Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Tourism, Transport

"Interactions between our cities' residents are becoming increasingly intense, from closer business operations to visiting a doctor in the other city," the deputy mayor of Helsinki said, adding that for this reason, the two cities's partnership is not only natural but also indispensable.

Kolvart, too, said that cooperation with Helsinki is essential also in order to facilitate the use of public transport in both cities.

"Developing the twin cities and a shared urban environment also means that we must better combine our public transport systems," he said. "We must also actively coordinate our efforts in developing a shared ticketing system in the two cities."

In May 2018, Tallinn and Helsinki signed a memorandum of cooperation, the purpose of which is to foster cooperation between the two capital cities. The memorandum lists mobility and transportation as a priority area, which among other things includes integrating the two cities' ticketing and mobile parking systems. 

While public transport cards presently look similar in Tallinn and Helsinki, they work on completely different principles. The technical solution of the Tallinn public transport card is much more modern than that used in Helsinki, and the transport authority of the City of Tallinn will have to wait until its counterpart in Helsinki HSL can switch to a similar technology, Finland's public broadcaster Yle reported.

Director of the Helsinki region department at HSL, Mari Flink, was not yet able to say when this objective could materialize; however, Tiit Laiksoo, head of ticketing division at Tallinn transport department, said that the two cities' transport agencies are aiming to make the public transport card available and usable both in Tallinn and Helsinki already in 2021.