The exceptional arrangements for train traffic between Turku and Helsinki will last longer than expected. The track renovation in Turku only started in August, but it has already been noticed that the finished product will not arrive on time. At the same time, the budget swells by 40 million. On the other hand, Lähijunalikken is even closer to being realized.
Train traffic in Turku messy track repair is delayed and expensive. The Finnish Railways Agency announced on Thursday morning that the schedule and costs of the contract between Kupitta and Turku Central Railway Station had to be revised.
Both the city of Turku and the state have to grant the project a little over 20 million euros in additional funding. Thus, the originally 67.5 million renovation has now turned into a 108 million euro renovation.
The track project related to Turku’s one-hour train was supposed to be completed according to the original schedule at the end of 2024. Now the Finnish Railways Agency estimates that it won’t be ready until 2026. However, those traveling between Helsinki and Turku won’t have to put up with exceptional arrangements for that long.
Trains from Helsinki will be able to travel to the main railway station as early as December 2024, promises the project’s project manager Erkki Mäkelä. According to the original schedule, Kupitta was supposed to serve as the terminus of Helsinki trains until August 2024.
“With money and construction, it’s sometimes this kind of art,” describes Mäkelä.
Read more: The train journey to Turku now ends in traffic chaos – the Finnish Railways Agency is taking tough measures
Rapeseed According to Erkki Mäkelä, the price increase is mainly due to insufficient planning.
“Originally, not all issues were taken into account in the content of the track plan,” says Mäkelä.
He admits that miscalculations have been made in the design. However, Mäkelä defends that it would have been impossible to evaluate everything correctly. For example, the soil in Turku has turned out to be more difficult than expected.
“Some things are such that we only know when the contractor goes to work on that part.”
The exceptional arrangements for train traffic in Turku have confused passengers arriving from Helsinki. Turku trains currently only stop at Kupitta. – However, you can also accidentally buy a ticket to Turku from VR’s online store. In that case, the trip from Helsinki goes around via the Tampere line.
Additional costs also arise from preparing for local train traffic. This is an expansion of the original plans.
In the past few years, there has been a discussion about the need for commuter train service in the Turku region. The private operator has also announced that it is planning to start a commuter train service between Turku and Uudenkaupunki. Now also in Turku’s track renovation, the arrival of commuter trains has been awakened.
“It wasn’t considered at all in the beginning,” Mäkelä describes.
It has now been decided to build an extra platform for commuter trains at the Turku railway yard. It comes to the Logomo bridge, on the north side of the railway yard.
In the future, Turku’s train service will no longer use the old main railway station, but after the renovation, the trains will stop at the Logomo bridge.
Read more: A bridge farce in Turku style – This is how the budget of the Logomo pedestrian bridge was quadrupled
Kupittaa-Turku railway project the increase in price also means that Logomons, which is titled “the most expensive in Finland in terms of square footage”, will become even more expensive.
The Logomo bridge, completed a year ago, cost more than 21 million euros. However, the bridge still needs lifts to the station platforms. They have previously been estimated to cost just under two million euros, which will be covered from the track repair budget.
Mäkelä admits that the price of finishing the bridge has probably also increased. However, he still cannot estimate the share of the additional bill for the construction of the elevators.
The track project between Kupitta and Turku is related to the preparation of Turku’s hourly train. With the renovation, a double track will be built between the Turku railway yard and Kupittaa station. At the same time, railway bridges are being renewed. The renovation will enable even better connections between Turku and Helsinki in the future.
In the same context, the Turku railway yard is being renovated, where a new experience center is planned. According to Mäkelä, the uncertainties in the experience center’s plans have also slowed down the arrangements for the track renovation.
Trains between Turku and Tampere will run as far as the Turku railway yard throughout the renovation, as before.
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