Transit traffic passing through Port of Kokkola blocks Ostrobothnia railway line

The construction of a dual track between Kokkola and Ylivieska is to start soon

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The good news is that more than 500 cargo vessels visited the Port of Kokkola last year, and the volume of cargo handled at the port amounted to six million tonnes. The Port of Kokkola has rapidly become the busiest bulk port in the country.
      Kokkola also serves as a transit port for large volumes of lime and sulphur dioxide transported by train to the Talvivaara mine for the purpose of ore enrichment.
     
The down side of all this is that the rapidly growing freight traffic is already testing the functionality of the Ostrobothnia railway line, Finland’s main north-south artery. The line is suffering from serious congestion.
      ”It is difficult to run high-speed Pendolinos on the Ostrobothnia line, as the traffic passing through the Port of Kokkola has increased by four million tonnes over four years”, says Port Director Torbjörn Witting.
      Even the track between the main line and the harbour is occasionally blocked, as there is only one pair of rails that leads to the port, reports Bengt Vikkula from the Finnish rail operator VR.
      While the infrastructure for bulk handling is being improved, the Port of Kokkola plans to increase the volumes of bulk goods handled at its facilities, which will only lead to further congestion on the line.
      At present, the daily number of pellet carriages destined for the port is about 200.
     
The Finnish Transport Agency is expediting the launch of the construction work on Finland’s busiest single-track rail section between Kokkola and Ylivieska.
      The construction of a second railway track between Kokkola and Kannus is to start next year.
      ”The section will be divided into three subcontracts. The dual track is expected to be completed in 2017”, reports project manager Tommi Rosenvall from the Finnish Transport Agency.
     
The purpose is to improve the railway line all the way from Ylivieska to Oulu.
      The estimated costs for the upgrading of the track section from Kokkola to Ylivieska are EUR 310 million, while the costs for the section Ylivieska-Oulu are estimated to amount to EUR 344 million.
      At present the basic structure of the railway track is being repaired in Liminka, south of Oulu.


Links:
  Port of Kokkola
  The Finnish Transport Agency
  Finnish Railways: the map shows the location of Kokkola on the main line running up the west side of Finland to Oulu and beyond.

Helsingin Sanomat