It is located about 130 kilometres (80 mi) from the Helsinki Central railway station.

There is also a bus terminal by the station and together they form a travel centre.

There is traffic to four directions: to Helsinki via Lahti, to Kotka, to Pieksämäki and Kuopio via Mikkeli, and to Luumäki, after which the track forks to two directions: to Joensuu via Lappeenranta, or to Russia via the Vainikkala border control station.

The travel time on high speed train between Kouvola and St. Petersburg is approximately 2 hours 15 minutes.

The service was completely suspended in 2022 due to Russian invasion of Ukraine.