VR Long-distance Traffic in Finland had an all-time year – 15.3 million train journeys and excellent customer satisfaction

The growth from the previous year was due to the growing popularity of business travel focusing on weekdays and leisure travel. For example, the limit of 600,000 passengers was broken for the first time in Vaasa and Joensuu.

"The popularity of rail travel is at a record high, and night train services in particular reached a historically high passenger volume in December. At the same time, our customer satisfaction rose to an excellent level with an NPS of 53 in December. The train is the sustainable mode of travel of the future, and more and more people are choosing it not only for environmental reasons but also for passenger comfort," says VR's CEO Elisa Markula.

As many as 95% of domestic long-distance traffic sales take place through digital service channels, such as the vr.fi online service and the VR Matka mobile application. VR develops its services together with its customers and has invested significantly in digital development and customer experience. During 2024, based on customer feedback, several improvements have been made, such as renewing train wifi and clarifying passenger information. Customer satisfaction with train Wi-Fi is at a higher level than before, 3.7/5.

Around 2.3 million tonnes were transported by rail in VR's freight traffic in December. The volume of freight traffic grew by 2 per cent in December from the year before. Last year, a total of 23.1 (23.4) million tonnes of freight were transported by rail, which is about one per cent less than in the previous year. Economic trends in heavy industry have a significant impact on freight transport demand, and volume fluctuations have been rapid in 2024.

At Christmas, trains ran punctually

In 2024, 78% of domestic long-distance trains were punctual when punctuality is measured with an accuracy of 5 minutes. The majority of delays, or 46%, were caused by reasons related to the track managed by the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, such as track work or temporary speed limits, 30% by VR, such as rolling stock failures and 24% by other reasons, such as vandalism.

Christmas train traffic was excellent, even though many passengers were in traffic. The punctuality of long-distance traffic was 80% in December. Train delays were divided into track-related reasons (42%), VR-related reasons (31%) and other reasons (27%).

In VR's commuter services, punctuality was 96% in December. The reasons for delays were divided into other reasons (51%), track-related reasons (33%) and VR-related reasons (16%).

The occupancy rate of passenger seats in long-distance train services in Finland was 47.5% last year.