Skip to main content

Mobile transport information across the Finnish–Russian border

The smart transport corridor between Helsinki in Finland and St Petersburg in Russia will bring new services for passengers, car drivers and public transport. Development of the Vedia multi-service concept, led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Vediafi, unites newly opened mobile services that will result in smoother passenger traffic across the Finnish–Russian border and enhance passenger experience and traffic safety. Vedia multi-service is a key element of the Finnish–Russian intelligent
April 16, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The smart transport corridor between Helsinki in Finland and St Petersburg in Russia will bring new services for passengers, car drivers and public transport. Development of the Vedia multi-service concept, led by 814 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Vediafi, unites newly opened mobile services that will result in smoother passenger traffic across the Finnish–Russian border and enhance passenger experience and traffic safety.

Vedia multi-service is a key element of the Finnish–Russian intelligent transport spearhead project which will create new intelligent transport services for passenger traffic crossing the border, in a collaboration involving authorities, research institutes and enterprises.

The first phase of services include information in road weather and driving conditions, an automatic system issuing bulletins and warnings on traffic disruption, a real-time traffic and congestion information service, and a public transport information service. This service will be available to road and railway transport users, but will later also cover other forms of transport.

For train travellers, Vedia services will become available in the fast Allegro trains between Helsinki and St Petersburg. The services will be implemented on the Finnish National Railway Company on-board wireless internet and will provide passengers with additional information on journey progress, train station bulletins, news headlines, weather information, and connecting traffic data at the destination via smart phones and mobile devices. Vedia services will be produced on board the train and so will be unaffected by poor reception, particularly in the border zone.

The pilot solution is based on open data exchange in which cooperation is being built between the authorities and enterprises in both countries. This will allow traffic and road condition information to be made available to consumers, for example, via Finland’s Rajaliikenne.fi road informatio0n service and Vedia applications. Other additions to the service will include an online translation service and public transport information that will introduce connecting traffic as part of the application. In addition Vedia’s mobile SMS payment system can be used to pay for single rail tickets within Helsinki.

A service consortium, For Vedia, has been established to implement the services, including about a dozen companies both in Finland and Russia. The implementing consortium will be managed by Vediafi.

Related Content

  • October 12, 2018
    Highways England showcases progress on high tech corridor project
    Highways England is leading a project to establish a high tech corridor on the A2/M2 in Kent which will allow specially-equipped vehicles to interact with roadside infrastructure. As part of the initiative, Highways England hosted a week-long Testfest event in Chatham, Kent, this week, showing how test vehicles receive information on road conditions, road works and the time left for traffic lights to change to green via a wireless network. Jo White, head of Highways England’s intelligent transport system
  • October 4, 2013
    VTT to develop advanced wireless network for world’s largest trans-shipment hub
    VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is to test and develop an advanced wireless network for PSA Singapore Terminals (PSA), the world’s largest trans-shipment hub. The network will strengthen PSA’s management of innovative unmanned systems, including automated guided vehicles (AGV), which are currently being developed. PSA will be able to command and control its AGV fleet reliably and safely, through a robust wireless mesh network, a group of wireless devices which can boost the reliability and conne
  • March 25, 2020
    Tech giants could herald loss of MaaS policy control
    With tech giants targeting the transport sector, could local authorities lose control of their means of delivering policy?
  • May 4, 2016
    New connected vehicle data sets available in the Research Data Exchange (RDE)
    New connected vehicle data environments are now available in the US. Department of Transportation's Research Data Exchange (RDE). This web-based data resource collects, manages, and provides access to archived and real-time multi-source and multi-modal data to support the development and testing of intelligent transportation system applications. The RDE now houses the following three additional data environments: