Minister pleased with the decision to extend the Helsinki metro

Susanna Huovinen, Minister of Transport and Communications, is pleased with Espoo City Council's decision in favour of the metro line being extended from Helsinki to Espoo. Espoo is part of the greater Helsinki conurbation, lying to the west of Helsinki itself, and its 230,000 inhabitants make it the second biggest city in Finland.

"We have been waiting for this decision for a long time" says Ms Huovinen. "The Espoo metro is one of the keys to developing public transport in the Helsinki metropolitan area."

"The Government has stated several times that there is a need for this project, and that the Government is ready to take part in meeting the costs", she adds.

It is estimated that the total costs for constructing the metro will be about 500 million euros. The state is expected to cover about 30 per cent of the cost, which will be about the same amount of finance as it provided for the line east of Helsinki.

Ms Huovinen will bring the matter before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy this autumn to discuss the Government's share of the costs.




Further information:
Mr Perttu Puro, State Secretary, tel. +358 9 160 28325 or +358 40 779 3436
Mr Mikko Ojajärvi, Director of Infrastructure Unit, tel. +358 9 160 28574 or +358 400 438 520
Mr Juhani Tervala, Director-General of Department of General Affairs, tel. +358 9 160 28482 or +358 50 552 7260