Public transport on connections course

Photo: Mati Hiis / Õhtuleht

New train timetable introduces idea of hauling small town folks to express stops. Same with Järva County buses. 

«In the schedule in force since January 1^st, carriage to connections is fully employed at the Tartu-Valga line. For bulk of departures, it is also arranged at Tartu-Koidula and Aegviidu line,» said Norbert Kaareste, sales and marketing manager at Elron.

As for the timetable switched to at end of May, the company hopes all travellers at Narva trains to be able to make connection, at Tapa, to the Tartu express. «For every Tartu and Narva train stopping at Aegviidu, people would be carried to and fro by an Aegviidu train,» explained Mr Kaareste.

Quick connection

According to the order, connection time is 5–15 minutes and, as with the current Lelle-Pärnu train, the passengers are able to wait for the next departure in a warm train. «Having reached Aegviidu, in an electric train, in 5–15 minutes a diesel train will depart, from there to Tartu. For the diesel train, people can wait sitting in the electric train,» said Mr Kaareste. He assured such travels would be supported by ticket sales rules; in near future, the Internet solutions will be ready.

The same system – of taking people to connections – is in use in Järva County. «We have a buffer spot, Mäo passenger terminal – a meeting place for county lines and long distance buses travelling the Tartu-Tallinn and Pärnu-Rakvere highways,» said Harri Lepamets, CEO of Järva County public transport centre. In a day, 140 buses stop at Mäo from the terminal, 30 times a day a bust takes people to Paide, located at five kilometres. 

«Well there are complaints at having to wait 20 minutes, but we cannot meet every bus and people don’t exit from every bus either. But it’s not too bad, the facilities are warm, a shelter from the wind,» said Mr Lepamets. He admitted, however, that people would surely prefer direct lines. «The connections do come with some discomfort and our folks are not overly accommodating with such matters,» he noted. Mr Lepamets is convinced people would be more satisfied with the connections if one ticket would do, not having to buy a new one in every bus.

«Sure, an all-Estonian ticket system would be quite complicated and would only work with one ticket valid in all buses,» thinks Mr Lepamets.

Even so, Mr Lepamets sees hosts of issues arising with such an order of things – for instance: will the commercial line operators hop on board? How about the subsidies for county lines? What will be the guiding legislation?

«I guess for all these reasons things have not gotten too far,» said Mr Lepamets. Should a unified ticket system still be created, Järva County public transport centre would definitely be joining up. «Only it should be settled, with great care, how the money is distributed,» underlined Mr Lepamets.

In an interview to Postimees last week, Tallinn Technology University professor Dago Antov said that, in the future, bus passengers will have to be reconciled to more connections. «Transport systems vary: some connect larger hubs and are very fast; others take passengers to connection spots with these,» he explained.

Time matters

The lines taking folks to connection spots may have few passengers and be less comfortable. According to Mr Antov, in Estonia’s circumstances this can be arranged using trains; however, it must be carefully planned so the connections would be as comfortable and quick as possible. «For instance, connections between trains is not a problem in itself; what is vital, however, is the time factor, that it happen in five minutes. Which, in turn, means that the logistics must be arranged so people must not run through a station or bypass platforms,» he explained.

As assessed by Prof Antov, Estonian public transport should definitely have a unified ticket system: to get from Mustamäe, Tallinn to Annelinn, Tartu, one ticket would do; afterwards, the ticket money would be distributed between the companies. 

Tallinners’ advantages

•    Tallinners have free train ride till Laagri, Männiku and Vesse stops.

•    For those purchasing electronic ticket to ride out of town, 90 cents will be covered; for those buying ticket on paper – €1.

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The state in preparations for single system

In various places in Estonia, as advised by the state, contactless bus cards have been employed; these could be cross-used.

In 2010, economy ministry ordered a competence centre Eliko study, which proposed Estonia use ISO 14443A standard compliant contactless cards, offering a passenger card numeration system. «Standardisation of technical level might be compared to an agreement that computers used in some system have similar drive units, enabling to read certain types of data carriers,» explained Ingmar Roos, public transport head at Road Administration.

Cards complying with the said standards, and the numbering system, are already in use in Tartu and Jõgeva Counties, Tallinn, Harju County, Pärnu-Sindi lines and suburban services. «By this, preconditions have been created for, in the next stage, to create ticket and payment solutions, cross-usable between multiple regions,» said Mr Roos. He underlined that the basis of it all is agreements between organisations regarding common tickets and distribution of ticket income; for secure electronic communication between the systems, data exchange protocols need to be developed.

According to the official, the standard chosen is the most used contactless card solution in Europe. «Meaning: to read such type of cards, a large variety of ticket sales devices are produced; also, the passenger card performs come at reasonable price,» explained he.

Regarding the future, the official said that use of contactless cards is probably about to spread in Estonia, having many advantages with paper tickets. «Using these will take less time (in case tickets are sold in the vehicle); use of cash decreases; on their basis, unified regional ticket systems can be introduced; a better overview is available on trips; etc,» listed the official.