A green track is a vegetation-covered tramway that seeks ecological, economic and urban landscape benefits. Green tracks have been used in Europe for a long time, but in Finland only turfstone-paved tracks have been used. A new 25-kilometer tram route Raide-Jokeri is being built in Helsinki area, and the green track experiment described in this thesis was implemented to support its design choices.

The purpose of the green track experiment was to find out which grass and meadow species are suitable for the dry and hot conditions of tram tracks. In addition, the experiment aimed to gain insight how soil composition and the use of recycled materials affect the growth of test species and weeds. The experiment was carried out as a follow-up of the first growing season in two experimental sites in Helsinki and Vantaa, with a total of 21 test plots. The results show the green coverage of each test plot (seed mixture – soil combination) and the success of the test species for the first growing season.

For grass, the test results showed good coverage at the end of the summer with all seed mixtures, and the best soil composition was the one that included most ordinary soil. However, a grass track does not add much to the diversity of the urban environment, unlike a meadow green track, which can offer valuable habitats for rare species. Of the meadow species, based on the experiment recommended for green track usage are low growing Thymus serpyllum and Dianthus deltoides, and taller growing Silene vulgaris, Leucanthemum vulgare, Silene nutans, Linaria vulgaris, Centaurea jacea and Trifolium repens.