Bus drivers stopped selling tickets in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Drivers will not resume selling tickets when the pandemic is over.
There are several reasons for removing on-board ticket sales. Before the coronavirus pandemic, tickets sold by bus driver accounted for less than one percent of all tickets sold. However, on-board ticket sales increased dwell times at stops. When tickets are not sold on buses, journey times will shorten.
The idea is also to harmonize practices across different modes of transport. Ticket sales on commuter trains ended in summer 2017. On trams, ticket sales ended in January 2018.
Our tickets are available from various sales channels, also for visitors and other occasional users of public transport. Tickets are increasingly purchased using the HSL app available for smartphones. You can buy single, season, day and zone extension tickets using the app.
You can pay for tickets purchased via the app by card or have them charged to your phone bill. Read more about the HSL app
You can also use the HSL card to buy single tickets. You can top up your card with value (i.e. money) online, at kiosks and many stores as well as at ticket machines and use the card to pay for individual journeys. Read more about the HSL card
Single tickets are available from ticket machines and in Helsinki also from parking ticket machines. You can also buy single and day tickets in advance from many sales outlets, kiosks and stores. Use the sales point search to find your nearest ticket sales point. Link to the sales point search
Advance purchase tickets are valid from the time you show the card to a card reader at the start of your first journey. You must use the tickets within two years from the purchase.
No changes to boarding
Our Executive Board decided to discontinue on-board ticket sales in October.
Although tickets are no longer sold on buses, passengers boards buses as before. In most cases, you board a bus at the front. You must show your HSL card to a card reader or the HSL app ticket display to the driver.
In other words, bus drivers continue to control that passengers have valid tickets. Orange trunk route buses are an exception: you can board the buses using the middle doors, without showing your ticket to the driver.
You can ask drivers about routes, timetables and ticket as before.