1.
VR Group
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VR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland. Formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995 and its most important function is the operation of freight and passenger rail services. Since 2010, the maintenance and the construction of the network have been the responsibility of the Finnish Transport Agency. The operation and network were originally carried out by the parent company Valtionrautatiet until 1995, when it was split into VR Group and the rail administration entity Ratahallintokeskus. Rail transport started in Finland in 1862, and multiple main lines were built at the end of the nineteenth, Valtion Rautatiet operated mainly on the bigger and longer main lines. During the twentieth century, most private companies were shut down. In 1995 the company was privatised into VR group, the group owns a bus company, Pohjolan Liikenne, and a road freight haulage company VR Transpoint. Altogether the group of companies includes 21 companies employing a total of about 14,400 people, because in most parts of Finland the density of population is low, Finland is not optimally suited for railways. Commuter services are rare outside the Helsinki area, but express trains interconnect most cities. As in France, the majority of services are connections to the capital. Seven stations allow loading and unloading of cars on trains, Helsinki, Turku and Tampere in the south, Oulu further north, car transport trains stop at other stations along the way for normal passenger transport. Finland is the only Nordic country to offer car transport on trains, however, car transport on trains is available on many European countries outside the Nordic countries. VR runs commuter traffic in the Helsinki area, there is an international passenger rail service from Finland to Russia. As of June 2011, there are four Allegro passenger trains per day to Saint Petersburg, on 29 May 2011, Allegro traffic increased from two to four trains per day in each direction. The tracks on the Helsinki – Saint Petersburg line were upgraded to enable a higher running speed before the Allegro started its service, domestic and international freight services are provided by VR Transpoint, part of VR Group. In 2009, both domestic and international freight traffic declined, which worsened VR Groups financial position, VR operated steam locomotives until 1975, the regular use of steam traction for scheduled passenger services ended in 1970 but occasional use continued until 1975. As of 2011, the company operates two classes of locomotives and three classes of diesel locomotives. The use of locomotive hauled passenger trains has declined due to electrification of all main lines
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Swedish language
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Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken natively by more than 9 million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by number of speakers, Standard Swedish, spoken by most Swedes, is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties descended from the rural dialects still exist. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages, V2, Swedish morphology is similar to English, that is, words have comparatively few inflections. There are two genders, no cases, and a distinction between plural and singular. Older analyses posit the cases nominative and genitive and there are remains of distinct accusative and dative forms as well. Adjectives are compared as in English, and are inflected according to gender, number. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles, the prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless velar fricative, a highly variable consonant phoneme. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, by many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, the dialects of Old East Norse that were spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish while the dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish. The dialects are described as runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, from 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr dead
4.
Finland
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
5.
Helsinki Central Station
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Helsinki Central railway station is a widely recognised landmark in Kluuvi, part of 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 and it serves as the point of origin for all trains in the local VR commuter rail network, as well as for a large proportion of long-distance trains in Finland. The station also hosts the Rautatientori metro station, which is the busiest station of the Helsinki Metro, on 7 June 2010, the station was officially renamed Helsingin päärautatieasema-Helsingfors centralstation, replacing the previous official name Helsingin rautatieasema-Helsingfors järnvägsstation. The Finnish transport bureau use Helsinki C as a shorthand, the Turku Central railway station was renamed in a similar manner. The station building was designed by Eliel Saarinen and inaugurated in 1919 and it was chosen as one of the worlds most beautiful railway stations by BBC in 2013. There are 19 platforms at the station, platforms 1–3 are on the east side and serve local trains on the Tikkurila route, their tracks stop short of the main station roof. Platforms 4–11 in the centre of the station are the platforms for longer-distance trains which stretch down to terminate in front of the main station building. Platforms 5–10 serve trains running via Tikkurila to Tampere, St Petersburg and other north and east. Platforms 12–19 are on the west side and serve local trains on the Espoo and Vantaankoski routes, the central railway station serves as a central hub for Finnish transport. There are many platforms for local buses on both the west and the east sides of the station building. The majority of Helsinkis tram routes pass in front of or to the west of the station, the Helsinki central bus station is located at Kamppi Center, about 400 m, or one metro stop, to the west of the railway station. The main maintenance area for the Finnish Railways is located in the fork between the Espoo and the Tikkurila lines, just north of the Pasila station, the loading point for cars onto car-carrying trains has been moved from the central railway station to the Pasila station. The old steam locomotive roundhouse facility still stands just to the south of Pasila station and is used for various functions, the first railway station in Helsinki was built in 1860, as Finlands first railway between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna was opened. The stations plans were drawn by the Swedish architect Carl Albert Edelfelt, however, as the popularity of railways grew, the station turned out to be too small, and a contest was organised in 1904 with the intention of producing plans for a new station. Saarinen himself abandoned romanticism altogether and re-designed the station completely, the new design was finished in 1909 and the station was opened in 1919. President of Finland Kyösti Kallio died at the station on 19 December 1940 of a heart attack, legend says he died in the arms of Marshal Mannerheim. The clock tower side of the station was damaged in a fire on 14 June 1950, in the 1960s, the underground Asematunneli pedestrian underpass and underground shopping centre complex was built south of the station. The first surveillance cameras in the hall were installed in the spring of 1968
Media related to Hyvinkää railway station at Wikimedia Commons
