Helsinki Central Railway Station

About

Helsinki Central Station (Finnish: Helsingin päärautatieasema, Swedish: Helsingfors centralstation) (HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. About 200,000 people "pass through the station" every day, half of whom are train passengers. The station serves as the terminus for all trains in the Helsinki commuter rail network, as well as for all Helsinki-bound long-distance trains in Finland. The Rautatientori (Central Railway Station) metro station is located in the same building. The railway tracks in Helsinki were built in the 1860s. The station building, clad in granite, was designed by Eliel Saarinen and inaugurated in 1919. The building is known for its clock tower and the Lyhdynkantajat ("The Lantern Bearers") statues by Emil Wikström. Helsinki Central was chosen as one of the world's most beautiful railway stations by BBC in 2013. The Helsinki Central Station has become the symbol of the entire railway network in Finland. For example the VR Group uses the image of the station and the statues next to its main entrance in its advertising.

The Helsinki Central Station is located in the city centre of Helsinki, in the district of Kluuvi at Kaivokatu 1. The main facade of the station building is towards the Kaivokatu street. To the east of the station is the Helsinki Railway Square and to the west is the Eliel Square. The Eliel Square also served as the terminus of the Finnair City Bus. The Asematunneli tunnel leads from the station, underneath Kaivokatu, to the underground floor of the City-Center complex. The station also has a connection to the Central Railway Station metro station located underneath it.

The Helsinki Central Station is an important transport hub for commuter train, long-distance train and metro transport in the entire Helsinki capital region. The station is visited by 240 thousand passengers per day, making it the most visited building in the entire country of Finland. About half of the visitors are train passengers. Over a hundred long-distance trains and about 850 commuter trains arrive at and depart from the station every weekday.

The middle part of the station building forms the core of the station, hosting the waiting halls, ticket sales, the kiosk hall and connection to the station tunnel. The eastern wing of the building used to host the offices of the railway administration. It also served as Helsinki's main post office, until it moved to the Postitalo building built in the 1930s. The head office of the VR Group moved to Pasila in 2018. The eastern wing was converted into a Scandic Hotels hotel, opened in 2021. Baggage storage spaces have been located in the underground floor of the western wing since the 1970s. The ground floor has hosted a café since the 2000s, and the top floor hosts offices and business spaces. The station hosts almost twenty kiosks and restaurants, visited by over 20 thousand people per day.

When visiting Finland in 1856, Grand Duke of Finland Alexander II of Russia proposed an improvement program for the Finnish economy. He thought it was important to connect the inland country to the marine harbours through canals and railways, so planning of Finland's first railway from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna was started.

A 1853 railway project proposed the northern edge of the Hietalahdentori square as the location of the Helsinki railway station. A later proposal in 1857 was at the vicinity of the Turku barracks, and a third option was the environment of the Kluuvi well. Investigation of the new railway line in summer and autumn showed how difficult it would be to build a railway into the city of Helsinki, which was located at the point of a peninsula. The research resulted in four different options of the railway line. These options differed greatly in cost. The original plan included 40,800 Russian roubles for the main station of the railway, but the most expensive option was estimated at 162,000 roubles.

The cheapest option would have had the railway to make a curve after Pasila and go around the Töölönlahti bay. The second option would have had the railway go directly west from Pasila past the Töölö sugar factory. The third option would have passed Pasila entirely and continued around Töölönlahti. All these options would have located the station to the south of the Turku barracks. In the fourth option, the track would go from Pasila straight across Töölönlahti and the Kaisaniemi Park to Kluuvi, with the station located immediately after the Kluuvi well. This option was the most expensive, costing about 107,970 roubles. Of the four options, it required the most of blasting the bedrock and filling the Kluuvinlahti bay.

The three first options required dismantling villas and other buildings from the shore of the Töölönlahti bay and building railway tracks on beautiful and farmed land from the environment of the city. In addition, the costs of the compulsory purchase of the land would have been significantly greater than in the fourth option. Another concern was that a steep curve directly after the railway station would cause more wear on both the tracks and the train wheels. This would result in danger of the train tilting, causing a decrease of the efficiency of the engine. The option for the straight railway line had the benefit of an unobstructed view from the station to the traffic on the tracks. The fourth option received the most support, and it was accepted on 26 November 1857.

The choice was perhaps also influenced by Knut Stjernvall serving as the technical director of the railway company at the time, whose stepfather Carl Johan Walleen [ fi ] owned Villa Hakasalmi on the western shore of the Töölönlahti bay. The three other options would have required dismantling the villa.

Because of the decision, citizens of Helsinki started worrying about the fate of the Kaisaniemi Park located next to the Kluuvi well. It was clear that the railway would override part of the park area. Per the request of the citizens, the railway line was moved slightly to the east in 1859, in order to preserve the two large and beautiful hills in the park.

