Lahti Lahtis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Lahti railway station. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Mannerheiminkatu 15, 15100 Keski-Lahti,Lahti Finland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 60°58′37″N25°39′27″E / 60.97694°N 25.65750°E /60.97694; 25.65750 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| System | VR station | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owned by | Finnish Transport Agency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lines | Riihimäki–Kouvola Kerava–Lahti Lahti–Loviisa Lahti–Heinola | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Construction | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Structure type | Ground station | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Station code | Lh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electrified | Yes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Passengers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2014 | 880,000[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheLahti railway station (Finnish:Lahden rautatieasema,Swedish:Lahtis järnvägsstation) is located in the city ofLahti inFinland.
During the planning stages of theSaint Petersburg railway, two track alignment options were weighed with regard to connecting the fledgling Finnish railways with the important waterborne route on lakePäijänne: one passing throughAnianpelto inAsikkala on the narrow isthmus between lakeVesijärvi and the Päijänne, and another grazing the Vesijärvi on its southern shore, in the village of Lahti inHollola. The plan to build the line via Lahti was officialized in 1864, largely due to pragmatic reasons: the line turned out approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) shorter than the Anianpelto option, amounting to about two hours saved per trip between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.[2]
Thediet of Finland in its 1867 session accepted theSenate's proposal to initiate work on the St. Petersburg railway in the following year. The fast schedule was intended to combat the economic fallout of thefamine of 1866–1868, and the project indeed attracted numerous workers from all over Finland, a number of which settled in Lahti. The impoverished and malnourished workforce was ravaged by atyphoid epidemic, which inevitably made its way to the local population as well; out of the total population of about 7,000 of the parish of Hollola, 1,010 died in 1868, along with approximately 600 workers from elsewhere. As the only cemetery of the parish could not cope with the amount of the dead, a new one dedicated to the deceased builders was founded in the nearby village ofJärvenpää, which also housed a temporary hospital.[3]
TheRiihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway reached Lahti in August 1869, and the first train arrived there just three months later, on 1 November. Around the same time, asiding to the shore of theVesijärvi was built and theVesijärvi railway station established, marking the beginning of the development of Lahti's status as a crossing between the railway and the waterborne traffic on thePäijänne.[4]
The first station building in Lahti, built according to stock plans fromKnut Nylander for class III stations, was completed in 1869; however, it was destroyed in a fire soon after its opening. A new station was designed in 1873, again by Nylander, and its construction was completed in 1874. It bore a resemblance to the originalVyborg railway station building, presumed to have been designed by either Nylander himself orWolmar Westling.[4]
Shortly after the railway toHeinola was completed, the second station building was deemed to have grown insufficient to meet the needs of the city and the traffic passing through it. The third and final station building was built in 1935.[4] The station was designed by architectThure Hellström from the Finnish State Railways and built in 1935. Because of thedepression in the 1930s, the station did not get a third floor, neither did it get a tower, as theTampere railway station did.[citation needed] The plan of the station isrectangular and it has two floors. It is built of dark brownbrick, just as the warehouses in the vicinity of the main building. In the 1950s, the room between the station house and the rail yard was filled by a garden, featuring a fountain.[5]
In 2006, the station was renovated. The ticket office was moved from the east side of the corridor to the west side, and the storage lockers andR-kioski were removed from there, so that the ticket office is on the right-hand side when entering the station. The stationrestaurant is still in its original place on the east side of the station. The station platforms and the underpass tunnel of the west side of Vesijärvenkatu were also renovated. The renovation intended to make the station more efficient, when the more direct track fromHelsinki to Lahti was opened on 1 September 2006.
Near the Lahti railway station is the stationmaster's quarters, which is considered to be a culturally significant building in thePäijät-Häme region around Lahti. It was built in 1912 and was designed by architectAlbert Leidenius.[6]
Lahti is a terminus for two lines on the Helsinki commuter rail network:Z toHelsinki andG toRiihimäki. It is also one end of the unnamed commuter rail line toKouvola, which merges with line Z at points: on weekdays, two commuter trains leave Kouvola in the early morning and proceed to Helsinki via Lahti. This service is also operated in the direction Helsinki–Kouvola once at late at night on weekdays, as well as in the direction Kouvola–Helsinki on weekend middays. Additionally, several of the Lahti–Kouvola commuter services are operated all the way from or continue towardsKotka as well.
As one of the termini of theKerava–Lahti railway, all eastbound long-distance services from and to Helsinki stop at Lahti. After making a stop in Kouvola, these services then diverge to either theKouvola–Iisalmi line towardsKuopio, or on theKouvola–Joensuu line towardsImatra orJoensuu.
There is also a direct connection toLoviisa on the south coast, with the route's other terminus being in thePort of Loviisa.[7]
Lahti was served by both of the services operated between Finland andRussia: night trainTolstoy between Helsinki andMoscow, and high-speed trainAllegro between Helsinki andSt. Petersburg. Both services were suspended during theCOVID-19 pandemic and withdrawn completely following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[8]
Lahti railway station has four platform tracks.
Media related toLahti railway station at Wikimedia CommonsRailway stations in the region ofPäijät-Häme,Finland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Riihimäki–Kouvola |  | |
| Kerava–Lahti | ||
| Lahti–Heinola | ||
| Lahti–Loviisa | ||
Names in italics indicate planned or closed stations. | ||
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