The Savonian railway ( fi, Savon rata, sv, Savolaxbanan) is a 1,524 mm (5 ft) railway in

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 ...

. Beginning in

Kouvola Kouvola () is a cities of Finland, city and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in southeastern Finland. It is located along the Kymijoki, Kymijoki River in the Regions of Finland, region of Kymenlaakso, kilometers east of Lahti, west of Lapp ...

, it connects southern Finland with the eastern

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

South Savo South Savo (or Southern Savonia; fi, Etelä-Savo; sv, Södra Savolax) is a region in the south-east of Finland. It borders the regions of North Savo, North Karelia, South Karelia, Kymenlaakso, Päijät-Häme, and Central Finland. The total area ...

and

North Savo North Savo (or Northern Savonia; fi, Pohjois-Savo; sv, Norra Savolax) is a region in eastern Finland. It borders the regions of South Savo, Central Finland, North Ostrobothnia, Kainuu, and North Karelia. Kuopio is the largest city in the regio ...

via the cities of

Pieksämäki Pieksämäki () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region, about north of Mikkeli, east of Jyväskylä and south of Kuopio. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The ...

Kuopio Kuopio (, ) is a Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic, and cult ...

and

Iisalmi Iisalmi (; sv, Idensalmi) is a town and municipality in the region of Northern Savonia in Finland. It is located north of Kuopio and south of Kajaani. The municipality has a population of (), which makes it the second largest of the five towns ...

History

Plans to build a railway through Savonia began in the 1870s. The alignment of the line was controversial and several different versions were proposed. Initially, the construction of a west–east line was proposed, but soon a south–north alignment was settled on. Various plans for the direction of the line included

Taavetti Taavetti (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Taavetti'', also ''Davidstad'') is a village and administrative center of the Luumäki municipality in South Karelia, Finland. It has a population of 2,084. It is located along Finnish national road 6, Highw ...

–

Mikkeli Mikkeli (; sv, S:t Michel; la, Michaelia) is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in what used to be the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Etelä-Savo region. The municipality has a population of () (around 34,000 i ...

–

Kangasniemi Kangasniemi is a municipality in the Southern Savonia region, Finland. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Kangasniemi is located on the Finnish national road 13, north ...

–

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

, Taavetti–Mikkeli–

Varkaus Varkaus (before year 1929 ''Warkaus'') is a Middle- Savonian industrial town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region, between city of Kuopio and town of Savonlinna. T ...

–

and Kaipiainen–Mikkeli–

Suonenjoki Suonenjoki (; literally means "vein's river") is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Northern Savonia region, southwest of the Kuopio city. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The popu ...

–Kuopio, among others. On 17 April 1885, the

Diet of Finland The Diet of Finland (Finnish ''Suomen maapäivät'', later ''valtiopäivät''; Swedish ''Finlands Lantdagar''), was the legislative assembly of the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1809 to 1906 and the recipient of the powers of the Swedish Riksda ...

decided to build the line via

, Mikkeli,

and Suonenjoki to Kuopio. Construction of the line began in 1886; the size of the workforce peaked at 10,000 people. The section first completed was the one between the stations of

and

in 1888, but the Senate did not give permission for traffic to begin. The entire railway was inaugurated on 1 October 1889. The line was effectively extended towards the southern coast the following year upon the completion of the

Kouvola–Kotka railway The Kouvola–Kotka railway ( fi, Kouvola–Kotka-rata, sv, Kouvola–Kotka-banan), also called the Kotka railway ( fi, Kotkan rata, sv, Kotkabanan) is a 1,524 mm (5 ft) railway in Finland, connecting the towns of Kouvola and Kotka in the region ...

. In 1900, the Diet made the decision to extend the Savonian line from Kuopio via

Kajaani Kajaani (; sv, Kajana) is the most populous town and the capital of the Kainuu Region of Finland. It is located southeast of Lake Oulu (Oulujärvi), which drains into the Gulf of Bothnia through the Oulu River (Oulujoki). As of , it had a pop ...

. One of the largest construction projects was the bridge and embankment connection over river

Kallavesi Kallavesi is a medium-sized lake in Northern Savonia, eastern Finland located around the town of Kuopio. Combined with the lakes Suvasvesi, Juurusvesi–Akonvesi, Muuruvesi, Melavesi, and Riistavesi Kallavesi forms an lake system named Iso-Kall ...

, the . Traffic to

started on 1 July 1902 and traffic to

started on 16 October 1904. In 1960, a 15-year overhaul of the Savonian line began, including the straightening of various notable curves, which resulted in a straighter line and higher speeds. The railway was effectively rebuilt from the ground up at points. The most significant jobs were carried out between Kouvola and Mikkeli and

and Kuopio. The first major change was the straightening of the very first curve of the line in Kouvola, and major curve corrections were made at Vuohijärvi, Hillosensalmi, Suonenjoki station and Kurkimäki and Pitkälahti in Kuopio, among others. Many of the corrections involved construction of tunnels and excavation of bedrock.

Services

VR Group VR-Group Plc ( fi, VR-Yhtymä Oyj, sv, VR-Group Abp), commonly known as VR, is a government-owned railway company in Finland. VR's most important function is the operation of Finland's passenger rail services with 250 long-distance and 800 co ...

operates long-distance services with

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

and

Pendolino Pendolino (from Italian ''pendolo'' "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of tilting trains used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, the US, ...

type rolling stock on the Savonian railway.VR long-distance traffic timetable for the period 16 August−11 December 2021
/ref>

References

Notes

External links

* {{Railway lines in Finland Railway lines in Finland 5 ft gauge railways in Finland Railway lines opened in 1889