The area where the station was planned to be built was originally seabed. In the 19th century the area was a muddy and stinky water area used as a dump and a public outhouse. Filling the Kluuvinlahti bay originally started already in the 1830s, but the filling really came into action when the railway was being built.

The bay was confined at Hakasalmi, ditches were dug into the Kluuvi swamp, and a stone-walled assembly pool was built behind the dam, from where the water was pumped into Töölönlahti by wind power. Many horse cart loads of sand were dumped into the area during the decades.

According to the plans in the 1830s, the area to the north of Kaivokatu and to the west of Mikonkatu was to be divided into two blocks, which were named Hyeena ("hyaena") and Hilleri ("polecat"), separated by the street Hakasalmenkatu, now known as Keskuskatu. The decision to build the railway decided the fate of the Hyeena and Hilleri blocks. Knut Stjernvall made the final railway plan in 1859. He proposed that a wide market square should be built on the place of the Hyeena block east to the railway yard. The few buildings left in the Hyeena block were dismantled, and it was changed into what is now the Rautatientori square. Construction of the first railway station in Finland started at the edge of the Hilleri block.

The construction of the railway station had a great impact on the Helsinki cityscape. The railway was piled with large logs, and stones were laid on the edge of the bay. Aspen trees had to be cut down from the Kaisaniemi Park to make way for the railway, but the park was preserved whenever it was possible to do so. Rock blasted off the Linnunlaulu cliff was sunk into the Töölönlahti bay beneath the railway tracks being constructed. The railway terracing over the Töölönlahti bay was completed in March 1861. For water traffic, two underpass bridges were built vaulted from stone. The larger underpass bridge had a size of 7 cubits (10 ft 6 in/3.20 m) and the smaller one had a size of 3 cubits (4 ft 6 in/1.37 m). The rails for the railway tracks were bought from the United Kingdom, and they arrived by steamship into the South Harbour in November 1857.

Helsinki's first railway station was built in 1862 to accommodate trains on the Helsinki– Hämeenlinna line, päärata. The station's plans were drawn by Swedish architect Carl Albert Edelfelt.

According to the original plans, all station buildings along the Helsinki-Hämeenlinna line should have been built from wood. However, there soon came wishes that the station building in the capital should be built from a more valuable material. Railway construction was new to Finland, and thus there were no existing models for new station buildings. So the provincial architect of Tavastia, Carl Albert Edelfelt, was requested for plans for various alternatives, which were presented in October 1859.

The cost estimate for a smaller one-floor building was about 27 thousand roubles and that for a larger two-floor building was about 40 thousand roubles. A wooden station building would only have cost 18 thousand roubles. These estimates did not include the cost for pile-driving the foundation, which was high at the muddy shore of the Kluuvinlahti bay.

Commercial counsellor Henrik Borgström and chief director von Born supported the construction of the smallest possible wooden building as a temporary station building, as passenger numbers would be fairly small until the railway was continued further north from Hämeenlinna. Also the possible danger of fire at the station was estimated to be fairly low, as the majority of the city's population was not located near the station. Chief director Claes Wilhelm Gyldén and governor Samuel Henrik Antell supported the largest building and proposed that the station should be constructed as large enough and permanent right from the start. Also, the fire safety of a station building built from stone would be much better than that of a wooden building. A small stone building was seen as too small, as the station needed waiting halls and traffic spaces. In addition, the upper floor would have to host offices for the Finnish railway administration and apartments for station officials. In the end, the large stone station building was voted as the best alternative for the new station building.

Construction work on the 108-kilometre railway between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna started in 1858. The first station building in Helsinki was built in 1861, but it was only opened for traffic on 17 March 1862. At first, the station places along the railway were only named in Swedish. The Finnish name for the Helsinki railway station was made official in 1897.

The tracks at the station were located right next to the station building on the edge of Kaivokatu. A large wooden shelter was built over the platforms. Commuter passengers entered the trains directly through an iron gate from Kaivokatu and only long-distance passengers went through the station hall. The station building was located nearer the Kaivokatu street than the current station building. Its end pointed towards Kaivokatu and the main entrance was towards the Rautatientori square. All station buildings designed by Edelfelt were of a simple side station building type, including the Helsinki railway station, even though it was located at the terminus of the railway. A cargo warehouse was built to the north of the station building, at the site of the eastern wing of the current station building. A railway yard about eight hectares in area was built at the station area, with engine stables and machinery yards. This railway yard was located to the west of the railway tracks, approximately at the end of the western wing of the current station building. The engine stables could seat a total of 12 engines at a time.