Nastola railway station

Nastola
VR station
General information
Location	Pysäkinkuja 10, 15560 Nastola, Lahti Finland
Coordinates	60°56′09″N 025°56′06″E / 60.93583°N 25.93500°E / 60.93583; 25.93500
Owned by	Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency
Line(s)	Lahti–Kouvola railway
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Construction
Structure type	Ground station
Parking	Yes
Bicycle facilities	Yes
Other information
Station code	Nsl
History
Opened	2005
Passengers
2016	8,000 [1]
Services
Preceding station VR Group Following station Villähde towards Lahti Lahti–Kouvola Uusikylä towards Kouvola Preceding station VR commuter rail Following station Villähde towards Helsinki Z Uusikylä towards Kouvola Villähde towards Lahti O Uusikylä towards Kotkan satama
Location

The Nastola railway station (Finnish: Nastolan rautatieasema, Swedish language: Nastola järnvägsstation) is located in the city of Lahti (formerly the municipality of Nastola) in the Päijänne Tavastia region, in Finland. The station is located in the centre of the urban area of Nastola, and the distance from the Lahti railway station is 15.7 kilometres and that from the Kausala railway station is 23.6 kilometres.^[2]

After the opening of the Villähde in 1888, the area of the municipality of Nastola had two stations on the Riihimäki–Saint Petersburg railway, with Uusikylä being one of the original ones of the line. In 1904, representatives from the municipality made an appeal to the Railway Administration concerning the possibility of founding a halt in the parish village. As the municipality did not necessarily see the new halt as economically justified for the State Railways, it pledged to back private parties in constructing and maintaining the halt, should the municipality be given permission to do so. The Nastola halt was opened in 1905, approximately 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) away from the Nastola church.^[3][2]

In December 1906, the municipality made another appeal to the Railway Administration, this time concerning the promotion of the halt to a pysäkki. Local salesman K. Kilpeläinen was chosen to push the cause, providing several reasons for the need to promote the halt:^[3]

• The municipality already had possession of land around the halt, thus circumventing an expensive and long land acquisition process.
• The passenger numbers at the halt were considerable in spite of only two trains stopping there on request daily; it was believed that they could increase further given proper services and accommodation for passengers.
• A yarn factory was being built in the parish village at the time, providing a potential customer for cargo services at the pysäkki.
• The station could have served the residents of Heinola as well, as the road between Ruuhijärvi and Vierumäki had recently been rebuilt.

In spite of these reasons, the appeal was not accepted by the Railway Administration at the time, which cited a low amount of potential traffic as a reason.^[3] However, as ticket sales services were initiated in Nastola in 1926, the overall amount of trips made from the area of the municipality increased. This was in spite of the halt only selling class II and III tickets to Lahti and Kouvola, as well as Helsinki.^[4] In the interwar period, freight services were initiated in Nastola, as the halt was promoted to the status of a laiturivaihde – a halt with a rail yard containing at least one switch.^[2]

The industrial area in Nastola was built in the post-war period, and numerous larger companies began relocating there in the 1960s. The industrial zone was served by a siding stretching from the laiturivaihde in Nastola to the Uusikylä station. Passenger services in Nastola ceased in 1970, and it was made an unmanned operating point in the following year.^[2]

The Nastola stop was rebuilt in 2005 in an effort to move the passenger traffic role of the Uusikylä station to a location that would better serve the majority of the population of the municipality. As of 2010, with the reopenings of Uusikylä and Villähde, the Nastola area is home to three active railway stations.^[5]

Nastola is served by all commuter trains on the route Lahti–Kouvola, and some of these services are operated from or continue towards Kotka as well. The intermediate stations between Lahti and Kouvola are also served by all but one Z rush hour service on the route Helsinki–Lahti–Kouvola.^[6] The station does not have ticket sale services nor a VR ticket vending machine, though it does have 55 centimetres (22 in) high platforms, allowing accessible entry to low-floor trains.^[7]

• Train departures at Nastola on Finrail