Rail ferry services to be discontinued between Turku and Stockholm

Rail ferry services between Turku and Stockholm will be discontinued at the end of the year when VR Group and Swedish Green Cargo discontinue their SeaRail service. The main reason are decreased volumes and low profitability.

SeaRail Oy has offered train ferry transport services for 20 years. Transports have been operated from Finland to Sweden directly with rail wagons via Turku train ferry port or indirectly via other Finnish ports. Increased costs and differences in Finnish and Swedish rail systems have made it more difficult to expand operations and increase profitability.

Railways will continue to have a role in the future in freight transports crossing the Baltic Sea for instance in the container transport chain.

– VR Group intends to develop various intermodal transports. The prerequisite for the viability of rail transports is sufficiently large shipments, says Senior Vice President, Logistics Erik Söderholm.

VR Group and Green Cargo, who owned SeaRail in equal shares have jointly decided to discontinue the service. An employee involvement procedure has been launched concerning the 11 persons employed by SeaRail in Finland. The aim is to complete the procedure during November.

VR Transpoint 11 October 2011