{"id":16837,"date":"2026-01-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/finnish-vr-becomes-swedens-second-largest-train-operator\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:00:00","slug":"finnish-vr-becomes-swedens-second-largest-train-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/finnish-vr-becomes-swedens-second-largest-train-operator\/","title":{"rendered":"Finnish VR becomes Sweden\u2019s second-largest train operator."},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>With the launch of services under the \u00d6resundst\u00e5g and Norrt\u00e5g brands in mid-December 2025, the Finnish-owned operator has become Sweden\u2019s second-largest train operator by traffic volume.<\/p>\n<p>Operations under the new agreements were transferred to VR on 14 December. Services are operated by VR Sverige, the group\u2019s Swedish subsidiary. The \u00d6resundst\u00e5g network covers cross-border regional traffic between southern Sweden and Denmark, while Norrt\u00e5g services extend rail operations in northern Sweden as far as Haparanda.<\/p>\n<p>The \u00d6resundst\u00e5g contract has a duration of five years and includes both traffic operations and maintenance responsibilities. Under this agreement, VR assumed responsibility for the maintenance of 111 trains used in the network. Around 700 employees transferred from the previous operator as part of the contract handover. The Norrt\u00e5g contract runs for ten years and resulted in the transfer of approximately 200 employees to VR.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"617\" src=\"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/x9ec18eb444d9e4e8-jpg-pagespeed-ic_-emjpyzkccw.webp\" alt=\"Finnish VR becomes Sweden\u2019s second-largest train operator.\" class=\"wp-image-17784\" title=\"Europe Finnish VR becomes Sweden\u2019s second-largest train operator.\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>VR Sverige<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>VR entered Sweden\u2019s publicly funded passenger rail market in 2022 and has since expanded its presence through participation in regional competitive tenders. Prior to the start of the \u00d6resundst\u00e5g and Norrt\u00e5g contracts, VR was already operating regional passenger services in the Stockholm area, southern and eastern Sweden, as well as the Bergslagen region in central Sweden. The company has also secured the contract for M\u00e4lart\u00e5g services, covering routes in the Stockholm and M\u00e4laren regions.<\/p>\n<p>In parallel with publicly procured services, VR is active in commercial passenger transport in Sweden. The company operates market-based long-distance services between Stockholm and G\u00f6teborg under the VR Snabbt\u00e5g brand.<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the launch of services under the \u00d6resundst\u00e5g and Norrt\u00e5g brands in mid-December 2025, the Finnish-owned operator has become Sweden\u2019s second-largest train operator by traffic volume.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}