Espoo railway station

Espoo Esbo
VR station
File:Espoo city train station.jpg
Location	Espoonsilta, 02770 Espoo
Coordinates
Owned by	Finnish Transport Agency
Platforms	4
Connections	Bus lines
Construction
Structure type	ground station
Disabled access	3
History
Opened	1903
Traffic
Passengers (2005)	6,800 daily
Services
Preceding station   VR commuter rail   Following station Tuomarila toward Helsinki Central S Kauklahti toward Kirkkonummi U L E Preceding station   Finnish Railways   Following station Pasila toward Helsinki Central Helsinki-Turku Kirkkonummi toward Turku Harbour

Espoo railway station (Finnish: Espoon rautatieasema, Swedish: Esbo järnvägstation) is a railway station located in the district of Espoon keskus in the city of Espoo, Finland. It is located between the stations of Tuomarila and Kauklahti, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Helsinki Central railway station.

Espoo is the only station in Espoo city that also serves long-distance trains. It was built in 1903 according to plans by the architect Bruno Granholm. The station was expanded in 1909.

The station building has many ornamental details. The station acted as the Espoo station building from 1903 to 1981 and the post office was also moved to the station as soon as it was finished, when the offices of the stationmaster and post officer were combined. Nowadays, the Espoo station is located on the bridge over the tracks and the post office is located to the south of the tracks.

Connections

Bus routes: 18, 18Z, 19, 27, 27V, 31, 42, 42A, 81, 81V, 82, 82B, 82K, 82KB, 82T, 85, 85A, 86, 86H, 86T, 87, 87A, 87K, 87KA, 154, 154T, 156, 213, 213T, 270, 270A, 270N, 530, 535, 40, P62, P80, P81, P82, P83, P84, P85, 210N

The station environment

The old station building has been present for over a century, but the tracks on both sides of it have changed. The tunnel through the city rock wasn't there originally, instead the tracks went past the rock on the north side, at Läntinen jokitie. Also the cut face on the east side of the rock was made later. A road named Vanha ratavalli goes along the old route of the tracks. At both places, traces of the tracks' old route could be seen in the ground as late as winter 2004.

Platforms

Platform one serves trains towards Kirkkonummi. On the other side of the platform is also a bus stop and a taxi station.

The middle platform is divided into platforms two and three. Platform two serves trains from Kirkkonummi to Helsinki. Platforms three and four used to serve E trains to Helsinki but are currently unused after E trains' terminus was moved further to Kauklahti.

On the other side of platform four is the Espoo market square and a turning point for buses going northwards, and also the Espoontori shopping centre.

An extension of the Leppävaara city railway has been proposed to reach the Espoo station to be able to increase local train traffic on the rantarata (Helsinki-Turku) tracks between Helsinki and Espoo.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons