Future blog | What will the future of water transport look like in Helsinki?

Senior Advisor for smart mobility, Pekka Koponen from Forum Virium Helsinki, ponders the future of water transport in Helsinki and the challenges and opportunities related to the accessibility and electrification of the archipelago. He also talks about his close relationship with the archipelago and spending time on the waters in his hometown.

Taking the tram to the sea

There are not many capital cities in the world where you can see the horizon of the open sea from a tram window. The same can probbaly be also said for smaller cities. In Helsinki, it can be done on tram line six on the way to Hernesaari. Though the sea is a central part of the spirit of Helsinki, it remains to be discovered by many residents and tourists alike.

I have often had the pleasure of witnessing these moments of discovery when I have taken people, even people born in Helsinki, sailing or on connecting ships to the islands, and witnessed the enchantment of the archipelago taking them over. A few hundred metres south of the Kaivopuisto ice cream stand may do the trick. The City of Helsinki’s goal is to increase the use of archipelago and maritime services, i.e. provide opportunities for these discoveries, and Forum Virium Helsinki wants to support this target using our own means.

Image: Pekka Koponen’s archive

Today, competition for people’s time is tough, and getting to the archipelago may seem cumbersome. People may also be under the impression that sailing is expensive and special skills are needed at sea. There is some truth to this, but it is precisely in Helsinki that the sea is more accessible than in many other places in the world.

Boarding crafts to the diverse and unique islands depart from the city centre. You can buy a fine classic day cruiser for a few thousand euros or you can become a part of a crew without owning a boat. Shared use boats and training have also been made available. There are many harbours and yacht clubs, and what is unique about Helsinki is that you have quick access to the archipelago without having to travel in the harbour area or tackle delta currents for a long time. The sea is important; it is used to transport goods to Helsinki and abroad, and recreational use of the sea has a long tradition. The sea is the countryside for residents of Helsinki.

I have always been aware of the sea, ever since I was a child. Because I grew up in Kruununhaka, my playground was in Tervasaari, and I remember my uncle’s oily face peeking out from the depths of the engine room at Halkolaituri as he tried to make an old yawl seaworthy again. At my grandparents’ place in Uutela in Vuosaari, the rock I used to pretend was a boat dashboard still sits at the shoreline.

Family trips in the archipelago on our motorboat are even fonder memories. The happiness of my parents, the sense of carefree timelessness and the barren nature have left their mark. These trips were, of course, not without wind, rain and some expletives hurled at the sea. I also remember a time when I became violently seasick and tried to vomit into a moving bucket while inhaling diesel fumes. That left an indelible impression on me, but what I cherish the most as time goes by is the ability to access those happy childhood memories by pressing my cheek against the bedrock warmed by the sun. The archipelago in the Gulf of Finland is the best place in the world.

In my twenties, I purchased a Hai boat together with two friends and spent the summers studying the archipelago. Later, I continued these outings on my own folkboat or the wooden schooner Inga-Lill as part of the activities of the marine tradition association Stella Polaris. Finnish boat building and maritime history are therefore also close to my heart. Nowadays, the time spent on sailing is mostly consumed by my child’s sailing hobby, i.e. transporting dinghies.

Accessible archipelago through cooperation

Fortunately, in my work at Forum Virium, I have also been able to promote accessibility of services in the Helsinki archipelago. Helsinki has a Maritime Strategy, which was adopted in 2019 and aims for 2030. Its implementation has had its own challenges: the typical problem in Finland is an ambitious strategy combined with almost non-existent resources. A few key people in the City have made a great contribution thanks to their own versatile expertise.

As part of the implementation of the Strategy, the City has requested Forum Virium to develop and utilise digital services, among other things. Our experimental activities are also targeted at maritime destinations, and whenever possible, we have tried to use the resources allocated for development projects on them.

The archipelago has diverse high-quality entrepreneurship, but this same diversity is also a challenge. The season is short and the activities have little time to expand. Digital platforms are an ideal tool to combine forces in this type of environment, both in sales and marketing. The Finnish Johku system has been able to rise to the occasion by enabling agile cross-selling.

Forum Virium’s input is needed when we discover a new opportunity, but the roles are still unclear. Either within the City, when drawing the line between the public and private sectors, or between competing companies. Often, all parties feel that cooperation would benefit everyone, but no one has the desire or ability to take on the responsibility, or the greater risk, of leading the way. Forum Virium may take the lead for a while, but an owner must be found either within the public sector or within companies after the experiment.

