User:JIP/Helsinki tram

The Helsinki tram network forms part of the Helsinki public transport system organised by Helsinki Regional Transport Authority and operated by Helsinki City Transport in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki. The trams are the main means of transport in the city centre. 54.9 million trips were made in 2009. The Helsinki system is one of the oldest electrified tram networks in the world.

Since 1999, new low-floor trams have been gradually brought into operation, but technical difficulties have slowed this progress. In 2004, Helsinki City Transport bought old eight-axle trams from Germany for relief during this transitional phase.

Trunk Lines
There are 12 tram lines in operation. Line 9 is the latest to open on 10 August 2008, and also the latest to have its route changed, with the opening of the extension to West Harbour on 13 August 2012.

Helsinki Regional Transport Authority is reportedly planning to rebrand lines 3B and 3T, with line 3B becoming line 3 and line 3T becoming line 2.

Additional Lines
In addition to the 12 trunk lines three special exist: Line 5 Culture Tram, the museum line operated by Helsinki City Transport in collaboration with Oy Stadin Ratikat Ab and the Spårakoff pub tram. The Culture Tram is operated for limited hours on three days of the week, while the museum and pub trams run during the summer months. These lines do not appear in the route map included with this article.


 * Approximate week day figures in 24-hour clock. Accurate times at HKL site.
 * Together lines 3B and 3T form a figure-of-eight circular running in opposite directions.
 * Ferry arrival and departure times only.
 * Clockwise circular.


 * Counter-clockwise circular.
 * Non-numbered museum line.
 * Summer weekends only.
 * Summers only.
 * The Culture Tram has various art exhibitions and performances on board. The line is operated with a single eight-axle Düwag tram, originally purchased from Mannheim, Germany, and refurbished specifically for use as the Culture Tram.

Technology and infrastructure
The tram network is built almost exclusively on the streets of Helsinki, making it a traditional tram system rather than a light rail one. The track gauge is one metre. The network consists almost entirely of double track. In some parts the tracks are separated from other road traffic; elsewhere they share road space with cars and buses.

The trams are powered with electricity conveyed by overhead wires. Trams have their own traffic lights, distinguished from normal lights in that they are based on symbols of single colour: an upward-pointing arrow signifies "go", a horizontal line "prepare to stop" and the letter S "stop". The traffic lights are synchronised to allow tram and bus traffic to flow relatively smoothly. This system is called HeLMi (Helsinki Public Transport Signal Priority and Passenger Information).

Depots
As of 2010, there are four tram depots/workshops in Helsinki; HKL-maintained depots in Töölö, Vallila and Koskela, and a Bombardier Transportation-maintained workshop at Pasilan konepaja.


 * The Töölö depot houses trams running on lines 4 and 10, as well as some of those on lines 7A and 7B, approximately one third of the whole rolling stock. The Helsinki tram museum is located next to the Töölö depot. Between 1948 and 1974 the Töölö depot also housed the trolleybuses used on Helsinki's sole trolleybus line.
 * The Vallila depot houses repair-, paint- and rebuilding facilities, and administrative functions.
 * The Koskela depot is the largest tram depot in Helsinki. It houses approximately two thirds of trams in the city, and contains training facilities. The Koskela depot is linked to the main Helsinki tram network by a long section of double track that is not used by passenger-serving trams.
 * The Pasilan konepaja tram workshop was established in mid-2008 by Bombardier transportation as a repair shop for the Helsinki Variotrams, the maintenance of which became Bombardier's responsibility in May 2008. The workshop takes up a part of the former VR Group electric locomotive workshop at Pasilan konepaja. As of August 2008, the workshop does not have a permanent link to the tram network (although tracks run just outside the depot doors); instead, portable tracks are used to run the trams to and from the workshop.

Planning process is under way (as of October 2008) for excavating a new underground tram depot in the base rock below the existing Vallila depot and adjacent city blocks. The underground depot is planned to have facilities for housing 180 trams plus repair facilities and staff parking spaces. The underground depot would partially or completely replace the Koskela depot, which is inconveniently located far from normally operated tram lines and would require major reconstruction if kept in use. An alternative is rebuilding and expanding the Koskela depot, but this is projected to be more expensive than the planned underground depot.

Rolling stock
Helsinki City Transport operates the tram network with a total of 132 trams in scheduled passenger service. In addition there are six trams in reserve and eight in charter use. The Valmet Nr I+, Valmet Nr II+ and Variotram series comprise the backbone of the fleet. Both Finnish- and German-made vehicles are in use. In 2006—2012, the whole Nr II+ series underwent a major modification process in which a 6.5 m low-floor midsection was fitted in the tram. The type designation was changed from Nr II+ to MLNRV to reflect the modifications made and the extended trams were re-introduced in traffic gradually as the modification works completed. HKL has also decided to fit ten of the older NrI trams with a low-floor midsection, bringing the total number of MLNRV trams up to 52 by 2012, when the modifications are expected to be complete. HKL purchased ten DUEWAG series second-hand trams from the German town of Mannheim to cover for the shortage of rolling stock caused by the problems with the Variotrams.

The following table lists the current rolling stock. Corresponding articles have further details about the cars in use.

Car length in meters

Car width in meters

Car height in meters with pantograph

Scheduled service

Charter service

Reserve units  Number 339 is owned by Oy Stadin Ratikat Ab.

Number 175 is a restaurant tram and is counted as charter.

A replica of Brändö Spårvägs Ab tram number 1 from 1917.

6,346 seats in scheduled service; 245 seats in charter service; 186 seats in reserve.

13,552 standees in scheduled service; 405 standees in charter service; 342 standees in reserve.

Reference for the tabular data: Finnish Tramway Society

Future acquisitions
The board of HKL decided on 2 December 2010 to order 40 new articulated trams from the Finnish manufacturer Transtech Oy . Transtech is the direct descendant of the state-owned Valmet, which built Helsinki's NrI and NrII trams. Two new trams are to start test runs in 2013 and the production series deliveries are expected to start in 2015. The order is worth €113 million and it includes an option for a further 90 trams.

The new Transtech tram has a double-articulated, eight-axle design. It is planned to be 27.3 m long and to have 73 fixed seats, 14 foldable seats and space for 75 standee passengers. The design has a 100 % low floor and conventional, turning bogies designed to run without problems on Helsinki's challenging old-fashioned track network.

To ease the construction of new tram tracks into Jätkäsaari during 2009–2015 (see below), the acquisition of bi-directional trams was considered. However, HKL decided to build the Jätkäsaari extensions with conventional return loops, even though this means that some of the loops built in the intermediate phases will likely not be used in regular traffic when Jätkäsaari is completed. The next time bi-directional rolling stock might be considered is the possible conversion of the Jokeri orbital line (see below) into light rail.