According to the agency's current plans, the direct entrance to the airport terminal will open at the end of December when the lifts are completed. The installation of escalators at the entrance will continue into early 2016.
The opening of the entrance is delayed because the works in the steel-and-glass entrance shaft have proven more challenging than anticipated: the glass panels to be installed have to be lowered one by one thirty meters down the shaft and installed in a very narrow space.
– The installation of long escalators is also challenging and time-consuming as the 60-meter-long escalators (in total three) are taken down the shaft as over ten-meter-long elements weighing seven tons and assembled in the shaft, tells the Finnish Transport Agency Project Manager Juha Kansonen.
Until the opening of the direct entrance to the terminal, passengers can use the Tietotie entrance. The walk from the Tietotie entrance to Terminal 1 is about 350 meters and to Terminal 2 about 700 meters. The shuttle bus continues to run between the Tietotie entrance and the terminals until the opening of the direct entrance. The buses run approximately every five minutes.
New commuter route 617
HSL is launching a new bus route 617 to improve commuter links from Hämeentie and Mäkelänkatu to the airport. The new service will facilitate the journeys of passengers who need to change vehicles both at the beginning and end of their journey because the terminal entrance is not yet open.
Bus 617 will run every 30 minutes at peak times. As the bus will run along Tuusulanväylä and Ring Road III, it will serve also the areas next to Ring Road III and Lentoasemantie. The new route will start running on 16 November 2015.
– Route 617 will improve services available for commuters to the airport area. Buses on route 615 are no longer as full an in August, when the service was rerouted and also tourists have gradually found the Ring Rail Line. We believe the new route will be identified as a commuter route because it does not run to the city center, which is the typical destination for tourists. Hakaniemi is an excellent terminus with good access to all directions. In addition, capacity on route 615 will be increased by introducing bogie buses, says HSL Director of Public Transport Planning Department Tero Anttila.
