Laurinlahti residents prefer to change to the metro in Espoonlahti and most often use services available in Lippulaiva

Bus route 147 serving Laurinlahti has not attracted passengers as expected after the changes introduced in February 2023 and the per-passenger costs of the route have been significantly higher than those of other bus routes in the nearby area. This means that there are not enough passengers on the bus route to warrant the costs. When planning bus routes, we should always look at routes from the perspective of costs as well as mobility needs.

We conducted a brief survey for Laurinlahti residents in December 2023. In the survey, we asked about the residents’ preferred interchanges to the metro as well as about their use of local services. The survey was sent to residents in postcode area 02320. A total of 417 people responded to the survey, 302 of whom told that they live in Laurinlahti. Many thanks to all respondents!

According to the responses, Espoonlahti metro station is the preferred interchange for the majority (82%) of Laurinlahti residents. In terms of services, respondents living in Laurinlahti most often use services available in the Lippulaiva shopping center (90%). In addition, people use services available in Kivenlahti as well as the Espoonlahti Sports Park quite actively (at least a couple of times a month 25% and 53% respectively), while 14% of the residents use services in Soukka at least a couple of times a month.

Following the review of the cost-effectiveness and the mobility needs that emerged in the survey, we will withdraw bus route 147 and reroute bus 158 to run via Kivenlahti metro station and Laurinlahti to Espoonlahti metro station. This means that in the future, passengers travelling from Laurinlahti  can change to the metro in Kivenlahti and in Espoonlahti.

The rerouting of bus 158 will also provide a faster connection from Tillinmäki to Kivenlahti metro station as well as transport links to the sports park in southern Espoonlahti.

Bus 158 runs every 15 minutes on weekdays and Saturdays and every 30 minutes on Sundays.

The change is included in HSL’s Transport Service Plan for 2024–2025, which will be discussed by the HSL Executive Board on 23 January. We will tell more about the changes in late January.