The Järvelä railway station (, ) is located in

Kärkölä Kärkölä () is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Päijänne Tavastia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population densit ...

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, ...

, in the municipal seat and urban area of

Järvelä Järvelä is a Finnish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Arto Järvelä (born 1964), Finnish composer and fiddler * Jonne Järvelä Korpiklaani ( Finnish for ) is a Finnish folk metal band from Lahti that was formerly known a ...

. It is located along the

Riihimäki Riihimäki (; ) is a town and municipality in the south of Finland, about north of Helsinki and southeast of Tampere. An important railway junction is located in Riihimäki, since railway tracks from Riihimäki lead to Helsinki, Tampere and La ...

–

Lahti Lahti (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Päijät-Häme. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lahti is approximately , while the Lahti sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mo ...

line, and its neighboring stations are Lappila in the west and

Herrala Hilda Gustaava Herrala (8 April 1881 - 16 July 1956) was a Finnish seamstress and politician, born in Kuivaniemi. She was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1908 to 1913, from 1916 to 1918 and from 1933 to 1936, representing the Social ...

in the east.

History

Järvelä is one of the original stations of the

Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway The Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway is a long segment of the Helsinki Central railway station, Helsinki–Saint Petersburg connection, which is divided between Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast in Russia and the province of Southern F ...

, and was placed on the crossing of the railway and the road between

Mäntsälä Mäntsälä () is a municipality in the province of Southern Finland, and is part of the Uusimaa region. It has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finni ...

and the church village of Kärkölä. The class III station building was constructed according to plans from

Knut Nylander Knut ( Norwegian and Swedish), Knud ( Danish), or Knútur ( Icelandic) is a Scandinavian and German first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used which ...

and was later expanded upon twice, in the 1870s and with an additional western wing, designed by

Bruno Granholm Bruno Ferdinand Granholm (May 14, 1857 in Myrskylä – September 29, 1930) was a Finnish architect. He served as the chief architect of Rautatiehallitus (The Railroad Board) between 1892 and 1926. Many of the station buildings he designed are ...

, in 1900. Järvelä quickly began to develop with the arrival of the railway and subsequent industry, and took the place of the municipal seat from the Kärkölä church village in the 1930s. In 1960, Järvelä was home to 1,100 inhabitants; by 2000, the number had increased to 2,800. As of 2018, the population of Järvelä is 2,654. The Koskisen Oy sawmill started operating right by the station in 1931; as of 2025, the sawmill and its

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

factory are still active, providing the bulk of the jobs in the municipality. The Koskisen factories regularly receive wood deliveries by rail from

Kouvola Kouvola () is a city in Finland and the administrative capital of Kymenlaakso. It is located in the southeastern interior of the country. The population of Kouvola is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland, and the 17th m ...

. On 18 October 1961, the Railway Administration made the decision to purchase a set of 800

concrete sleeper A concrete sleeper (British English) or concrete tie (American English) is a type of railway sleeper or railroad tie made out of steel reinforced concrete. History In 1877, Joseph Monier, a French gardener, suggested that concrete reinforced ...

s from abroad, the first of their kind in Finland; in July 1962, they were installed on the section of track between Lappila and Järvelä. The trials were successful, and on 12 June 1963, the first batch of concrete sleepers from Finnish manufacturers was ordered. Järvelä became an unstaffed station in 1997, and the station building was sold to a private buyer in 2003. Among the stations on the Riihimäki-Lahti line, Järvelä is an anomaly in that both its passenger and freight transport services continue to operate to this day.

Services and departure tracks

Järvleä is an intermediate station on commuter rail line on the route

–

. Prior to the opening of the Kerava-Lahti railway line, Järvelä was also served by the unnamed regional trains on the route Helsinki–Riihimäki–Lahti–

– Kotka Harbour. Järvelä railway station has three platform tracks. Westbound trains to Riihimäki use track 1 and eastbound ones to Lahti use track 2.Järvelä - Train Departures - Fintraffic
''junalahdot.fi''. Retrieved 2025-01-30. Track 3 is normally unused by the passenger trains that stop at the station.

References

Kärkölä Knut Nylander railway stations Railway stations in Finland opened in 1869 Railway stations in Päijät-Häme {{Finland-railstation-stub