Developing tram traffic regulation at the national level

The regulation of tram traffic at the EU and national levels has considerable shortcomings. In practice, all activities from planning and construction to operation are currently based on the operating models defined by operators in their safety management systems. Based on the investigation, this is not sufficient to guarantee the safety of tram traffic.
The lack of binding regulation as a whole prevents the uniform and systematic development of tram safety. In addition, the lack of regulation has resulted in the use of very different solutions and operating models in tram traffic. There are even significant differences in the training of drivers between the operators in the sector. The problem is well illustrated by the fact that the lack of regulation has made it necessary to extensively apply the internal guidelines of foreign countries in Finland.
The lack of regulation also makes it very difficult for the supervisory authority to monitor the safety of tram traffic and to intervene in detected shortcomings.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications launch a regulatory project to define national safety requirements for and supervision of tram traffic

When developing regulation, it is important to take into account foreign accident investigation reports, especially those concerning the topic in the Nordic countries.
The development process can utilize the existing standards and international guidelines that have been harmonized for use in Finland.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications notes that, as it has emphasised during the investigation in question as well as in its written statement on the investigation, the Ministry considers that it is not appropriate to amend the legislation on urban rail transport until experience has been gained and sufficient assessments conducted of the impacts of the kind of new urban rail transport regulation as has been laid down now. The Ministry also refers to the statement issued by the Transport and Communications Committee of Parliament on the government proposal (LiVM/13/2025), in which the Committee states, among other things, that when implementing legislation it must be ensured that no unnecessary administrative burdens are imposed on different actors involved in urban rail projects. In other words, although Parliament approved the laws in the form proposed by the Government, Parliament and its Transport and Communications Committee listened very carefully to the concerns of municipal actors about potential impacts of the regulation, and some municipal actors were already very critical of the proposed regulation. Therefore, when regarding the situation from this perspective, the Ministry is also of the opinion that it is not possible to bring new proposals to Parliament that would tighten the regulation on urban rail transport, at least in the near future.
For the above-mentioned reasons, the Ministry does not intend to initiate new changes to the regulation on urban rail transport in the near future unless something essentially new emerges and until sufficient experience has been gained of the impacts of the proposed new regulation.