For now, a few freight trains are the only traffic on the newly electrified line between Haparanda in Sweden and Tornio on the Finnish side of the border.
The electrification cost some 37 million euros, of which Finland paid 30 million and Sweden seven million. But further funding is needed to start passenger services, and the government is yet to make a decision on that.
The state railway firm VR estimates that the minimum it needs to run some kind of service on the line is 300,000 euros per year. That would buy services on two days a week, Fridays and Sundays.
The next option prepared by VR would involve 14 trips each weekend from Friday to Sunday, which would cost up to a million euros.
VR also says that it could run 30 services per week with at least two per day. That would cost between 1.4 million and 2.1 million euros.
The municipality of Tornio has said it will pay five percent of the costs for as long as the contract lasts, so until the end of 2031, but the ministry says that budgets are tight and a political decision by the government is needed before the new link can open up.
VR says that it can start up services within four months of contracts being signed, but the ministry says that at present, it looks like the earliest they could begin would be January 2026.
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