Parikkala to Savonlinna

Just before Savonlinna the train crosses Kyrönsalmi, the strait beside the castle of Olavinlinna, on a steel bridge built in 1908. For more than a century it was an opening bridge: the deep-water channel of Lake Saimaa ran through the strait, and the bridge opened for ships about 1,300 times a year. It stopped opening in 2019, when the ships were sent another way, through the strait of Laitaatsalmi west of the town. That move cost the railway its other bridge. The line on to Huutokoski closed in 2015, its bridge across Laitaatsalmi was taken down in 2018, and Savonlinna, built as a station on a line across the lake district, became the end of the track.

What is left is 58 kilometres from Parikkala, on VR's main line between Helsinki and Joensuu, to Savonlinna, run by single diesel railcars, and for its best stretch it has water on both sides. The line climbs onto Punkaharju, a narrow ridge of glacial gravel with a lake on either side, and follows it past stations designed in 1906–08 by Bruno Granholm, with the old road beside it among the pines.

The railcar takes 53 minutes, six times a day in each direction on weekdays, timed to meet the InterCity and Pendolino trains at Parikkala. From Helsinki the whole trip takes about four and a half hours, and Savonlinna's station is on the lakeshore by the market square, fifteen minutes' walk from the castle.

Parikkala is a junction on the Karelian line. The InterCity and Pendolino trains between Helsinki and Joensuu stop here, and the railcar for Savonlinna waits on track 3. The station has sold no tickets since 2005; tickets are sold on vr.fi. The branch heads north-west through farmland and forest to Punkaharju, about 25 kilometres out, a small station of the original line that was called Punkasalmi until 1989.

Along the ridge

Beyond Punkaharju the line runs onto the ridge itself, a band of gravel left by the retreating ice, about seven kilometres long, with the old road running along it beside the track. Pihlajavesi lies on one side and Puruvesi on the other, and the train runs among pines with water on both sides. Travellers have come to see this since the 1840s, when a forester's house on the ridge first took in guests; the railway, opened as far as Punkaharju in November 1906, made it far easier to reach. A second forester lived at the southern end, and part of his job was watching for fires started by the sparks of passing steam engines.

Lusto is the grand station of the line, the original Punkaharju, a national-romantic wooden building of 1908 with a waiting hall and a post office. The Finnish Forest Museum stands beside it. Three minutes later comes Retretti, a halt built in 1987 for the art centre in the caverns of Tuunaansaari. It has no building: the shelter from the rain is a huge concrete sculpture by Olavi Lanu of a seated figure bending forward on its arms.

To Savonlinna

After the ridge the line runs through forest and farms to Kerimäki, opened in 1907 as Silvola and ten kilometres from the village it is named for, and to Pääskylahti, on the edge of Savonlinna, where the railcars are serviced. Then it crosses Kyrönsalmi beside Olavinlinna and stops on the shore of Koululahti bay, by the market square. Savonlinna's station of 1907 lay a kilometre further on and closed in 2011, when the line was moved for a new road; today's terminus, a single platform, opened in June 2012 next to the old market-square stop.

The line that lost both ends

The railway was built as a link across the lake district. It opened from Elisenvaara, on the old Karelian main line, to Savonlinna on 1 February 1908, and on to Pieksämäki in 1914. Elisenvaara was lost in the Second World War, and from 1949 Parikkala, reached by a new link, became the line's eastern end. Passenger trains west of Savonlinna stopped in 1988. The track to Huutokoski was rebuilt for €42 million in 2008, but its Savonlinna end closed in 2015 for the new deep-water channel, and a swing bridge to replace the one at Laitaatsalmi was never funded.

The railcars

The trains are VR's Dm12 railcars, built by ČKD Vagonka in the Czech Republic and on this line since February 2006. Up to three can run coupled together, each has a wheelchair lift, and most trips run with the driver as the only crew. Finnish enthusiasts call them Lipokas or Demari, the second from the class letters.

The railcar runs six times a day in each direction from Monday to Friday, five on Saturdays and Sundays. Each one is timed to connect at Parikkala with the trains between Helsinki and Joensuu. No reservation is needed, and every train stops at every station.

Times below are VR's timetable for November 2026, read in October 2026. Check departures at vr.fi (opens in a new tab).

Parikkala to Savonlinna

Savonlinna to Parikkala

Retretti is three minutes from Lusto and Pääskylahti five from Savonlinna. On Saturdays trains 749 and 750 do not run, and on Sundays the first pair, 740 and 741, do not run.

From Helsinki

The connections at Parikkala are short, six to eleven minutes. On weekdays the 06:54 from Helsinki reaches Savonlinna at 11:19, the 10:14 at 14:30, the 13:14 at 17:30, the 16:14 at 20:35 and the 18:29 at 22:56. Going back, the 06:19 from Savonlinna is in Helsinki at 10:44, the 09:19 at 13:44, the 12:30 at 16:44, the 15:30 at 19:45 and the 18:35 at 22:45. At weekends, check the connection on the day: the 16:14 from Helsinki has no railcar to meet it on Saturdays.

VR sells tickets on vr.fi (opens in a new tab) and in its VR Matkalla app, and prices move with demand. In October 2026 a single from Parikkala to Savonlinna cost €12.70 to €14.00, and a through ticket from Helsinki, with the change at Parikkala, from €50.70. Seats are not reserved on the railcar, none of the stations on the branch sells tickets, and VR sells none on board: on a railcar you must have bought your ticket in advance.

For the whole trip, book Helsinki to Savonlinna as one journey: the search returns the InterCity or Pendolino and the railcar together, with the connection built in.

Interrail and Eurail passes cover this line. Interrail's list of what the pass covers in Finland includes VR's regional trains, InterCity and Pendolino, with reservations optional on all of them, so a pass holder can ride from Helsinki to Savonlinna without paying anything more.

Whether a pass is worth buying depends on the rest of the trip. With a single from Parikkala costing around €13 and a through ticket from Helsinki from about €50, ordinary tickets are the simpler buy for a return to Savonlinna alone. A pass earns its price when Savonlinna is one stop on a longer journey around Finland.

Pass conditions checked against Interrail's railway-companies page, last updated 21 October 2026. Conditions change with each season, and the pass issuer's page is the one that binds.

The line has two kinds of stop worth getting off at: the ridge, with its trails and the forest museum, and Savonlinna, a town built around a castle in a lake.

Lusto station is on the ridge, beside the museum. Kerimäki church is about ten kilometres from its station, so it is easier to reach by road from Savonlinna. In Savonlinna the castle and the museum island next to it are a fifteen-minute walk from the station.

The railcar takes under an hour, so the line is easy to ride both ways in a day from Savonlinna. To stay on the ridge itself, the old State Hotel at Punkaharju has been taking in travellers since 1845. Savonlinna, at the end of the line, has the most choice.

The places below keep their own websites and take direct bookings.

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