Passengers arriving at Helsinki Airport by train now have direct access from the station to the airport terminal, thanks to three newly installed escalators at its entrance. Like the rest of the station, the terminal entryway has been designed with light and space in mind.
It took about three months to complete the installation work, as the escalators had to be assembled in the glass and steel shaft. In keeping with a Finnish theme, the glass sports a birch tree pattern.
So what else is there to know about these impressive moving stairways? Read on and find out.
1. The Kone escalators each measure 72 meters in length, making them the longest ever in Finland to date. The ones at Kamppi Metro station of Helsinki down town, already quite the ride, only have a length of 64 meters.
2. Taken all together, the three escalators have a total length of 216 meters. That’s equivalent to almost 20 London double-decker buses lined up front to back.
3. The total vertical height of the new escalators is 31,5 meters. Just to give you an idea of this elevation, the Great Sphinx of Giza, built on the west bank of the Nile in approximately 2500 BC, is 20,22 meters high. The average height of a moai, the monolithic human statues found on Easter Island, is about 4 meters.
4. The 72-meter-long escalators were taken down the shaft as ten-meter-plus-long segments weighing seven tons. The average weight of an adult African elephant is six tons.
Read more about connections to Helsinki Airport.