As regards maritime Helsinki, this is precisely the type of ecosystem in which responsibilities are fragmented and many small players involved. The main islands have several owners and the owner of each island puts the transport services to competitive tendering. The islands were transferred to the Governing Body of Suomenlinna, Metsähallitus and Senate Properties by the Finnish Defence Forces. City islands include Pihlajasaari, Uunisaari and Harakka. Korkeasaari is under the control of a foundation. Many smaller islands have been rented to yacht clubs and all have their own ferries. Ferry tickets are already available in the HSL journey planner, but, with the exception of the Suomenlinna and Kruunuvuori ferries, the HSL model is unsuitable for selling tickets to varied destinations, because pricing depends on the purpose of use of the island.

When it comes to maritime Helsinki, it would be excellent if we could have innovative companies offer digital tools for sales and marketing, allowing traditional players to focus on their core business, i.e. offering diverse experiences to urban people and tourists. Smart tools would also provide better data for all parties for developing services and reaching target groups. In order for business to be profitable for these digital service providers, it should be possible to adopt the same product in other cities, preferably internationally.

Low-emission water transport

It has felt natural for Forum Virium to support the City in two areas. Utilising data and digital services improves the discoverability of archipelago and waterborne services. This will be promoted by developing sales channels and making good use of data for managing seasonal and weather-dependent business.

Our second important mission is to achieve the carbon neutrality targets set by Helsinki through changing the propulsion power of ships. The most essential projects at the moment are the electrification of ships and the development of charging infrastructure. As far as infrastructure is concerned, Forum Virium also promotes this in road transport, which can be used to import models, but the investments required by vessels remain a great challenge.

As regards ticket sales for water transport, Forum Virium had a series of three-year small development projects which developed the MaaS interface for ticket sales in cooperation with operators in the sector. This included both the concept and the technical implementation. Everything was done openly, for everyone’s benefit. The idea was to create the best possible tangible standard implementation, an interface where, on the one hand, transport operators could offer tickets for sale, and on the other hand, travel chains and service package sellers could easily purchase tickets in one place. The idea was also to e.g. offer these to customers in their own language by using the WeChat app tailored to Chinese tourists. One of our goals was also to show that this type of solution is not a very large IT investment in this day and age.

An ecofriendly Callboats autonomous boat (image: Vesa Laitinen)

The interface was completed and key ferry operators were on board, but the wind was knocked out of the companies’ sails in the sales end, with the bankruptcy of MaaS Global (Whim) being the most notable example of this. The reduced numbers of tourists also made the situation more difficult, e.g. with far fewer Chinese visitors. Better timing for this is perhaps later, as the City also clarified its role in the pilot, and as a result there was no willingness to maintain this type of interface at this time. In the end, the experiment provided all parties with good insight into what the service would cost and what it offers, but no one within the private sector or the public sector was willing to take responsibility. The code and specifications are freely available, but we may have to wait for the creation of Google Tickets.

Some experiments have been carried out on electric boats, the longest-term experiment of which has been Callboats, with the main objective of offering on-demand rides, even without a driver, in the future through automation. The boats are also electric, which means Callboats is spearheading several revolutions at the same time.

Because all these new services utilise digital solutions, they provide more accurate data than before. Going forward, one important development area is the collecting of this data from various operators and then combining and analysing it for the benefit of companies and other organisations in maritime Helsinki at large.

As I mentioned earlier, Forum Virium’s agile pilot operating model has also been aimed at maritime Helsinki. One of the best examples of this is the Finnish company Bout which completed its first ‘boat Uber’ pilot in the Last Mile EU project already in 2018, and used the lessons learned to launch its current product in Paris for the Olympics and waterborne traffic on the Seine after several pivots. This was an example of admirable tenacity and ability to keep honing the product to make it better and better.

Finland has a long tradition in Olympic sailing – we have won medals since the 1920s – and Helsinki also hosted its own Olympic sailing event near Harmaja right in front of the city centre in 1952. The Paris race will be located in Marseille. Finns have good representation in several classes, so let us join our athletes in the Olympic spirit and cheer them on! At the same time, let us hope that Bout also finds success in Paris and speeds up new international business opportunities.

The Helsinki archipelago is still full of opportunities for late summer and autumn recreation, so I would encourage everyone to start their discovery!

Main photo: Pekka Koponen

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