Finnish State Railways VR is cutting about 90 jobs, more than half of them in Helsinki. Many of the redundancies are in VR’s technology department, which will be closed down. Some of its functions will be absorbed into other units, while others will be outsourced.
Others are in rolling stock maintenance operations, which are being phased out completely in the south-western city of Turku.
Besides Helsinki, that will leave just four maintenance depots: Tampere, Kouvola, Joensuu and Oulu. VR also has machine shops in Hyvinkää and Pieksämäki, both in south-central Finland.
In the first quarter of this year, the parastatal saw a slump in long-distance passenger traffic and in cargo deliveries. However it reported growth in commuter services.
Last year the VR Group’s turnover edged down by about two percent from 2013, but its operating result improved, generating 100 million euros for the state.