Hämeenlinna railway station (, ) is located in the town of

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; ; ; or ''Croneburgum'') is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Kanta-Häme. It is located in the southern interior of the country and on the shores of Vanajavesi, Lake Vanajavesi. The population of Hämeenlinna is appr ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Hämeenlinna is located about halfway between Helsinki and

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

, and because of this, the station has much pass-through traffic, even though the Hämeenlinna station is not a crossing-point station. The station is served by all passing commuter trains and several passing InterCity and Pendolino trains. The Hämeenlinna station also has an underpass tunnel. The station building has a

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

. The Finnish Heritage Agency has classified Hämeenlinna railway station as a nationally significant built cultural environment.Hämeenlinnan rautatieasema
(in Finnish) Nationally significant built cultural environments (''Valtakunnallisesti merkittävät rakennetut kulttuuriympäristöt) RKY'', Finnish Heritage Agency. Retrieved 2025-02-07.

History

Hämeenlinna railway station was the original terminus of the

Finnish Main Line __NOTOC__ The Finnish Main Line (; ) is a long electrified group of railway lines in Finland between the cities of Helsinki and Oulu. The first segment, a line from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna, was opened on March 17, 1862. The railway serves Hel ...

opened in 1862, being one of the oldest railway stations in Finland. The station soon became a significant centre point of traffic due to the water transport connections from the northern parts of the region to Hämeenlinna via the Lake Vanajavesi, as the canals built in

Valkeakoski Valkeakoski (; lit. "white rapids") is a town and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is located south of Tampere, north of Hämeenlinna and north of Helsinki in the Pirkanmaa regions of Finland, region. The municipality has ...

Lempäälä Lempäälä () is a municipality in Finland, located in the Pirkanmaa region. It lies south of the regional capital, Tampere. The population of Lempäälä is approximately , while the Tampere metropolitan area, metropolitan area has a population ...

and Kaivanto were completed in the early 1870's. As the railway line was further expanded northwards to Tampere, the status of Hämeenlinna station as a traffic centre decreased significantly. The original station building designed by architect Carl Albert Edelfelt was completed in the same year, but was destroyed during the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...

in 1918. The current station building designed by architect Thure Hellström was completed in 1921. Stylewise the building represents

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

(

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

), with some features of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and Baroque-influenced

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

. The northern end of the station was badly damaged in a fire on January 22, 1984. A new railyard for freight trains was built at the eastern side of the station in 1996. The passenger train railyard was renewed in the late 1990's complete with a new underpass tunnel completed in 1999.

Departure tracks

There are seven tracks at Hämeenlinna railway station, three of which have a platform for passenger trains. * Track 1 is used by southbound long-distance trains as well as commuter trains and to Riihimäki/Helsinki. * Track 2 is used by southbound night train services from Lapland to Helsinki. * Track 3 is used by northbound long-distance trains as well as trains to Tampere. Hämeenlinna - Train departures - Fintraffic
''junalahdot.fi''. Retrieved 2025-01-26.

Gallery

File:Interior of Hämeenlinna railway station.jpg, Interior of the Hämeenlinna railway station. Image:Hameenlinnan-vanha-rautatieasema-orig.jpg, The old station building at Hämeenlinna was built in 1862. File:Train to Helsinki arriving at Hämeenlinna railway station.jpg, View of the tracks at night time, with a train arriving at the station.

References

External links

Hämeenlinna railway station at Fonecta

Railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Railway stations in Kanta-Häme Railway stations in Finland opened in 1862 Art Nouveau architecture in Finland Art Nouveau railway stations Railway stations in Finland opened in 1921 {{Finland-railstation-stub