Explor­ing Oulu’s Pub­lic Trans­port: A Ride Across the Region

Arriv­ing in Oulu by plane or train and not sure how to get to your onward des­ti­na­tion? Or just want­i­ng a ride to the shops? Oulu Region­al Trans­port, known local­ly as Oulun seudun liikenne (OSL), is here to help con­nect you to where you need to go.

OSL says they are com­mit­ted to deliv­er­ing a pub­lic trans­porta­tion sys­tem that is both clear and user-friend­ly. OSL also aims to make pub­lic tran­sit acces­si­ble and appeal­ing to all res­i­dents and vis­i­tors across the region.

The OSL web­site has exten­sive infor­ma­tion on it, so be sure to check the linked pages, or find the home­page here.

A Region­al Net­work with a Uni­fied Vision

OSL oper­ates across a broad area con­tain­ing sev­er­al munic­i­pal­i­ties includ­ing Oulu. Cur­rent­ly across these areas, the fares are based on cus­tomer cat­e­gories rather than dis­tance trav­elled.

There is a set fare per cus­tomer cat­e­go­ry, regard­less of how far you intend to trav­el. One fare amount is valid for a peri­od of 90 min­utes, giv­ing trav­ellers time to get con­nect­ing bus­es if required.

How Does it Work?

Find the Right Bus → Get­ting on the Bus and Buy­ing Your Tick­et → End­ing your Jour­ney

Find­ing the Right Bus

In order to use the bus ser­vices in Oulu, you will first need to fig­ure out which bus stop you wish to leave from and which bus line you will need to use.

The OSL app has a handy ‘Trav­el Guide’ sec­tion that can help you locate your near­est bus stop on a map or input your to and from des­ti­na­tions to find out where the clos­est stops are. You can also see the bus timeta­bles and routes on the OSL web­site.

Once you have decid­ed which stop to wait at and which bus num­ber you need, you will then have to keep a look out for the bus arriv­ing.

In Fin­land, bus­es will only stop if you request for them to stop by putting your hand out as a sig­nal. It is impor­tant to do this in advance of them arriv­ing to the stop, so the dri­ver has time to slow down and pull into the stop.

If it is dark, for exam­ple dur­ing the win­ter, it is advis­able to have a reflec­tor to help the bus dri­vers to see you, or you could use the torch fea­ture on your phone to be more vis­i­ble.

Get­ting on the Bus & Buy­ing your Tick­et

After the bus has stopped, you will need to get on the bus at the front doors, even though the mid­dle or rear doors may also open to allow pas­sen­gers off.

You can pay the dri­ver with cash, but the fare is high­er when paid this way. See the applic­a­ble sin­gle-jour­ney fares.

If you are not pay­ing with cash, there is a machine by the door that you will use to make your pay­ment. There are mul­ti­ple ways to use this machine.

1. Con­tact­less: You can sim­ply select the con­tact­less option, tap your card on the con­tact­less read­er and the pay­ment will be tak­en direct­ly from your account. One tap is valid for a 90-minute peri­od to allow you to change bus­es, how­ev­er you will still need to tap your card on the sec­ond bus to val­i­date your trav­el (Make sure to use the same card or you will be charged twice!) More infor­ma­tion about using con­tact­less can be found on the OSL web­site.
2. Via Trav­el Card: You can pur­chase a phys­i­cal trav­el card and either load cred­it onto the card or pur­chase a sea­son tick­et. If you have a trav­el card, it is tapped to the con­tact­less read­er in the same way that a con­tact­less card would be. More infor­ma­tion about the trav­el cards can be found on the OSL web­site.
3. Via OSL App: You can also buy tick­ets via the OSL app. You can buy sin­gle tick­ets, tick­ets for 1–7 days or sea­son tick­ets of 30 or 90 days. If you have a tick­et via the app, you will need to open the tick­et and scan the QR code with the machine. More infor­ma­tion about tick­et pur­chas­es via the app can be found on the OSL web­site.

End­ing your Jour­ney

Just like indi­cat­ing to the dri­ver that you want to get on the bus, you have to inform them you want to get off to the bus too. In order to do this, you need to first be pay­ing atten­tion to the stops and take note when your stop is next.

Some bus­es have visu­al dis­plays to show upcom­ing stops, some have announce­ments for upcom­ing stops, but some do not have either, so it is help­ful if you have some idea of where you want to go.

Once your stop is next, you will need to press the but­tons locat­ed through­out the bus to inform the dri­ver you would like them to stop. If some­one else has already pressed the stop but­ton, you do not need to press it again.

After the bus has stopped, you can exit from any of the doors and enjoy your onward jour­ney.

Spe­cial Pas­sen­gers: Pushchairs, Pets, Bicy­cles and Stu­dents

If you are trav­el­ling with a child in a pushchair/stroller, you can enter the bus using the mid­dle doors to avoid get­ting stuck by the front door. You also may not be required to pay a fare. More infor­ma­tion about bring a pushchair/stroller on the bus can be found on the OSL web­site.

Pets are also allowed to trav­el on OSL bus­es in many cir­cum­stances. There is cur­rent­ly no extra fare for pets, but the pas­sen­ger trav­el­ling with the pet will need to buy a tick­et and they are respon­si­ble for ensur­ing the pet is well behaved. More infor­ma­tion about pets on the bus can be found on the OSL web­site.

You can also trav­el on the bus with your bicy­cle. You are still liable to pay a fare and cur­rent­ly there is also an extra charge for bring­ing your bike on the bus. You will need to pay the dri­ver the fare, includ­ing the charge first, and then enter with your bike using the mid­dle doors. More infor­ma­tion about bicy­cles on the bus can be found on the OSL web­site.

Stu­dents may also be able to get a dis­count­ed fare once they have ver­i­fied their stu­dent sta­tus with OSL. This can be done in a num­ber of ways: check how to ver­i­fy your stu­dent sta­tus on the OSL web­site.

Inclu­sive and Acces­si­ble Trans­port

OSL empha­sis­es inclu­siv­i­ty, offer­ing spe­cialised trans­port ser­vices for indi­vid­u­als with lim­it­ed mobil­i­ty. These ser­vices are tai­lored by munic­i­pal­i­ty and fea­ture vehi­cles equipped with acces­si­ble seat­ing and space for mobil­i­ty aids.

Dri­vers are trained to assist pas­sen­gers, ensur­ing a smooth and dig­ni­fied trav­el expe­ri­ence. More infor­ma­tion about these ser­vices for the Oulu region can be found on the City of Oulu’s web­site (only in Finnish, you may need to use your brows­er tools to trans­late).

A Brand for Every­one

The OSL brand rep­re­sents more than just transportation…it’s a sym­bol of region­al uni­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty. With a clear visu­al iden­ti­ty and a mis­sion to serve every­one, OSL con­tin­ues to encour­age greater use of pub­lic trans­port as a sus­tain­able and con­ve­nient choice.

Hap­py trav­el­ling!

Text by: Sophie Platt