The train is an environmentally friendly way to travel

Increasing railway traffic is important work for climate and the environment. People who care for the environment can make an environmentally friendly choice by choosing the train as their mode of transport.

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12 environmental commitments »
Climate change affects us all »
The train is nature friendly »

12 environmental commitments

VR has worked for a cleaner environment for a long time. In the coming years VR promises to offer passengers even more environmentally friendly transport services. The 12 environmental commitments were published in December 2007 and VR intends to make good on its promises by the end of its jubilee year 2012.

Read more about the environmental commitments on VR Group's web site.

Climate change affects us all

Climate change is a serious environmental problem which affect all of us. The worst polluters are the industrialized countries producing greenhouse gases.

In 2005 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in Finland came from traffic (Source: Statistics Finland ). The biggest percentage of emissions comes from road traffic. The worst problems in road traffic are in urban areas because in urban driving more emissions are produced due to constant acceleration and breaking than on highways.

The Kyoto Protocol seeks to curtail climate change and assigns mandatory greenhouse gas emissions limitations for industrialized countries. The protocol requires countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions to year 1990 levels by 2012. The traffic sector was not included in the Kyoto Protocol. Railway traffic is the only form of transport participating indirectly in emissions trading because it uses electrical current as power.

The train is nature friendly

The train is an environmentally friendly way mode of transport because of its energy efficiency and low carbon dioxide emissions. In particular electrical trains are the most energy efficient mode of transport because their energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions are approximately five time smaller than those of passenger cars.

With the same amount of energy you travel from Helsinki either

• by train to Rovaniemi
• by bus to Seinäjoki
• by car to Tampere
• by airplane to Riihimäki

By train you travel further with the same amount of energy. Calculations are based on e.g. VTT's Lipasto model.

The energy efficiency of trains increases thanks to the increasing number of passengers. In 2008 a total of 69.9 million journeys were made in passenger traffic, an all-time record.

Energy efficiency is enhanced by continuing to increase the percentage of electrical trains. The proportion of electric traction grew to 83% of all train kilometres.

Low floor trains of commuter services and over half of long-distance trains are equipped with electricity saving devices which electrical power generated by braking energy back into the power line. Thanks to this equipment as much as 25 percent of commuter train braking energy is recycled back into use.

Other measures improving energy efficiency are an economic way of driving, reduction in shunting work, planning of train stops and timetables and avoiding the moving of empty trains.