Currently on-board train inspections are carried out using sniffer dogs in addition to a manual check of all possible hiding places. This procedure is time consuming and often ineffective.

Increasing freight and passenger traffic between the two countries necessitates a faster means of inspecting entire trains. One solution would be the installation of scanners at border crossing points as a mean to combat smuggling.

According to Chief Inspector Kai Vehmersalo of the National Customs Board, the idea is not to check every passenger or freight train.

“We need the means to isolate specific trains when in receipt of information from Russian officials that suspicious materials could be on-board,” he explains.

In such circumstances, the train could be taken to a siding where a full check could be made by a scanner once passengers have left the coaches.

Freight trains and containers have been scanned at Helsinki’s Vuosaari Harbour for about one year upon the basis of a risk analysis. Results have been good.

Vehmersalo says the use of scanners could improve the search for illegal immigrants in addition to consignments of contraband tobacco, alcohol and drugs hidden in isolated train compartments. However, the cash for scanners is not yet on the financial timetable in either country.