floor also hosted storage space. Unlike other railway stations in Finland, the Helsinki railway station had gas lighting, as the city's first gas works had recently been built right next to the station, at the place of the current Postitalo main post office building. Events The first train from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna left on 31 January 1862. Regular train traffic started on 17 March 1862. According to schedule, a passenger train left from Helsinki to Hämeenlinna every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8 o'clock in the morning. Trains on return trips left for Helsinki every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7 o'clock in the morning. Already in October 1862 the schedule was changed to daily trips in both directions. A total of 27,241 train tickets were sold at the Helsinki railway station in 1863, and a total of 23,977 tickets were sold at other stations for trips to Helsinki. The Diet of Finland was held for the first time in 1863, with emperor Alexander II of Russia attending. The city of Helsinki did not have a large enough space to host the event, so it was held at the station hall of the railway station. A temporary floor was built over the tracks and the roof was covered with floral vines. The swamp, unfit for public display, had been hidden under a birch bark mat. A couple of thousand invited guests attended the event. The northern part of the Kluuvinlahti bay, to the west of the railway track, was filled in at the end of the 19th century to make space for the railway yard and the warehouses. The Helsinki harbour rail southward of the Helsinki railway station was built in 1894, and the VR warehouses were built in 1899. The shore of the Kluuvinlahti bay had always been a cheap and disliked area. The construction of the railway station at the area greatly increased the value of the area and led to an immense construction boom in the entire city of Helsinki, lasting from the 1880s to the 1920s. Businessmen bought lots at the former shores of the Kluuvinlahti bay along the Helsinki Railway Square and the Mikonkatu street. Helsinki's second station Design Helsinki's first railway station had been measured to a small capital city with about 20 thousand inhabitants in the early 1860s. Urbanisation of Helsinki in the late 19th century brought along many changes. Between the 1860s