Oulu buses and prices

I had not travelled as a paying passenger in a bus for a long long time.

My first seven years in Oulu, when I was working at the University, I travelled by bus.

When I arrived here in 1984, the fare from the Kampitie doorstep to the University (route 33), right across town, was just 3 marks (about € 0,50). Then I started to use a bus pass and the cost per journey was hardly € 0,10 as I used the pass many times a day.

I was not very happy with the weekend service and wrote a blistering article about it way back in 1991.

When I started using the car, first a VW Beetle, then a great Opel and then several other wonderful cars till my latest 1992 VW Vento, I hardly used the bus.

I used the service extensively when grandson Samuel was a toddler (1998-2000). But, in Oulu, we have a great rule that when accompanying a toddler in a push chair, neither has to pay the fare. I used to criss cross the city with him looking at all sorts of things as machines, cement churners, road rollers, dump trucks, cranes, as he used to be fascinated by them.

Finally, the other day, I gave my car for some work. I realised the bus stand was just outside my favourite garage, and there is a direct bus home.

Once on board I paid the fare - € 2,90.

An increase from € 0,50 to € 2,90 in 25 years seemed a bit steep to me. My pension vis-á-vis my salary in 1984 has not gone up by the dame ratio!

I cannot say whether the bus service has improved or not based on a couple of trips.

I can say the new technologies that are in play - bus arrival schedules at major bus stops along the route, the RFID bus cards (I was the actor in the first video of BUSCOM, reading the Financial Times in the Technology Village Cafe), and the modern bus fleet, certainly seems to indicate that it is a good service.

But worth the € 2,90 for a trip. Certainly not!