Rantarata

Article summary

Rantarata (the Coastal Railway, Swedish: Kustbanan), is a railway running between Helsinki Central Station and Turku Central Station in Finland. Its first segment, linking Turku to Karis, was commissioned in 1895, and work began the following year. The Turku–Karis track was opened for temporary traffic on 1 April 1899 and for permanent use on 1 November 1899. The second part of the Rantarata, linking Karis to Helsinki, was approved in 1897 and opened for traffic in 1902–1903. The track was built to primarily serve commuter traffic and was therefore laid out with many curves and as few tunnels and expensive earthworks as possible. This resulted in a series of corrections and straightening of curves, a work which began in the 1910s and continued all the way to the 1990s. As a part of the original plan, all of the stations along the Rantarata featured wooden station houses designed by the architect Bruno Granholm. Over the years many of these wood station building had been dismantled to make way for newer structures, such as Leppävaara railway station in 1999. Some of the old buildings still remain, Kauniainen railway station being the most significant example. The track between Helsinki and Kirkkonummi was upgraded with 25 kV AC railway electrification during the 1960s, and was the first government-owned electrified railway line in Finland.…

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