ABSTRACT
The Finnish Railway network was mainly built in the 1860-1900. At the beginning of the railway, tracks and bridges were designed for locomotives of 60 tons and axle loads of wagons being 8 tons/axle. Of course, the speeds of trains at the time were low. The development of railways is very fast from the old times, and now Finnish railway network has been allowing passenger train speeds of 200 km/h and freight trains with 25-ton axle loads. There is a strong will to go even higher as railways get ready for the future. Passenger trains will run 250 - 300 km/h in the future and permissible axle loads of freight trains are planned to be 27,5 tons on some lines. Even 35-ton axle loads have been studied in some routes, mainly used by the mining industry.
