Fintraffic story

The purpose of Fintraffic is to ensure safe, smooth and environmentally friendly mobility in Finland – by road, rail, air and water. We ensure that pilots are cleared to land, that drivers are informed of disruptions on the road ahead, that rail passengers know that their train will arrive on platform three and that the captain of an oil tanker will know to avoid an impending collision. We are proud of our role in making Finland work by controlling traffic on land, at sea and in the air.  

Our most important asset is real-time data.  We know the status of the traffic system at any given time and are aware of what is happening in traffic. We want to ensure that all this data is efficiently leveraged and that all operators in the sector can have real-time access to the situational awareness that we produce.  

However, we have more ambitious goals than that: we want to be able to anticipate what will happen in traffic and what will be the consequences of any particular incident occurring. By operating smartly, we can prevent accidents, reduce travel times and streamline transfers from one mode of traffic to another. Similarly, we can accelerate the emergence of new door-to-door passenger services, reduce traffic emissions and save taxpayer money. In the world we envision, the same rails can carry more trains, unmanned aircraft can fly safely, traffic lights are able to prevent congestion from forming, and trucks and ships can automatically regulate their speed to the most economical setting.  Passenger rides can be automatically pooled in cities and in rural areas, and cargo from an inland factory to an overseas client can be carried affordably and efficiently. Trips and logistics chains involving multiple modes of traffic are provided with seamless transitions. 

All this is quite possible but requires two things to make it happen.  Firstly, Finland must build a new digital layer over the existing physical transport infrastructure to provide a real-time situational awareness of the entire transport system and the services therein. Secondly, Finland needs digital traffic regulations that govern how each individual operator can share data and build services that are 100% compatible with everything else.  With this, we can create a Finnish network of traffic operators making the most effective use of data, a network unique in the world. This network will be a traffic ecosystem where everyone shares the same goals and common interests are everyone’s interests.  We want to be the coordinator in making this happen.  

We have a unique opportunity. With this, Finland would be the only country in the world to bring all modes of traffic under one umbrella. This would give us an exceptional advantage that we could then leverage. We now have the opportunity to make Finland a showcase of smart traffic and logistics, besides creating new jobs, new services and competitiveness. To make this come true, we need the input of every Fintraffic professional at all hours of the day, for the benefit of all of Finland.