It features direct daytime and overnight passenger trains to Oulu, Tampere, Helsinki and Turku; as of March 2014 the overnight train provided the only passenger service north to Kemijärvi.

Electrification to Rovaniemi was completed in 2004 and extended to Kemijärvi in 2014, replacing diesel-hauled trains.

The manual cane setting box was decommissioned on 21 May, 2006 and replaced with a computer interlocking device.

The current station building in Rovaniemi is a centrally heated brick structure with a total volume of 8,000 cubic metres (280,000 cu ft), and was constructed in 1952–53.

Additionally, the basement level was dedicated to housing electronics such as communications devices.