The Helsinki smart mobility scene keeps getting hotter and hotter, as more companies choose to pilot and launch their new services and products here. One new Mobility as a Service company, Perille, has just launched a service connecting the Finnish public transportation with that of the Estonian capital Tallinn. The company aims to become the most comprehensive and widely used journey planner service in Northern Europe.
Perille originated when Petri Räsänen, now CTO and director of the board, found himself constantly traveling all around Finland for his previous work. He noticed that it was quite laborious to compare different long-distance public traffic options and decided to create a simple prototype to make it easier. In 2015, the simple prototype grew into Perille, an interactive journey planner bringing together the Finnish long-distance transportation and the local traffic in the Helsinki region. Perille will gradually also add the local traffic of other Finnish cities in its service.
“The persisting challenge of public transportation has been that prices, schedules and route information are scattered on numerous websites, making it difficult to compare different options and combinations. At the same time, new transportation operators and services are constantly entering the market. We wanted to offer travelers one journey planner that brings together all this information and options,” says Olavi Paananen, CEO of Perille Mobility Services.
Perille now enables users to compare the prices, routes, schedules as well as environmental footprints of buses, trains, flights, ferries and taxi services. Users can also compare these options to their own car.
First Tallinn…
Perille has just recently added a new travel destination to its service. The journey planner now includes the ferries and flights connecting Helsinki to its southern neighbor Tallinn, as well as Tallinn local transportation. Travelers can easily search and compare transportation options and prices as well as buy tickets for multimodal, cross-border, door-to-door trips from the Helsinki region and the rest of Finland to Tallinn.
“The connection between Helsinki and Tallinn is extremely popular and operated by several ferry companies. We wanted to extend the Perille service beyond the Finnish borders, and Tallinn was the natural first step for us. We are also looking forward to covering the entire Estonian long-distance and local transportation system in the near future,” says Paananen.
Helsinki Business Hub has supported Perille with the piloting and development of the service.
“Perille is a great example of an integrated mobility solution that cross not only city borders but country borders, making moving from point A to point B easy for citizens,” says senior business advisor Tommi Rimpiläinen from Helsinki Business Hub.
…then the rest of the Nordic and Baltic region
Perille Mobility Services now employs three full-time and eight part-time employees. The company is not only working on connecting all of Finland to all of Estonia – it is also adding a feature, which will soon enable travelers to purchase their tickets directly from the Perille journey planner. In addition to traditional public transportation, Perille will eventually also include new transportation services, such as car sharing and bike sharing, which are also becoming increasingly popular in Helsinki and other cities.
“Finland is a trail-blazer in developing smart mobility, and the Helsinki region is teeming with great collaboration opportunities for piloting new services. But we are also setting our sights beyond Finland and beyond Estonia. The next step is to expand to other Nordic and Baltic countries. Our goal is to become the most comprehensive and widely used journey planner service in Northern Europe,” Paananen says.
The free Perille journey planner is available in app stores and at www.perille.fi.
Perille now enables users to compare the prices, routes, schedules as well as environmental footprints of buses, trains, flights, ferries and taxi services. Users can also compare these options to their own car.
Text: Anu Jussila
