Deputy Mayor Andrei Novikov said on Wednesday that drivers will be relieved of the duty of selling tickets to be able to better focus on driving and to better stick to timetables.

He said that an arrangement whereby no paper tickets were sold for cash was tested in the public transport system of Tallinn this summer and no problems arose. 

"Tallinn already has a ticket selling system in use which enables users of public transport to buy e-tickets to all Uhiskaart cards issued in Estonia, QR tickets using a smartphone and on the internet, as well as e-tickets for a period of one hour at the validator next to the vehicle's front door using a contactless bankcard," Novikov said.

"Forgoing paper tickets is also environment-friendly and consistent with the course towards green capital chosen by Tallinn to run for the title of European Green Capital 2022," he said.

The biggest customer group buying paper tickets in Tallinn's public transport system are tourists.

Guests of the city will be able to obtain a QR ticket on paper at vending machines at the airport, at the central bus station, at the Viru bus terminal, and at terminals A and D of the passenger port. 

In 2019, costs incurred by the city's public transport company TLT in relation to the sale of paper tickets by drivers amounted to about 175,000 euros. The sum total consisted of costs related to cash collection, rent of equipment, and extras for drivers for the handling of cash. On top of that come one-off expenses, such as those related to the acquisition of printers for public transport vehicles.

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