The beach railway should be repaired with tens of millions of euros. According to the Finnish Railways Agency, traffic will be disrupted if repairs are not made.
Turku and the coastal railway between Helsinki is in dire need of repairs.
According to recent reports from the Finnish Railways Agency, there are, among other things, tunnels and safety devices on the track that require urgent repair. Bridges and track structures also need to be repaired.
The repairs fall on the track section between Espoo's Kauklahti and Karjaa. In addition, there are a few tunnels in Salo that need to be repaired.
About 80 million euros are needed for these repairs and various development works.
If no repairs are made, the traffic on the beach track starts to get even worse. This is the opinion of the Railway Agency's track planning project manager Heidi Mäenpää.
According to him, there is no actual security threat. For example, the tunnels are not in danger of collapsing.
“The rock in Finland is so hard that it won't collapse,” says Mäenpää.
On the other hand, there are problems with the waterproofing of the Märjänmäki and Lemunmäki tunnels. When water gets to the wrong places, traffic can be interrupted.
The Lillgård and Riddarbacken tunnels, on the other hand, need to be enlarged so that the speed limits of the tunnels can be raised. Now the trains have to brake in the tunnels already a couple of kilometers before plunging into the rock.
Quick repairs should also be made to the track's safety devices, which prevent consecutive trains from driving too close to each other. According to Mäenpää, the breakdown of the safety device does not cause the risk of collision, but the trains crashing onto the rails.
“The trains then stop automatically.”
Coastline the repairs are wanted to be done at the same time as Espoo's urban railway is being built, which causes traffic interruptions. Due to the works in Espoo, the train service between Turku and Helsinki will be interrupted for five weeks in the summer.
In order for this to work, the parliament must make a decision to allocate the money to repair the beach track. Prime minister Petteri Orpon In the (kok) government program, tens of millions of euros have been proposed for the repair and development of the beach track.
Mäenpää is hopeful that the repairs can start already this summer. According to him, the repairs to the coastal line will not increase the time that the train service between Turku and Helsinki is interrupted.
“Part of the work can be done at night, when there is no impact on traffic. The track can be open at the construction site even during the day, but train speeds have to be reduced,” says Mäenpää.
Beach track is old and in poor condition. According to Mäenpää, this is because part of the embankment, sleepers, rails, electric track and safety devices have reached the end of their life cycle.
The place where the track is built also causes problems.
“It is soft clay, i.e. deep clay. Long sections of the track were repaired already in the 1990s and there are still problems. In some places, there are 20-40 meter clay mattresses under the track, which are in a small movement.”
According to Mäenpää, traffic interruptions on the coastal railway have increased in recent years. According to him, the track is not in significantly worse condition than some other tracks in Finland, but the coastal track is heavily trafficked and the problems are more visible.
The line from Helsinki to Turku.
Length 196 kilometers.
Completed in 1903.
Electrified in the 1990s.
Thoroughly improved between 1979 and 1996. Even after that, several repairs were made.
Starting from Pasila station, there are four tracks on the beach line until Leppävaara station. Two tracks continue from Leppävaara station to Kirkkonummi. From Kirkkonummi onwards, the line continues as a single track to Turku.
Source: Väylävirasto
To the beach track various improvements are also planned.
The aim of the development measures is, among other things, to enable the development of commuter train traffic in the future between Hanko–Karjaa–Inkoo–Siuntio–Helsinki.
The Finnish Railways Agency also pointed out that the planning and construction of commuter rail stations between Salo and Turku is a prerequisite for the start of commuter rail traffic at those stations. Mäenpään says that, as needed, there is a reason to start cooperation between the Norwegian Railways Agency and the municipalities on the planning and implementation of the stations.
#Train #service #report #completed #tunnels #Rantarada #repaired #urgently
