RailStock Finland orders 21 more Stadler FLIRT EMUs for tendered era

Finland's state-owned rolling stock company RailStock Finland has ordered 21 additional Stadler FLIRT electric multiple units, expanding the Sm7 programme to 41 trainsets and doubling down on the country's preparation for competitive tendering from 2031.

The new order builds on a contract signed in November 2022, when national operator VR Group ordered 20 four-car EMUs from Stadler with options for a further 50. RailStock's exercise of part of that option brings the committed fleet to 41 units.

Stadler builds the trains at its Siedlce plant in Poland. Each four-car unit reaches 160 km/h and carries roughly 800 passengers, 356 of them seated. The design adapts to Finland's 1,524 mm broad gauge and to severe winter conditions — a combination that matters more here than almost anywhere else in Europe.

Why does the gauge change the leasing game?

Finland's broad gauge cuts the fleet off from the second-hand European market. An operator wanting to run Finnish regional services can't simply lease standard-gauge stock from Germany or Sweden. Whoever owns the vehicles controls who can realistically compete.

That's the logic behind RailStock Finland, officially Suomen Ostoliikennekalusto Oy. The company doesn't operate trains. It owns and leases rolling stock for publicly funded passenger services, so competing bidders can access vehicles without buying their own fleets.

The company started life as a VR Group subsidiary. In November 2025 it moved to direct Finnish state ownership, and in March 2026 it acquired rolling stock previously owned by VR — including the new Sm7 trains — in an asset transfer valued at roughly EUR 250 million. RailStock now carries responsibility for future fleet investment across the network.

What happens to the current VR contract?

The existing agreement between the Finnish government and VR for publicly funded services runs out at the end of 2030. From 2031, those services are expected to go to competitive tender. Separating asset ownership from operations is the structural precondition: bidders need to know trains will be there, on gauge and winterised, whoever wins the franchise.

The 21 extra EMUs signal that the state expects more than one operator's worth of demand — or at least wants the fleet depth to make bidding credible.

Where will the trains run?

The first Sm7 FLIRTs go into VR's regional and commuter services in southern Finland, on corridors from Helsinki towards Tampere, Hämeenlinna, Riihimäki and Lahti. The initial 20-unit fleet enters service between 2026 and early 2028.

For planners, that delivery window means capacity lands well before the 2030 contract expiry. The additional 21 units extend the fleet into the tendering era itself.

With 41 broad-gauge EMUs under state ownership and a leasing model in place, Finland has assembled the pieces its market reform needs — the test now is whether operators step up to bid when the tenders open.