Tallinn Becomes First European Capital to Waive Public Transport Fares for Residents (5)

Published: 02.01.2013 08:09

Photo: Postimees/Scanpix

See Also

Public transport in the capital became free for registered Tallinners on New Year's Day as the city's much-debated reform took effect.

As part of the change, paper tickets and farecards also went out with the old year, apart from the possibility of buying a ticket from the driver in a pinch; mechanical and electronic ticket validating machines will be uninstalled in the first days of the New Year, the city government said.

Along with the e-ticketing system rolled out last year, the ID ticket system will also remain in place for the time being.

In the case of most adults, free ridership of buses, trams and trolleybuses requires that they be registered in the Population Register as Tallinn residents. After that, they must purchase a personalized farecard - the "ühiskaart" - and validate each trip as they enter the vehicle. The farecard is only good when accompanied by an identity document.
 
In addition, all pupils and students age 19 and under who are listed in the Population Register as residing in Estonia enjoy free public transport in Tallinn.

The personalized farecard is good on Harju County public transport routes, which are integrated with Tallinn's.

A total of 150,000 farecards had been purchased according to last count - as of late December.

City officials have described the reform as primarily motivated by environmental and social reasons. Among other criticisms, some have expressed concern about the 12-million-euro budget shortfall the plan is expected to create.

Comments

For adding comments,enter the ERR website with your user name and password , or use the form below to comment without logging in.


Guidelines for commenting can be found here.

Comments (5)

  • avatar

    knut_albers

    02.01.2013 09:35

    "The farecard is only good when accompanied by an identity document." So why do we need another RFID chipped personalized card when the ID card already in place is still required? The answer, my friend, is to track you down each trip you take. Whatever the potential privacy issues on this, more cards to your pocket certainly means not a greener planet (even if the card is colored greenish). If a green campaign financed by the taxpayers, then please follow the theory well-thought-out, also what comes to the replacement of the fuel squandering bus oldtimers on the road. Please also let me know, where I can buy a batch of data sets collected. The reason why I need this data is to evaluate the movement profiles of potential sleeper cells with my neighbourhood watch (between us, I'd also love to get to know if Savisaar himself is using public transportation at all and if, where and when) :)

  • Mart Mang

    02.01.2013 16:55

    Big Brother is getting lazy...

  • Joao Rei

    03.01.2013 12:16

    Knut, ease a little on the conspiracy theories... The need to track movements makes total sense from a public transport planning point of view. One of my biggest fears when they announced free public transportation was that they wouldn't be able to correctly evaluate anymore which routes are more used. If they are still able to track every person where they enter and leave, they will be able to better accomodate more people by increasing frequency of buses/trolleys.

  • avatar

    knut_albers

    03.01.2013 19:59

    "If they are still able to track every person where they enter and leave, they will be able to better accomodate more people by increasing frequency of buses/trolleys." Uhm, they only track where the folks enter, not where they leave (or they do it silent without user involvement [read without user's consent]). Statistical surveys can also be made in an anonymized form and require no total surveillance, but representative random surveys would be also sufficient enough (and are less costly). One don't need to RFID chip its residents whose data can be fetched across the city, wich is theoretically the case on the EPC chips used. What comes next? A true RFID implant by birth for all seasons? For the sake of the environment, certainly. Some vip clubs in Saint Tropez actually already tried that (and horribly failed), but that's not the government though, and can not be imposed to anyone involuntary.

  • Observer

    04.01.2013 18:00

    Of course it isn't free, the people will end up paying when Tallinn city council starts bleeding cash to finance this.