Public transport in the Helsinki region got a bit of a shake-up on Tuesday, as the regional transport authority HSL announced new fares and fare zones and brought in incentives for passengers to swap their travel cards for an app.
The new zones will be brought in next spring to end the previous system, which was based on municipal boundaries. Under that system Helsinki functioned as one zone, and crossing the border into Espoo or Vantaa required the purchase of a regional ticket at a higher price.
The shakeup follows the extension of the Helsinki Metro system into Espoo, and a subsequent change in commuting habits in the western suburbs.
After the new zones are introduced there will be four zones: A, B, C and D, with central Helsinki forming zone A. Tickets will be valid for any two zones, so the cheapest tickets will be valid for zones A and B.
Under the new system, large areas of Espoo and Vantaa have been brought into cheaper bands, as the zones are based on distance from Helsinki city centre rather than city council boundaries. Prices for Helsinki commuters, meanwhile, will rise slightly.
HSL runs local transport in the capital on behalf of the municipalities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, Kerava, Kirkkonummi, Sipoo, Siuntio and Tuusula.
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“The fare zone remodelling will increase public transport usage especially in zones B and C,” claimed HSL CEO Suvi Rihtniemi in a press release. “Public transport journeys will increase and at the same time car journeys will decrease especially towards Helsinki. The number of kilometres travelled by public transport will increase by five percent because of the changes, according to our projections.”
HSL also announced new smartphone apps to be rolled out as it renews ticket machines and travel cards. Holders of the old cards should change them at HSL offices, starting in early November.
Passengers can also decide to do away with cards altogether and switch to the new ticketing app, and take advantage of a discount if they sign up for 360 days of recurring monthly tickets.
So using the discounts introduced by HSL, commuters in eastern Espoo or southern Vantaa will be able to buy a monthly ticket covering a commute to central Helsinki for half the 106.50 euros it currently costs.
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A monthly ticket covering zones A and B will cost 59.70 euros as a one-off purchase, or 53 euros per month as a recurring purchase over at least 360 days via the app. That compares to a current cost of 54.70 euros per month for a single-zone adult monthly ticket.
Old-style travel cards will not be usable next spring, when the ticketing revamp is complete and the new fare zones come into force.
Single tickets within one two-zone area will cost 2.80 if purchased via the card or app, or four euros if bought from the bus driver. There was bad news for students, however, as their 50 percent discount on monthly tickets will become a 45 percent reduction, and cheaper single tickets for students will disappear entirely.
Holders of monthly tickets will be able to purchase extension tickets for 2.50 euros if they want to travel outside the area covered by their normal ticket.
Some Helsinki commuters have switched to third-party mobility app Whim to supply their public transport tickets in recent months as it has aggressively cut prices to try and bring in new customers. Those passengers no longer buy direct from HSL, a joint local authority responsible for local transport in the capital city region.
Whim still to decide pricing
The firm told Yle that it had not yet decided how to adjust to the new prices but will evaluate the situation in December when it starts selling monthly tickets rather than a package of unlimited single-use tickets as it does at present.
“We will look again at the monthly price for the package in December, when we get the monthly tickets rather than the single tickets which you have to activate each time,” said Sampo Hietanen, CEO of Whim.
“That’s when we’ll have a new look at the monthly pricing of those packages. And the same will apply when the new tarriffs and new zones come into place next year. No decisions have been made yet.”
There is more information on the new fares and zones on the HSL website.