In September 2006, the station was closed when the direct overnight train service between Kemijärvi and Helsinki was controversially withdrawn, with VR stating that its new sleeping car trains[1] could not operate with the diesel locomotives needed for the non-electrified railway north of Rovaniemi.

However, in March 2008 the overnight train to/from Helsinki was restored using a generator car that could provide hotel power behind a diesel.

[2] On 11 March 2014, electrification reached the station from Rovaniemi, allowing seamless service to Helsinki and making Kemijärvi the northernmost electrified point of the Finnish railway system.

[3] At the end of winter 2014, VR was operating one daily overnight passenger train (with sleeping cars) from Kemijärvi to and from Helsinki Central railway station.

[citation needed] The station building in Kemijärvi, a centrally heated brick structure with a total volume of 2,200 cubic metres (78,000 cu ft), was constructed in 1954–55.