Welcoming Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the “Public Transport: Moving People, Moving Cities” World Congress on May 21, 2007

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You are very welcome to hold this World Congress here in Helsinki. Effective public transport is important to all of us, and it is also significant to society in many ways.

We are all aware of the pressing matter of climate change, and that most of it is caused by human actions. People can also reduce or even stop this frightening change by changing their own behaviour.

Approximately one fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions is from traffic. Traffic is also the fastest growing emission source. The main reasons for this are increasing car use and air-traffic. Thus, each of us can affect the climate change through our personal transport choices. Effective and well-organised public transport gives people this opportunity for choice. Public transport can efficiently replace private car use and in this way reduce emissions and improve road safety.

Public transport has also other positive impacts in addition to the environmental effects. Good public transport supports equality both between regions and among people. Effective, reliable and accessible public transport brings the possibility for travel to all social groups. A quick glance at a Helsinki tram or bus in the morning shows the differences between the sexes and age groups. Women, young people and the elderly are overly represented. Is this because of money or intelligence, or maybe both - I’ll leave this for you to decide.

Finland is a relatively large country, but it has a small population. We have had a long period of internal migration: the capital region attracts as well as a couple of other larger towns. At the same time, rural areas are becoming depopulated and services there are moving further and further away. Good land use policy and effective public transport could make the living of Finnish people even more comfortable and cheaper. In our sparsely populated country, public transport already has a significant role in providing possibilities for transportation, in accessing basic services, going to work or education both in towns and in rural areas. The ageing population and meeting their needs also impose greater challenges for public transport.

What then are the hopes and the future? As private car use further increases, public transport has to work hard to remain an attractive alternative. Here in Finland, for example, public transport accounts for just under 40 percent of all journeys. According to research, however, people in the Helsinki region are quite satisfied with public transport and its standard. How can its use be increased? I hope that you, the experts, here today, can give us some advice on how to achieve this goal.

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Although you will be working hard in this Congress, I also hope that we could meet each other in trams, buses, metros or local trains of our beautiful capital. I wish the 57th World Congress every success.