Some texts from museum:

Show your tickets

The first tickets were coin-shaped metal tokens. Later conductors moved on to punched or stamped paper and cardboard tickets. Monthly passes were introduced in 1939. The adoption of ticket validators in 1968 allowed passengers to stamp their tickets themselves. The travel card replaced the cardboard monthly passes and multi ride tickets in the early 2000s. Now we are getting used to zone-based tickets that are independent of city limits.

As the number of citizens and cars in Helsinki increased, it was estimated that the capacity of the street network was not sufficient for both public transport and private cars. The construction of the metro also aimed to ensure that public transport would not lag behind cars in terms of speed. After decades of planning a metro line started to operate from the city centre to Itäkeskus in 1982. The single line metro of Helsinki got its first secondary line in 1998 when the Vuosaari metro line was completed. The West Metro, opened in 2017, and the extension of the metro line to Espoo are the latest changes.

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We took the tram from school to the station, from where we took the bus home. At that time, taking a seat was not allowed when you had a school ticket, and the conductor often shouted to us schoolchildren: "School tickets are not for sitting!" Well, we got up, looked at the seat under our behinds and said: "We ain't sitting on no tickets, we're sitting on seats! [Shame on us secondary school pupils.]

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My stop

Tram, bus, streetcar, bike, tube or metro - what is your choice of transport? Public transport not only transports people from one place to another, it also stirs emotions - especially when looking at the rear lights of a bus in rain and sleet. The plates and signs, the models, colours and line maps of buses and trams become part of the history of both the city and the passengers. They have obtained iconic meanings and become symbols.


At the beginning of the 20th century many adults were still illiterate, so the tram lines were first
marked with colours. Line numbers and letters were introduced alongside the line colours in 1926.
The use of line colours ended in 1954. However, colours link to minds and emotions. What would the
metro be without its orange seating? Soundscape also affects experiences. The familiar voice of the
announcer or the rattle of trams bring back memories instantly.
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I remember a tram ride with an ice cream cornet. We stepped on board at Mannerheimintie and I had a big ice cream cornet in my hand. When the tram jolted forward, the top ball rolled on the floor. I was naturally grief-stricken. Back then, they probably didn't have those 'no eating' signs on the doors...