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

  • January 25, 2012
    Mixed results for public-private traffic management partnerships
    David Crawford looks at the somewhat patchy success to date of trying to involve the private sector in operating traffic management centres
  • August 25, 2016
    HERMES Study provides guidance for forward ITS thinking in Finland
    Having authored HERMES, a major study for the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication, Josef Czako talks to ITS International about his findings and lessons for other authorities. When CEOs of major automakers are predicting more change in the next five years than in the past 50, what is the role of national authorities considering the benefits of innovations in ITS?
  • May 31, 2013
    Data goldmines offer rich pickings
    Astronomical is not too grand a term to describe the current rate of growth in transportation-related data. Massive amounts of traffic related information, such as speed, volume, incidents and weather are being generated every second by road operators and users alike. Big data’ derives its name from the sheer amount and complexity of available raw data. Its potential value is starting to emerge among the intelligent transportation systems community. A gold rush is taking place to capture this value, with da
  • December 16, 2014
    Do satellites provide a heavenly view of tolling’s future?
    Satellite-based tolling opens up new options for authorities and can be integrated with DSRC systems as David Crawford discovers. As the proud custodian of the European Union (EU)’s longest road network covered by a single (truck) charging scheme – and the only one to include all major roads - Slovakia has become the continent’s poster-nation for the virtues of GNSS/CN (Global Navigation Satellite System/Cellular Network)-based tolling. It is also proved to be a very fast implementer. Speaking at the 2014 I