Turku Central railway station

Turku Central Station (, ) is a railway station in the VII District of Turku, Finland. It has VR services to Helsinki and towards Joensuu (most terminate in Tampere or Pieksämäki). The station serves approximately a million passengers annually.

The railway station was opened in 1876, together with the newly built railway between Turku and Tampere, in a celebration attended by the future Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Services were at first only to Tampere and Toijala, and the significance of railways was rather minor. In 1899, a new railway to Helsinki was opened, and subsequently rail traffic to and from Turku became more frequent.

The older station was demolished in 1938, and a new, more modern, one was built in its place. The current building, completed in 1940, was designed by Finnish architects Väinö Vähäkallio and Martti Välikangas.

In addition to the two main railway lines to Helsinki and Joensuu, the station has handled passenger traffic to Naantali and Uusikaupunki. These local lines have been discontinued due to lack of use, but are still used by goods traffic. In addition, there is talk of re-establishing the line to Naantali in the near future, either as a museum railway line or a form of local public transport.

Unlike the Helsinki Central railway station, which stands out as a prominent landmark of downtown Helsinki, the Turku Central railway station blends in among the scenery and is hidden behind other buildings when viewed from the city centre. Because of this, it can be difficult for non-Turkuans to get their bearings around the railway station.

On 7 June 2010, the Turku Central railway station was officially renamed ''-'' (Turku main railway station, or Turku central railway station) in Finnish and Swedish, replacing the previous official name ''-'' (Turku railway station). The Finnish transport bureau use "Turku C" as a shorthand, and there were erroneous news reports that this shorthand would also be taken into official use. The Helsinki Central railway station was renamed in a similar manner.

History

The construction of the Finnish Main Line in 1862 meant a setback for Turku, which had originally been a place of trade for Tavastians. After the construction of the railway, the Tavastian merchants travelling along the traditional Hämeen Härkätie road started travelling to Helsinki. When the railway from Hämeenlinna to the north was being planned, Turku's significance was further threatened. So it was important for Turku citizens to receive a railway connection from Tampere to Turku as well as to Helsinki, even so that the trip to Turku would be shorter than the one to Helsinki. The railway was constructed in a way that favoured Turku, as the exchange station was built in Toijala, making the trip from Tampere to Turku 19 kilometres shorter than that from Tampere to Helsinki. Construction of the railway started in Turku already in 1874, when the direction of the railway at its northern end was not yet completely clear. There were many Russian immigrant workers working at the railway, and they were paid less than the Finnish workers.Iltanen, Jussi: ''Radan varrella: Suomen rautatieliikennepaikat'' (2nd edition), pp. 42-45. Helsinki: Finnish Map Centre 2010.

The Turku railway station was opened as the terminus of the Toijala-Turku line in 1876, and it was a class II station similar to the Toijala and Tampere railway station opened at the same time. As well as the station building, an oil warehouse made of brick and a railway roundhouse with four places were built at the site. The roundhouse was later expanded to eight places. A machinery yard was placed next to the railway yard, used to service and repair locomotives and passenger carriages. The track was extended from Turku Central Station to the Turku Harbour in 1876, when the terminus of the track was located between the Turku Castle and the river Aura.

The Turku Central Station became a crossing station as the railway from Turku to Karis was completed in 1899. After the entire Rantarata track had been completed in 1903, the shortest trip from Turku to Helsinki went via Karis, but the trip via Toijala was still the fastest, as the Rantarata track was originally meant for commuter traffic. The decision to build the Uusikaupunki track was made already in 1909, but uncertain times hindered its construction and so traffic to Naantali was only possible in 1923 and to Uusikaupunki in 1924. A side track to the Pansio oil harbour was built from the start of the Uusikaupunki track in the early 1930s.

Already at the start of the railway construction, the Turku railway yard became a border to the traffic northwards from the city. The Raunistula suburban area had formed to the north of the railway in the municipality of Maaria, with highway connections to Pori and Tampere. Already in the early 20th century there were plans to replace the highway level crossings with a bridge, but because of the soft soil the bridge, which required difficult planning and construction work, was only built in the eastern end of the railway yard in 1931.

After World War II, there were plans to extend the railway southwards from Turku to the Parainen limestone mines, but nothing ever became of them.

The historic centre of the city of Turku was located on the southern side of the Aura River around the Turku Cathedral. After the Great Fire of Turku in 1827 the city was expanded, and as ships grew in size the harbour piers were moved to the current Linnansatama area. Building the railway station on the northern edge of the city was a solution suitable for the Toijala track, although the station was located far away from the old city centre. As time passed, the commercial centre of Turku shifted to the northern side of the river. As tram traffic in Turku started in 1908, the circular line connected the Turku Cathedral, the Market Square

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