Tallinn hands out 80,000 transport cards

TALLINN - Tallinn City has distributed 80,000 new transport cards starting from Sept. 21, the Tallinn municipality reported.

Approximately 16,000 people have already started using these cards for driving.

As reported, the City of Tallinn will fully switch to electronic tickets starting from January 1, 2013.

The city of Tallinn will phase out paper tickets and ticket-punchers in public transport and replace it with a ticket sales system based on non-contact cards starting from next year.

Initially, for the public convenience, previous ID ticket system will also be in force.

There will be a validator by every door of public transport vehicles and when the card is placed near the validator, it registers the trip and charges the cost of the trip from the card. The cards can be recharged at sales venues or the internet. A special e-ticket card can be purchased but ISIC card or pupil's cards supplied with the corresponding chips also can be used.