Annual report Business operations
Economic instability in Finland and ever increasing competition made 2015 a challenging period for all business sectors in terms of net sales. Efficiency measures were implemented in all business operations and improved cost efficiency helped both VR Transpoint and VR Track to keep their operating profits at previous year’s levels.
For VR Passenger Services, the market situation in Finland remained difficult on account of the overall economic situation and the increasingly aggressive price competition in domestic long-distance traffic. The opening of coach traffic to competition has caused a substantial fall in price levels in long-distance passenger services.
VR reacted to the price competition with various campaigns in both domestic long-distance train traffic and express coach services. Lower ticket prices resulted in an upturn in passenger volumes, especially on the most important routes. However, they also caused a decline in net sales. Net sales in passenger services to Russia continued to fall. However, at the end of the year, there was an upturn in the number of passengers using the Allegro trains.
All business operations strived to improve customer satisfaction and experience, and the development work will further accelerate in 2016.
