"Public transfer and taxis" City Public Transport Tip by eriste

Helsinki has well organised public transfer, buses, trams, metro, local trains.

Metro route is simple : letter Y, first 11 stops then 3 stops at both sides.
Metro is very reliable. Only if someone has jumped under metro the traffic can be closed for an hour. It has happened to me three times after they year 2006 and fourth time there were some technical problems . There is usually announcement and text of the next station, but sometimes it is wrong. so dont trust it blindly, sometimes it is false and comes one station too late.

Trams are not so relaible. 3B and 3T are the most popular routs. Sometimes three trams come one after another and sometimes half an hour with no tram.

Local trains take you also to some near by cities. Other trains further.

Public transfer works over 20 hours a day although most routes stop earlier or start later.

Official taxis are all reliable and always with tax-meters (except with very long trip 50-100 km or so the price should be agreed on advance). But it is not cheap.
In some European cities you should use taxi only in case of an emergency (like Prague Czech Republic). At least in one European City you can use only some taxi companies (Stockholm Sweden use only Taxi Stockholm or another one Kurir (?) ). Tallin, Estonia is also a problem.
In Helsinki there is no problem. A man from New York said to a finnish taxi driver that in Helsinki taxi drivers speak better English than in New York, must be true. Taxis are not cheap but Finland is an expensive country. An example: close to midnight from the Airport to City Centrum July 2010: 38 Euro.

There are also some wild taxis but they can be real danger, not to be recommended.

Mode: AROUND
Type: Other