Public Transportation

Moving around by road is very easy. The highway and freeway network is good between the city centres.

The Finnish coach route network is one of the most comprehensive in Europe covering more than 90% of the public roads. There are more than 40 000 daily bus departures. Timetables are usually adapted to fit in rail, air and ship services. Oy Matkahuolto Ab's coach stations, authorised agents and travel agencies throughout Finland give additional information about coach traffic.

The rail network interconnects the major Finnish cities. Trains have almost 6000 kilometers of tracks (passenger trains about 4000 kms). The most important sections of line are electrified, like the lines from Helsinki to Turku, to Pori and to Tampere.

The metropolitan area (Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa) has a unified fare system. The region is divided into two tariff zones. Each of the towns comprises its own zone. Kauniainen ia a part of the Espoo zone. Journeys made within a single town area are charged as one zone. Regional journeys which cross city boundaries are counted as two zone journeys, irrespective of how many town areas have been driven through.
You can travel with Helsinki region travel card or with single tickets bought from ticket machines, the bus driver or train conductor on all local buses, trams, local trains and underground in the metropolitan area as well as on the Suomenlinna ferry. 1-day tourist tickets can be bought on buses, local trains and from multi-ticket machines. Tourist tickets for 3 and 5 days can be purchased from multi-ticket machines situated at train and underground stations and in advance from YTV and Helsinki City Transport service points, Kamppi Travel Centre, Stockmann Department Store and main R-kiosks.

With a single ticket or the travel card value ticket you can transfer to another public transport vehicle within 80 minutes of validating the ticket i.e. when you have shown your card to the card reader device. Inside Helsinki the transfer time is 60 minutes, excluding connecting bus lines for the underground and northeastern connecting bus lines, on which the transfer time is also 80 minutes. With a valid period ticket you can travel as much as you like. During night time 2am-4.30am a higher night rate is charged. Period tickets are not valid at that time.

Local transportation in other cities is organized very well too.