Passenger ticket prices on national rail operator VR's trains are set to decrease by 10 percent, at least temporarily, at the beginning of next year due to a planned value-added-tax (VAT) reduction, according to the company.
At the beginning of September, as the government unveiled next year's budget outline, plans to cut VAT for public transport from January to April were announced.
"Of course [the reduction] will be seen in train ticket prices," VR's CEO Elisa Markula said.
"In other words, the discount will be visible on tickets bought between January and April," Markula explained, adding that the firm anticipates the situation will increase people's interest in travelling by train.
The government's plan to cut VAT was prompted by soaring electricity prices, and VR's trains use quite a bit of it, according to Markula.
"We use a very large portion of Finland's electricity, even up to one percent of it. Costs are increasing in general, and electricity costs have doubled," she explained.
VR has implemented an electricity savings programme, according to the VR's CFO, Erkka Repo.
To save energy, the company is optimising schedules and shifted more of its heavy cargo traffic to nighttime, when market-priced electricity is cheaper.
However, VR is not slowing down their trains in an effort to save on even more electricity and hasn't changed passenger schedules, CEO Markula noted.
VR buying more train stock
On Monday, VR announced that the number of long-distance passenger train journeys it provided during July-September reached pre-pandemic levels.
It also noted that the decrease in cargo volumes due to the lack of shipments across the eastern border had been partially compensated by higher domestic transport volumes.
The company also announced on Monday that it is purchasing 20 Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains from Swiss train manufacturer Stadler Bussnang AG, in a deal valued at around 250 million euros.
Apart from the 20 new trains, the procurement agreement also includes spare parts, special tools, training and documentation.
The deal also includes an option to purchase an additional 50 EMUs and maintenance services, VR said in the statement issued on Monday afternoon.
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