The Helsinki Transport Authority raises prices, ends free school trips | News
Tax responsibility for traveling school groups will be transferred to the municipalities in 2024. Next year, HSL will also raise some ticket prices and lower others.
The Transport Agency of the Helsinki region (HSL) announced on Tuesday that part of the ticket prices will increase from the beginning of next year.
The prices of AB and BC tickets will increase. A 30-day ticket for the AB or BC region costs 70.60 euros or 58.80 euros as an automatically renewing subscription. At the same time, the price of single tickets will rise from 2.80 to 3.10 euros.
However, the prices for those traveling on longer distances will decrease.
Tickets covering the entire HSL area, classified as ABCD, will drop significantly from January 1. The price of a one-time ticket drops from 5.70 euros to 4.50 euros, while a monthly ticket costs 91.40 instead of 118.90.
HSL rationalized the price drop by saying that “the longest journeys have the greatest potential to attract motorists to switch to public transport through pricing, which would also reduce traffic emissions”.
No more free school group tours
The regional public transport authority also confirmed that it will stop offering free rides to school groups, which has been in place since 2019. The benefit will end in 2024, when the nine HSL member municipalities in the capital region will take over the payment responsibility. prices of field trips.
Deputy mayor of Helsinki on Sunday Nasima Razmyar (SDP) criticized the plan to stop such free rides. Liisa Pohjolainenformer head of the city’s Department of Education, also questioned the decision, saying free rides have helped increase equality.
HSL has also asked the Ministry of Transport and Communications for a higher public transport fine by increasing it to 100 euros from the current 80 euros fine, which has remained unchanged since 2007.
The transport authority estimates that it loses 10-25 million euros in box office revenue every year due to ticket evasion and that a higher fine would reduce the upward pressure on prices by 1.5 percent.