Public transport in Helsinki

Public transport in Helsinki consists of bus, tram, metro, local railway and ferry services. The system is managed by Helsinki Region Transport (Finnish: Helsingin seudun liikenne, or HSL) and covers Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, Vantaa and the outlying Kerava, Kirkkonummi and Sipoo.

Helsinki is currently the only city in Finland to have either a tram system or a rapid-transit metro system. The city of Turku dismantled its tram system in 1972, and Finland lost the city of Vyborg to the USSR in World War II and the city subsequently withdrew its trams in 1957.

50% of commuting trips within the city limits of Helsinki are made using public transport and only 28% using a private car, while 48% of the households have access to a car. The ridership is typical to a European city, but if Helsinki were in U.S., it would have the second highest ridership after New York. Partly due to lack of trams or rapid transit outside the Helsinki Region, the ridership in other cities in Finland is significantly lower.

The Helsinki Metro, opened in 1982, was the first, and so far the only, rapid-transit metro system in all of Finland. The metro currently serves only the eastern suburbs and some areas close to the city center. For the first 16 years of its existence, the line was topologically only one straight line, but in 1998 a branch to the easter suburb of Vuosaari was opened.

The construction of the long-debated Western extension of the metro system into southern parts of Espoo was approved by Espoo City Council in 2006. As of January 2017, the 14-km, 8-station first stage of the extension, to Matinkylä, is to be opened in 2017, and the second stage, to Kivenlahti, is also under construction. Helsinki is also planning to extend the existing metro line from its eastern terminus at Mellunkylä to Östersundom, an area annexed by Helsinki in 2009 for the purpose of building a large new planned community.

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Wikipedia