The Nikkilä railway station ( fi, Nikkilän rautatieasema, sv, Nickby järnvägsstation) is located in the village and

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

Nikkilä Nikkilä (; ) is a village located in the Sipoo municipality in the Uusimaa region of the Southern Finland province. Nikkilä is the largest village and the administrative centre of Sipoo.Sipoo Sipoo (; sv, Sibbo) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The administrative center of the munic ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

History

Nikkilä is one of the original stations of the private Kerava–Porvoo railway, opened in July 1874. It was established close to the Nikkilä manor, and due to its influence, a village started to form between the station and the road leading to the Sipoo church. In time, the station village and the Sipoo parish village fused together to form a single densely populated area. Upon the foundation of the Nikkilä psychiatric hospital in 1914, a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railway was constructed to connect it to the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

station in the village. The private railway was nationalised in 1917. The Finnish State Railways ceased operating passenger trains on the Porvoo line in 1981, and freight services were discontinued in June 1990. This jeopardized the future of the line, but it ended up being preserved as a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

. The

railyard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

at Nikkilä was dismantled in 1997, and later in 2007, the station building, its warehouse and several other relevant buildings were transferred under the ownership of

Senate Properties sv, Senatfastigheter , logo = Senate logo.gif , type = Liikelaitos Senate Properties 2009(Finnish). (≈ unincorporated entity, unincorporated state-owned enterprise) Ministry of Finance 2009. Senate Properties 2009/ref ...

. In December 2018, as part of a pilot initiative by the

Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency ( fi, Väylävirasto, sv, Trafikledsverket), shortened to FTIA, is a Finnish government agency responsible for the maintenance of Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Rep ...

, a new platform built entirely out of

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

was constructed in Nikkilä. The platform is long and high. The latter is contrary to both the current standard height of and the old one of , fitting lower floor rolling stock such as

tram-trains A tram-train is a type of light rail vehicle that meets the standards of a light rail system (usually an urban street running tramway), but which also meets national mainline standards permitting operation alongside mainline trains. This all ...

as well as the Dm7 railbuses most commonly operated in the museum traffic between Kerava and Porvoo. The FTIA has expressed willingness to build more wooden platforms elsewhere in Finland, should the Nikkilä trial be successful.

Future

The restarting of regular passenger transport by rail to and from Nikkilä as part of the

Helsinki commuter rail Helsinki commuter rail ( fi, Helsingin seudun lähijunaliikenne, sv, Huvudstadsregionens närtrafik) is a commuter rail system serving Greater Helsinki and the surrounding county of Uusimaa. The system is a joint venture between the regional t ...

network has been brought up and investigated on numerous occasions. The Helsinki region MAL 2019 plan ( fi, Maankäyttö, asuminen ja liikenne; "land use, living and transport") states that extending services back into Nikkilä is possible by 2030, should the areas of the municipalities of

Kerava Kerava (; sv, Kervo) is a town and municipality within the Uusimaa region of Finland. The municipalities of Vantaa, Sipoo and Tuusula are adjacent to Kerava, which is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The town has a population of () an ...

and

Sipoo Sipoo (; sv, Sibbo) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The administrative center of the munic ...

develop as expected. In addition to Nikkilä, the old halts of Ahjo in Kerava and Talma in Sipoo would be reopened for use.

References

{{Railway stations in Uusimaa, state=expanded Sipoo Railway stations in Uusimaa Railway stations opened in 1874