The Tampere tram system has been operating for exactly one year and nearly 10 million trips were made during its first year of operation.
The south-central city has a population of some 245,000, making it the Nordic region's biggest inland city. The whole metropolitan region has a total population of 422,000.
Mika Periviita, director of Tampere public transport firm Nysse, said that it has been a successful year.
"About a quarter of Nysse's journeys were made on the tram. The 10 million trips made during the first year corresponded very well to our preliminary expectations," Periviita noted in a press release.
During the year, 175,182 departures were made by the trams and accumulated over 1.4 million kilometres on Tampere's rails.
The number of passengers on Tampere's public transport has returned to pre-Covid levels faster than in other Finnish cities, as per Periviita. The transit chief said that the new trolleys had played a part in attracting riders.
The tram also scored high marks for customer satisfaction and reliability. According to the press release, Tampere's trams were reliable 99.12 percent of the time.
In customer service feedback surveys that measured safety of travel, cleanliness, driving styles and adherence to schedules, the tram system in the so-called "Manchester of the north" had an overall average rating of 4.1 out of five.
Additionally, the tram system has employed 80 people as new drivers and traffic controllers.