Karis or Karjaa (Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

) is a railway station in the town of Raseborg

Raseborg

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Raseborg&action=editRaseborg is a town and municipality of Finland. It was created on January 1, 2009, when the municipalities of Ekenäs, Karis and Pohja were consolidated into a single town....

 (Raasepori) in the Uusimaa

Uusimaa

Uusimaa, or Nyland in Swedish, is a region in Finland. It borders the regions Finland Proper, Tavastia Proper, Päijänne Tavastia and Kymenlaakso...

 region, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. The station is located along the track between Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

 and Turku

Turku

Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

, and serves as a connection point between three different tracks: the main track between Helsinki and Turku, a branch track to the city of Hanko, and a former privately-owned track between Karis and Hyvinkää

Hyvinkää

Hyvinkää is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in Uusimaa region, approximately north of the capital Helsinki. The town was chartered in 1960. Hyvinkää belongs to the Province of Southern Finland. The population of Hyvinkää is ....

, currently largely disused.

The Karis railway station is located 87 km west from the Helsinki Central railway station

Helsinki Central railway station

Helsinki Central railway station is a widely recognised landmark in central Helsinki, Finland, and the focal point of public transport in the Greater Helsinki area. The station is used by approximately 200,000 passengers per day, making it Finland's most-visited building...

, and all passenger trains between Helsinki and Turku stop there. The station is also the westernmost terminus of Helsinki commuter rail

Helsinki commuter rail

Helsinki commuter rail is the commuter rail system serving Greater Helsinki, Finland. The network is operated by VR, the Finnish national railway company. Together with the Helsinki Metro and trams, the network forms the heart of Helsinki's public transportation infrastructure.Trains run above...

. It also serves cargo traffic.

History

The Karis railway station was originally founded to serve a privately-owned track between Hanko and Hyvinkää, and taken into use in 1873. After a few years, the privately-owned track had only made a loss, and the station was transferred over to the Finnish state.

The station became a crossing point in 1899, when the track between Karis and Turku was opened. The track between Karis and Pasila

Pasila

is a suburb in Helsinki, Finland. It is a central-northern neighbourhood, bordering Alppila to the south, Central Park to the west and Vallila to the east....

 was opened in 1903.

See also

• Railway lines in Finland