The Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council ( fi, Pääkaupunkiseudun yhteistyövaltuuskunta, YTV, sv, Huvudstadsregionens samarbetsdelegation, SAD) was a co-operation agency operating in the

Helsinki Metropolitan Area Greater Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin seutu, Suur-Helsinki, Swedish: ''Helsingforsregionen'', ''Storhelsingfors'') is the metropolitan area surrounding Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It includes the smaller Capital Region (''Pääkaupunkiseutu' ...

, now replaced by HSL and HSY. The organisation had a few responsibilities, most notably regional public transport and waste management. It was subordinated to the city councils of the four participating cities ( Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen). Furthermore, transport cooperation also included neighboring municipalities of

Kerava Kerava (; sv, Kervo) is a town and municipality within the Uusimaa region of Finland. The municipalities of Vantaa, Sipoo and Tuusula are adjacent to Kerava, which is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The town has a population of () an ...

and Kirkkonummi.

Economy

The Metropolitan Council used €155.6 million in 2002 and its income was €160.3 million. Traffic and waste management make up 97% of its expenditure. About 70% of the income consisted of customer fees for public transport and waste management.

Transportation management

The Metropolitan Council grouped together different Public Transportation companies operating in the Metropolitan area, such as HKL, operator of the metro,

Suomenlinna Suomenlinna (; until 1918 Viapori, ), or Sveaborg (), is an inhabited sea fortress the Suomenlinna district is on eight islands of which six have been fortified; it is about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finla ...

ferry service and bus services within the Helsinki region, and published a timetable of all public transport quarterly, and provided a

public transport route planner A journey planner, trip planner, or route planner is a specialized search engine used to find an optimal means of travelling between two or more given locations, sometimes using more than one transport mode. Searches may be optimized on different ...

service on the Internet. It also ran ticketing and prices, fixing prices at the same level for all public transportation, irrespective of method or transportation company. These services are now (since January 1, 2010) provided by

Helsingin seudun liikenne The Helsinki Regional Transport Authority ( fi, Helsingin seudun liikenne, HSL; sv, Helsingforsregionens trafik, HRT) is the inter-municipal authority that maintains the public transportation network of the nine municipalities of Greater H ...

. Most tickets were bought using the electronic travel cards, a

smart card A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...

service run by Buscom. These travel cards supported two types of payment for trips: If the same travel card was loaded with both value and period, period took priority when applicable to the current zone. If the period ran out, or the passenger travelled to a zone where the period was not applicable, value was used instead. The travel cards were bought through certain shops and Public Transport Information Centres. The Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council managed the following zones before 2010: * Helsinki * Espoo and Kauniainen * Vantaa * Regional traffic 1: Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa * Regional traffic 2: Espoo, Kauniainen, Vantaa, Kerava and Kirkkonummi (excluding Helsinki) * Entire region: Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen, Vantaa, Kerava and Kirkkonummi

Mission

The mission of the Metropolitan Council was to improve the capital area's development by high quality public transports, waste management and air protection. In addition a "development planning unit" has the purpose to increase cooperation between the four town-administrations involved, particularly regarding planning of land use.

External links

Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council
– A now defunct site
HSL – Helsinki Regional Transport Authority

HSY – Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority

Journey Planner
{{in lang, en Espoo Organisations based in Helsinki Politics of Finland Vantaa Economy of Helsinki