Finland-Sweden Rail Link Set To Open In August 2026.

Helsinki; May 2026: Finnish Transport Minister Lulu Ranne has informed yesterday (Monday – 25th May 2026), has informed that the cross-border rail link between Tornio (Finland) and Haparanda (Sweden) , is set to commence from 10th August this year (2026). The transport agency ‘Traficom’ is about to prepare and produce a convenient time table.

“We are working hard to overcome any remaining obstacles and have the Public Service Obligation (PSO) contract on the traffic signed as soon as possible”, she told media reporters.

Under EU law, a PSO means time-limited public support for a transport project that may be unprofitable on a free market, but is deemed to be of social benefit. “Citizens and companies from both sides of the border have been waiting for this almost for 40 years”, noted Ranne, who grew up in Haparanda. State railways VR is to re-start the service into Sweden, which it discontinued in 1992.

On Monday evening, the Tornio City Council had discussed the latest plan for the long-delayed service. The meeting agenda also cites 10 August as the start date for the route. The last passenger trains from Finland to Sweden stopped running in 1988 and the last from Sweden to Finland four years later.

Electrification of the track between Tornio and Haparanda was completed in early 2025, along with new platforms at the railway stations in Haparanda and Tornio city centre, with latter facility now being re-commissioned as a passenger train station after decades as a dusty cargo depot. At present, trains between Helsinki and Kolari in Finnish Lapland now let passengers on and off at the small, remote Tornio Itäinen (Tornio East) stop.

Since Finnish track gauge is slightly wider than that used in Sweden and most European countries, passengers will have to switch trains in Haparanda. Meanwhile, a regular passenger train connection from Haparanda west to Luleå, Sweden, has been in operation since early 2020. That allows direct rail access northbound to Swedish Lapland and the Norwegian Sea, and south to Stockholm and continental Europe.

“VR hopes that this route will attract interest among Interrail travellers, for example, as well as Finnish and Swedish customers,” the state rail operator’s Director of New Traffic, Juho Hannukainen, had officially informed last month.

Last month, Tornio development director Sampo Kangastalo had informed that the international rail link would hopefully be up and running by late June, after earlier estimates that the service would start last year.

Yesterday, Kangastalo said that the August start date remains iffy (speculative). “The new date is 10 August, but that is not confirmed and 100 percent sure. It depends on how soon Traficom and VR sign their contracts”, he explained.

Under a provisional schedule published by the Tornio city council, it would be possible to leave Helsinki at 13:20 hours and arrive in Haparanda at 20:30 hours. But that is even a bit too late to catch the day’s last onward connection to the north or south.

Team Maverick.