The station served its task well in its early days, because only a couple of trains arrived in Tampere per day. However, it soon became crowded, and the station had to be expanded several times. At that time, it was decided to build a new station in Tampere, and a design competition was held. Planning of the new station building was hindered by disagreements about the direction of the underpass to be built across the railway yard. The tower and the northern wing of the station containing a restaurant were built in 1937. In 1948 one additional floor was built onto the southern wing of the station. The station building was moved to the administration of the
VR Group in 1995. The
Finnish Heritage Agency has designated the area of the Tampere Central Station as a nationally important protected site. Connections between Tammela and the city centre were greatly improved when a
tunnel was built underneath the station yard, completed at the same time as the new station. Before the new station building was built, traffic from the city centre to Tammela went via a wooden bridge over the railway tracks starting from the end of Hämeenkatu. As traffic increased, the bridge became cramped and difficult to cross. In the early 1930s it was decided to build a tunnel underneath the railway tracks to ease traffic. Construction of the tunnel was difficult because Tammela was located much higher than the city centre. Because of this, the elevation of Itsenäisyydenkatu was lowered by several metres. The tunnel was completed at the same time as the new station building, and so the connections between Tammela and the city centre were greatly improved. The station square was lowered to the same elevation as the tunnel. The Pendolino tunnel was closed for passage in 2016. In 2012 a new 75-metre long underpass tunnel under Rongankatu was opened for the use of pedestrians and bicyclists to help travel between Tammela and the city centre. The tunnel has elevator and stair connections to all platforms.
Cargo station The tracks were greatly renewed in the late 1990s, and the loading tracks of the old cargo station were disassembled and the locomotive garage houses were disused. Many tracks leading to nearby storage buildings were also disassembled. In 2004, the track from the track yard to the Naistenlahti power station was cut from its northern end. The southern end is used to store and organise train carriages. The warehouses at the old cargo station were dismantled in early autumn 2009. The current cargo station in Tampere is located to the south of the passenger station in the district of
Rautaharkko. It is connected to the Viinikka railway yard, which is one of the busiest railway organisation yards in Finland. The green building on the eastern side of the track opposite the passenger station is the old cargo station, whose conservation has been subject to intense debate in municipal politics throughout the 2010s. According to the
zoning plan of the area, which came into force in February 2016, the old cargo station building will be moved slightly to the east, so an adjustment of the Ratapihankatu street can be built in its place. However, the city council stopped the handling of the matter later in the same year, as the cost of the moving operation increased from 1.2 million euro to over three million euro during the investigation. The current zoning plan only allows for a solution either to move the station or keep it in place, so the city started investigation for a new zoning plan. In 2018 the city council decided to move the station after all, referring to the complaint stage coming up and to political difficulties. ==Gallery==