So here I am waiting for a train home at the local railway station. And I suddenly realized, that this was the first and only time when I would wait a train here.
Back in the 1960’s somebody in control of the state railroad company got a magnificent idea. Railway stations would no longer be just railway stations. They would combine rail and bus traffic, and when these brand new buildings were built they also included municipal and state government offices and business premises.
Five such stations were built between the 1960’s and early 1980’s before somebody realized that the idea wasn’t such a good one after all. Since then two of these stations are set to be demolished – one to make way for housing and health care buildings with a station integrated into them. And this one to be replaced by a smaller station.
The reasons could be called pragmatic. The station is around 45 years old and is in the need of large renovations. Meanwhile the city has lost almost a third of its inhabitants since the inaguration of the station and it is in a place well situated for traffic, but far from the city center. No offices or business premises are needed in this part of the town. It is simply too large and in the wrong place
And although the building still functions as a station, most of it is empty. The district court has moved away, so has the town authority and a private doctor’s office. Demolition crews are going to move in as soon as a big repair work on the rails leading past the station is complete. Or so they said.
The café was still functioning, but wasn’t open during my visit. I was the only passenger at the station at this time. I was a bit early, though.
There are no ticket counters anymore. Tickets are sold in those machines only.
The lobby. The corridor up to the left is offices.
The ticket counters are closed for good.
This is where bus tickets were sold. There’s quite a lot of dust on the counter already.
The elevator to the station platform is there with an 1980’s logo of the national railroad company. The station needs an elevator, as the platform is on the third floor.
Let’s go have a look outside. Back then the local office of the social security services was still located here. It moved away around a year later.
There was even a petrol station in the same complex.
The pizza place looks closed too.
The windows to the right on the ground floor are to the former ticket office.
As the district court, which occupied most of the second and third floors has already left, there’s more empty space than there are tenants.
The lights are on, but nobody’s home.
Up we go then.
There are benches on the second floor in case the climb up to the platform is too heavy.
Second floor users. Or previous users.
The office corridor above the station lobby. Unfortunately all office corridors were closed, this one with a locked glass door.
The station platform. And finally some other passengers.
The station was supposed to be demolished in 2022 and the work on the new one should be well underway. The increase in the price of construction materials meant, that they cancelled the plans. They instead now plan to demolish one wing and the top floor, renovate the rest and build a new roof. The plans actually look pretty good to me.
So far nothing has happened. Except that the old station now has even less tenants than during my visit.
I hope they keep this station mostly intact because it’s a great concept putting together busses and trains along with commercial interests all in one place. We have some places like this in the US but they’re falling into disuse much like this one. At least there’s talk about renovating this one in particular, but we know how often these public works plans fall apart and these cool building become demolished and replaced by a block of flats.
I am also intrigued to see what happens. So far they haven’t found any money to do anything.
But there really is no threat about a block of flats here. The city doesn’t build, just demolishes. It is particularly sad, because there have been a lot of really beautiful and valuable buildings, like old schools, which have just been torn down because there’s nobody left to use them anymore. In six years they have demolished almost 30 buildings owned by the town. That is a pretty crazy amount for a town of this size.
What a terrible waste just to demolish things! At least when things are demolished here, they turn it into a parking lot most times. Other times they actually designate it as “conservation land” which is both good and bad for various reasons. What bothers me most about things being demolished out of disuse, is as you said, they are beautiful and valuable structures which could easily be repurposed for housing or community purposes. The sad part is when there’s no community to enjoy them, and so it seems that they are demolished to simply wipe away the history of anyone ever actually living there, leaving it up to archeologists of the distant future to figure out what the heck happened.
You mentioned before that in Finland many people are flocking to the cities, which is why all this deserted property exists in the first place. Oddly enough, the opposite is happening in America. People are fleeing cities for the suburbs and country, thanks to many jobs having become remote. You would think this is a good thing, but what’s really happening is prefab houses and structures are popping up seemingly at random on the beautiful country roads of places like Vermont, and their new owners have ZERO interest in building or contributing to any sort of existing community. So it’s basically having the same effect on American cities, which now have all these disused buildings with nothing to do with them, except, perhaps, to house all the homeless people that hang out by them! It’s a sad state of affairs.
In Finland people in the rural areas started to flock to cities relatively late, since the late 1950’s. Ever since we’ve had politicians repeat a national mantra “all of Finland must stay inhabited.” Unfortunately the population in rural areas can’t sustain the public services anymore. As a result people are moving away in a growing rate. Covid slowed things down but just for a year or two.
This causes two problems. Firstly there are not enough apartments in big cities. This means that a lot of older and smaller buildings are being demolished to build new apartments. Secondly there is absolutely nobody, who wants the old schools and homes in rural areas. They are demolished as useless or left to be my playground.
It is predicted that in 20 years there will be only three urban areas in the whole country, which grow. All the others lose people. It looks like I will have places to photograph for a lifetime.