Finland is set to get its first cross-border rail link with continental Europe this summer.
The long-delayed connection with Sweden could launch as early as June, authorities say.
According to a European rail expert, the new route will create one of the longest journeys that can be taken by train within the EU.
At the moment, travellers can only pass between the border towns of Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden – at the top of the Gulf of Bothnia – by bus or car.
There is a rail line linking the two towns, but there’s a practical stumbling block that dates back to Finland’s inclusion in the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
The Finnish track gauge is still set to the old Russian standard of 1524mm, compared to the standard European track gauge of 1435mm, which is used in Sweden, Finnish broadcaster Yle News explains.
A solution has now been agreed upon. A historic station in Haparanda, dating from the early 1900s, is being restored, acting as a hub for passengers changing between the two lines at the border.
“Finnish VR trains will stop at the Tornio C station and then terminate at Haparanda,” Sampo Kangastalo, development director of Tornio, told Yle News.
“The Haparanda station building is located between the Finnish and Swedish tracks. So to change from VR to Swedish Norrtåg trains, you’ll just walk through the station building – it’s easy.”
Last week, Finland and Sweden signed an agreement to simplify rail traffic between the two countries and confirmed a financing deal.
“The grand opening of this route will hopefully be just before Midsummer in late June,” said Kangastalo.
It means this summer Finnish trains will operate cross-border routes for the first time since suspending their service to St Petersburg in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A record-long train journey across the EU
When the border rail link opens this summer, it will create what is thought to be the longest train journey that’s possible to take in the EU, Jon Worth, an independent railway consultant and writer, told Yle News.
“As far as I can tell Kolari [in Finland] to Lagos, Portugal, is the longest journey you can take on multiple trains within the EU,” he said.
The new link brings other advantages too. “The real potential is for Rovaniemi and Oulu, which will have a rail route to Sweden without needing a plane or a boat, and that’s excellent news,” said Worth.
Travellers could also swap the roughly 18-hour passenger ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm for a just over 24-hour train journey.