Finland: Why Public Transportation?

For some reason I can still remember when gas was only $0.99 a gallon. It’s obvious that this is an old memory and such prices for this commodity we may never see again. On the bright side, the premium that Americans pay for gasoline per gallon is quite lower than what Europeans pay. Finland pays €5.41 for every gallon of gasoline which translates to approximately $8.66 per gallon of gas in US currency. With gasoline prices as high as this the utilization of other means of transpiration have been implemented in Finland and also throughout many other nations in Europe. For instance, the Helsinki area in Finland has a pretty good public transport system that includes buses, trams, ferries, local trains and a subway/metro. Trains are generally the best way to travel between cities in Finland. They're clean, safe, reliable and deliver their travelers to a variety of destinations. There are different types of trains: local commuter trains, intercity trains and the super fast Pendolino trains. It is also common to take a train from Helsinki to Moscow and St. Petersburg Russia on a daily basis for those who work or have affairs abroad. Trains and trolleys in Finland have also adapted and improved over the span of their usage. Restaurants, bars and a place to park your car to travel with you have all been incorporated on the modern trains in Finland. I think that as fossil fuel supplies continue to get lower and prices continues to rise public transportations such as the kind we see in Europe will become more prevalent in the United States as well as the amount of people who choose to utilize public transportation system.

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2008/04/european-gas-prices-and-you-thought-350.html

http://finland-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/public_transportation_in_finland

[pictures of public transportation in Finland]