VR Commuter Rail

VR Commuter Rail

Helsinki commuter rail (Finnish: Pääkaupunkiseudun lähiliikenne, Swedish: Huvudstadsregionens närtrafik, proper translation Capital local traffic) is the commuter rail system serving Greater Helsinki, Finland. The network is operated by VR, the Finnish national railway company. Together with the Helsinki Metro and trams, the network forms the heart of Helsinki's public transportation infrastructure.

Trains run above ground in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Within the municipalities of Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen, Kerava, Kirkkonummi and Vantaa, the system uses tickets that are interchangeable with the bus, metro and tram networks managed by the Helsinki Region Transport, which was formed in 2010 by merging transport section of Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council and Helsinki City Transport. Traveling beyond Kerava and Kirkkonummi uses VR commuter tickets, which are sold in zones from A (Helsinki) to H (Lahti).

The network is composed of 14 separate services, pictured in the network map below. They operate on all four branches of the railway lines that begin at the Helsinki Central railway station, which is where they all terminate. The system has a total of 54 stations, 14 of which are within the city of Helsinki. There are about 850 departures on weekdays. The commuter rail services carried a total 55.1 million passengers in 2011.