The annual winter holiday season is once again upon us and, as customary, schools start their holidays in three batches on 17 and 24 February and 3 March 2025, depending on the region. On the roads, there is a clear increase in the volume of northbound traffic during the holiday season.

Digitalizing Port Operations – Optimizing Maritime Logistics in the Baltic Sea
Date: January 30, 2025 
Time: 12:00 CET to 13:30 CET (13:00–14:30 EET)

The Sustainable Flow project is the first global project focusing on both the development of a digital tool and energy savings and renewable energy to reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector, especially in the maritime sector and in ports. A digital tool developer has now been selected through a tender process. A total of nine international service providers participated in the public tendering process, and of these Awake.AI Oy was selected.

Outbound Christmas traffic will soon fill the roads. Now is a good time to review the basics of safe Christmas travel. Fintraffic, the National Police Board, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, the Ministry of the Interior Department for Rescue Services, the Emergency Response Centre Agency and the Finnish Road Safety Council want to wish everyone safe and peaceful Christmas travels.

Fintraffic’s Vessel Traffic Services and the Lübeck Port Authority have signed a service agreement for the Fintraffic POLO Port Activity port application. Port of Lübeck will start using the application in the beginning of next year. The port is particularly known as a busy hub for Scandinavian and Central European freight transport.

POLO Port Activity is already in use at more than 30 ports and is a daily tool for hundreds of people. In connection with the launch of Maritime Traffic Notification Service NEMO, the application will also include vessel notifications in accordance with the European Maritime Single Window (EMSW) regulation as a new feature next year. This will enable vessels to submit port call-related vessel notifications via POLO both to Finland and to the EU.

Finland is introducing special maritime transport security zones for the first time to ensure the safe passage of special transports by organizing other traffic in the area. The first safety zone for special transports was introduced in the Inkoo fairway. In the future, similar arrangements will be extended to merchant shipping lanes throughout Finland’s coastal area.

The alternative route for Vuosaari road tunnel on the section Itäväylä–Kallvikintie–Niinisaarentie–Vuosaari Harbour will be improved during late 2024 and spring 2025. Roadworks on the alternative route begin on Monday, 14 October 2024.  By improving the route, we are preparing for the extensive renovation of the Vuosaari tunnel’s technical features, which begins next year and will last for nearly one year, during which time the alternative route of the tunnel will serve as a detour.

In Finland, the monitoring and oversight of commercial shipping is a crucial part of ensuring maritime safety and environmental protection. Fintraffic’s VTS centres monitor the movement of cargo and passenger ships along the Finnish coastline around the clock, every day of the year. In the first half of 2024, vessel traffic has for the most part proceeded safely both along the Finnish coast and in nearby international waters.

On 20 September, the ITS World Congress, a major event for intelligent transportation systems, presented an award to Fintraffic’s Road Traffic Management for the best technical publication of 2024. The award-winning publication highlights the importance of a data-driven and ecosystemic approach to improving traffic safety and flow. The publication presents the use cases implemented by Fintraffic. Fintraffic is very visible at the world's leading ITS event, as the company's experts give as many as seven expert speeches on different themes at the event. 

There are hundreds of electronically operating variable speed limit signs posted along the main roads in Finland. Do you know how their technology works and from where speed limits are controlled?

The DigiMar project, focused on enhancing navigational safety through innovative learning tools, is on track with its planned schedule. This July, the project celebrated a significant milestone with its first international meeting, where the project's progress was discussed.

From 3 July 2024, the Data for Road Safety ecosystem will provide drivers with more comprehensive situational information on Finnish roads: vehicle manufacturers and other parties belonging to the Data for Road Safety ecosystem will be able to share Fintraffic's traffic announcements in their own navigation systems via POST Luxembourg.