SIGNAL+DRAHT | Issue 11/2011
A competitive signalling maintenance market – Finnish practices and experience
The Finnish Transport Agency (FTA) is the government agency responsible for the infrastructure management of the state rail network. Since 1995 track maintenance, including signalling maintenance, has been fully outsourced. The process of competitive bidding has led to a functional market and two domestic companies – VR Track Oy and Destia Rail Oy – currently divide the market between them. FTA has adopted a cloud computing solution for decentralized spare parts management and entered into maintenance support agreements (MSAs) with original signalling suppliers in order to facilitate fast corrective maintenance.