Digitraffic Rail (Finland) API

Free official Finnish railway API with no key: live train locations, full timetables with actual times, cancellations and cause codes for every service. Tested example included.

No API key requiredCORS enabledHTTPSFree tier

Endpoint tested and returned HTTP 200 on 2026-08-21

What is the Digitraffic Rail (Finland) API?

Digitraffic Rail is the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency's free, key-free railway API. It publishes every train's timetable with scheduled and actual times at each station, live GPS positions, cancellations, composition data and structured cause codes explaining every delay.

Most national rail APIs tell you a train is late. This one tells you why, in structured form: every timetable row carries a `causes` array with official cause and third-level cause codes, so delays can be aggregated by reason across an entire network rather than counted as an undifferentiated total. For punctuality analysis that difference is the whole exercise.

The data model is row-based rather than stop-based, and getting that right avoids a lot of confusion. Each `timeTableRow` is one event — an ARRIVAL or a DEPARTURE — so a train calling at a station generates two rows, and only origins and terminals have a single one. `differenceInMinutes` is signed, `commercialStop` distinguishes passenger stops from operational ones, and `trainReady` appears only where a departure clearance was recorded. Like the marine API, this host requires `Accept-Encoding: gzip`.

Quick facts

Base URL: https://rata.digitraffic.fi/api/v1
Authentication: No API key or account. Finnish open government data; the agency asks callers to send a `Digitraffic-User` header.
Rate limit: No published numeric quota. Live data changes every few seconds; the agency prefers MQTT subscriptions to heavy polling.
Pricing: Free. Published under a CC BY licence.
CORS: Enabled — callable directly from browser JavaScript
Official docs: Read the docs

How to use the Digitraffic Rail (Finland) API

Every request below was executed against the live API on 2026-08-21, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

1. Fetch the latest run of a specific train number

GET https://rata.digitraffic.fi/api/v1/trains/latest/1

curl

curl 'https://rata.digitraffic.fi/api/v1/trains/latest/1' \
  -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip' \
  -H 'Digitraffic-User: Bytevancer/ByteTools'

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://rata.digitraffic.fi/api/v1/trains/latest/1", {
  headers: {
    "Accept-Encoding": "gzip",
    "Digitraffic-User": "Bytevancer/ByteTools",
  },
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python (requests)

import requests

headers = {
    "Accept-Encoding": "gzip",
    "Digitraffic-User": "Bytevancer/ByteTools",
}

res = requests.get("https://rata.digitraffic.fi/api/v1/trains/latest/1", headers=headers, timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response — HTTP 200 (truncated)

[
  {
    "commuterLineID": "",
    "runningCurrently": true,
    "cancelled": false,
    "version": 293815121063,
    "timetableType": "REGULAR",
    "timetableAcceptanceDate": "2026-07-02T05:55:40.000Z",
    "departureDate": "2026-08-21",
    "trainNumber": 1,
    "operatorUICCode": 10,
    "operatorShortCode": "vr",
    "timeTableRows": [
      {
        "type": "DEPARTURE",
        "commercialTrack": "7",
        "cancelled": false,
        "scheduledTime": "2026-08-21T03:54:00.000Z",
        "actualTime": "2026-08-21T03:54:36.000Z",
        "differenceInMinutes": 1,
        "commercialStop": true,
        "causes": [],
        "stationShortCode": "HKI",
        "stationUICCode": 1,
        "countryCode": "FI",
        "stopSector": "B3",
        "trainReady": {
          "accepted": true,
          "source": "KUPLA",
          "timestamp": "2026-08-21T03:52:36.000Z"
        },
        "trainStopping": true
      },
      {
        "type": "ARRIVAL",
        "commercialTrack": "4",
        "cancelled": false,
        "scheduledTime": "2026-08-21T03:59:00.000Z",
        "actualTime": "2026-08-21T03:59:12.000Z",
        "differenceInMinutes": 0,
        "commercialStop": true,
        "causes": [],
        "stationShortCode": "PSL",
        "stationUICCode": 10,
        "countryCode": "FI",
        "stopSector": "C3",
        "trainStopping": true
      },
      {
        "type": "DEPARTURE",
        "commercialTrack": "4",
        "cancelled": false,
        "scheduledTime": "2026-08-21T04:00:00.000Z",
        "actualTime": "2026-08-21T04:00:49.000Z",
        "difference

