... :)

Tagging

Look up the comprehensive OpenRailwayMap tagging scheme and country-specific tagging for Finland (currently only in Finnish).

Long-distance

Route	Progress	Who	Comments
Seinäjoki - Vaasa	100%	User:Onion
Seinäjoki - Kokkola	100%
Oulu - Kokkola	100%	User:Sparkly
Oulu - Kemi	100%
Kemi - Kolari	100%		Kemi - Tornio only.
Kemi - Rovaniemi	100%		Missing a short piece between Kemijoki and Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi - Kemijärvi	100%	Mapped from landsat. Missing a small piece in Kemijärvi.
Turku - Toijala	100%	User:Onion	Turku - Aura and Humppila - Toijala from Landsat.
Riihimäki - Tampere	100%	User:Boozeman, Mehu, Geosapiens, User:Onion, User:Ij	Improved with full length gps traces (2 consistent traces, on different days).
Tampere - Seinäjoki	100%	User:Onion,User:LH
Tampere - Pori	100%	lhahne, Juhe, Lakedrive, GRinda, Galactic	Mapped in Tampere based on surrounding roads. Nokia-Pori from Landsat. Should be checked with gps.
Turku - Helsinki	100%	User:Onion and others	Seems to be completely mapped from landsat. Railway and platforms at Kupittaa needs to be corrected.
Hyvinkää - Karjaa	100%	Mapped from Yahoo satellite imagery
Karjaa - Hanko	100%		Mapped from landsat.
Tampere - Jyväskylä	100%	User:Ij	Mapped fully from traces+imagery, much better quality than it used to be.

Helsinki region

Most of these could be (and is) mapped from Yahoo! images.

Route	Progress	Who	Comments
Helsinki - Lahti	100%	Unknown	Small part is visible in Lahti aerial imaginery.
Helsinki - Martinlaakso - Vantaankoski	100%	Unknown
Helsinki - Karjaa	100%	Unknown
Helsinki - Riihimäki	100%	Unknown
Vuosaari harbour - Savio (freight tunnel)	100%	User:Skela and others	extrapolated, missing vertical shafts and service ramps south of Kuusijärvi

Historic

Route/Location	Progress	Who	Comments
Helsinki - Pasila - Tikkurila - Kerava - Nikkilä - Porvoo	100%	Liimes, Juhe
Kovjoen Museorautatie/Nykarleby Jernväg [1]	100%		Narrow gauge

Routes closed to traffic

On routes which have been closed to traffic the infrastructure usually remains in place, therefore they are tagged with railway=disused. The routes which are closed to traffic:

Route/Location	Progress	Last checked	State	Comments
Aittaluoto–Niinisalo
Parkano–Haapamäki
Pesiökylä–Taivalkoski
Kolari–Äkäsjoki	95%	2025-09-02	railway=abandoned	Rails have been removed. Äkäsjoki yard remains unchecked.
Niesa–Rautuvaara	95%	2025-09-09	railway=disused	Rails remaining on the ground. Rautuvaara yard remains unchecked.
Kiukainen–Säkylä
Isokylä–Kelloselkä
Lautiosaari–Elijärvi
Lohja–Lohjanjärvi
Otava–Otavan satama
(Yläkoski)–Iisvesi	100%	2025-09-06	railway=disused	Yläkoski remains in use.
Rantasalmi–Savonlinna	100%	2025-10-03	railway=disused	Closed in 2015. The Laitaatsalmi bridge has been demolished.
(Seinäjoki)–Kaskinen	100%	2025-08-17	railway=disused	Closed in September 2024 due to condition of the track.
Joutjärvi–Mukkula	100%	2025-08-17	railway=disused	Closed in May 2022.
Lieksa–Pankakoski	100%	2025-09-19	railway=disused	Closed in 2023 due to condition of the track. Map note: https://osm.org/note/4907874
Mänttä–Vilppula	100%	2025-09-05		Restricted maintenance and a traffic restriction from 2023. Some level crossings have been razed on the Mänttä industrial spur.
Pesiökylä–Ämmänsaari	100%	2025-08-17	railway=disused	Closed in September 2023 when the new wood loading area in Pesiökylä opened.

Network statement

The Finnish Rail Administration publishes the biyearly Rataverkon kuvaus (Description of the rail network) which includes potentially useful information. The thing that comes to mind first is electrification; the publication contains a list of electrified rail lines. Maybe maximum speeds too. I contacted RHK about the usage of the information and senior officer Soile Tissari replied that it's OK as long as RHK is mentioned as the source of the information(see discussion page for e-mails).

Since 2023, the data contained in Rataverkon kuvaus, now called Verkkoselostus (Network statement), has been available for viewing on FTIA's Suomen Väylät -service: https://vayla.fi/en/transport-network/data/maps-charts