Kehärata

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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected public transportation infrastructure.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the infrastructure approaches, and more information becomes available.

Kehärata (literally "ring track", in Swedish Ringbanan, previously known as Marjarata) is the name of a proposed train route in the city of Vantaa (Vanda), in the Greater Helsinki Metropolitan Area in Finland. If built, it would extend the Helsinki commuter rail network to the Helsinki-Vantaa International airport and the adjacent Aviapolis business and retail district and thus create a quick connection from the Airport to downtown Helsinki, as well as the suburban parts of the capital and other nearby cities and communities. The new section of line would go from Tikkurila Station in the east, on the mainline going north from Helsinki, to Vantaankoski Station to the west, on the branch line for western Vantaa, currently being served by the "M" train.

The line and its funding has been approved in principle, with final studies presently in progress and construction scheduled to start in 2009. The completion date is expected to be 2013, however it is possible that the section from Vantaankoski to Kivistö will open in 2012. A final decision on the possibility of the earlier opening has yet to be made, and will be assessed at a later date.