Train traffic in South-Central Finland returned to normal on Monday afternoon, when a cable fault interrupted traffic between Tampere and Riihimäki. The state railway company VR announced the cancellations shortly after 9 a.m. and predicted that the repairs would be completed sometime in the afternoon.
The Finnish Transport Agency said in a tweet that the cable damage is suspected to be vandalism. Central Finland’s police told Yle a little after noon that no criminal complaint has been filed yet.
Later in the afternoon, the police announced that a criminal complaint had been filed and an investigation had begun.
According to the Finnish Transport Agency, the damage was on the same bridge where repair work caused major delays during the Midsummer weekend at the end of June. The train operator had to pay hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation to dissatisfied passengers.
Some travelers rent cars together
During the repairs, VR replaced the train service between Riihimäki and Tampere with a continuous round-trip bus service. However, VR said it had great difficulty getting enough buses to transport all passengers. At the Tampere train station, some passengers formed groups with strangers to rent cars together to, for example, Jyväskylä.
The cable fault was discovered early Monday morning. Most of the early morning train services between Tampere and Helsinki were cancelled, as well as Tampere regional trains R and M. Night trains ran slower and up to three hours behind schedule.
The company said that train service between Tampere and Riihimäki will restart around 1 p.m., but delays and occasional cancellations may still occur.
The first trains operating normally were the IC trains between the capital and Oulu and Rovaniemi. Both trains were scheduled to make additional stops at Riihimäki, Hämeenlinna, Toijala and Lempäälä.
Updated 13:59 information about the police investigation.
Source: The Nordic Page
