Finland-Sweden passenger trains resume after decades

Passenger trains between Finland and Sweden resumed Monday, opening a land rail route from northern Finland toward southern Europe for the first time since the 1990s.

The new service runs twice a day from Oulu, on Finland's northwest coast, to Haparanda in Sweden. From Haparanda, passengers can transfer to routes running west toward the Norwegian Sea or south through Stockholm as far as Portugal.

Finnish cross-border passenger trains were discontinued in 1988. At Oulu station, passenger Vaino Jalkanen called the resumption “historic” and said it would now be possible to travel from Paris to Rovaniemi.

A transfer is needed at Haparanda because Finland uses wider railway tracks than the European standard, the same width used in neighbouring Russia. The difference is a legacy of Finland's time as part of the Russian Grand Duchy in the 19th century.

After crossing a bridge over the Torne river from Tornio in Finland, the inaugural train was welcomed by a crowd waving Finnish and Swedish flags at Haparanda's red-brick station.

Finland's Transport Minister Lulu Ranne said the rail link was about security, the future and the economy. Elisa Markula, chief executive of Finland's state-owned railway operator VR, said she hoped the service would attract passengers because land travel was popular, and said train travel was seeing renewed growth in Europe and Finland.