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`(latest train)`	path	Optional	`/trains/latest/{number}` returns the most recent run of a train number. `1`
`(by date)`	path	Optional	`/trains/{date}/{number}` returns a specific departure date's run. `2026-08-21/1`
`(live positions)`	path	Optional	`/train-locations/latest/{number}` returns GPS positions for a running train. `1`
`(station schedule)`	path	Optional	`/live-trains/station/{code}` returns arrivals and departures at a station. `HKI`
`arrived_trains / departed_trains`	query	Optional	How many past events to include on a station query. `5`
`Accept-Encoding`	header	Required	Must be `gzip`; the service returns 406 otherwise. `gzip`

Response fields

trainNumber / departureDateinteger / string: Together these identify a run uniquely. The number alone does not.
operatorShortCode / operatorUICCodestring / integer: Operating company — `vr` for the national operator.
trainCategory / trainTypestring: Long-distance, commuter or cargo, and the specific service type.
commuterLineIDstring: Letter code for Helsinki-area commuter services, empty for other trains.
runningCurrently / cancelledboolean: Whether the train is moving now and whether the run was cancelled.
timeTableRowsarray: One row per event — ARRIVAL or DEPARTURE — so a calling point produces two.
timeTableRows[].typestring: `ARRIVAL` or `DEPARTURE`.
timeTableRows[].scheduledTime / actualTimestring: Planned and actual times in UTC. `actualTime` is absent until the event happens.
timeTableRows[].differenceInMinutesinteger: Signed delay. Negative means early.
timeTableRows[].stationShortCodestring: Station code — HKI is Helsinki. Join to `/metadata/stations` for names.
timeTableRows[].commercialStop / commercialTrackboolean / string: Whether passengers may board, and the platform.
timeTableRows[].causesarray: Structured delay reasons with official category codes, when a delay has been attributed.

What you can build with the Digitraffic Rail (Finland) API

Build a departure board for a Finnish station
Track a specific train's live position and delay
Analyse punctuality by cause code across the network
Alert commuters to cancellations on their line
Study historical timetable performance from the archive endpoints

Common errors and how to fix them

406 Not Acceptable

The request did not send `Accept-Encoding: gzip`.

Fix: Advertise gzip and decompress. Digitraffic enforces this on every endpoint across both the rail and marine services.

Two rows for the same station

Correct — arrival and departure are separate events.

Fix: Filter on `type` for what you need. Origins have only a DEPARTURE row and terminals only an ARRIVAL.

actualTime is missing

The event has not happened yet.

Fix: Fall back to `scheduledTime` for future stops, and use the presence of `actualTime` to decide whether a stop is in the past.

A train number returns the wrong service

Numbers are reused across departure dates.

Fix: Always pair `trainNumber` with `departureDate`. The `/latest/` path does this for you; explicit date queries do not.

Digitraffic Rail (Finland) API — frequently asked questions

Is the Finnish rail API free?

Yes, free with no key or account. It is open government data from the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency under a CC BY licence, and the agency simply asks that you identify your application in a header.

Can I see why a train is delayed?

Yes, and this is the API's standout feature. Every timetable row can carry a `causes` array with official category codes, so delays can be aggregated by reason rather than merely counted.

Why does each station appear twice?

Because the model is event-based: an arrival and a departure are separate rows. A through station generates both; an origin generates only a departure and a terminal only an arrival.

Are live train positions available?

Yes. The `/train-locations/` endpoints return GPS positions for running services, and there is an MQTT feed for subscribing to updates instead of polling.

Tools that pair with this API

Timestamp Converter

Convert timestamps to human-readable dates and dates back to timestamps. Auto-detects seconds vs milliseconds, shows local, UTC and ISO 8601 formats.

Time Zone Converter

Convert any date and time between world time zones. See UTC offsets, daylight saving handled automatically, and compare multiple zones at once.

Time Duration Calculator

Add or subtract hours, minutes and seconds, or sum a list of durations into a total shown in h:m:s and in total seconds. Free and 100% in-browser.

Digitraffic Rail (Finland) is an independent third-party service and is not affiliated with ByteTools or ByteVancer. Details on this page were verified on 2026-08-21; always check the official documentation before relying on this API in production, as terms and limits can change.