Things just got a hole lot better

In a series of moves indicative of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, City Hall has announced that just about every tax and fee imaginable in the city is set to skyrocket in the new year.

The Centre Party-dominated city government (or council, whichever one it is that makes these decisions), led by their supremo, mayor Edgar Savisaar, first revealed that land tax in the city would more than double from the 1st of January. This discouraging move would be in line with their vision of having everyone relocate to the city centre from the outskirts if it weren't for the fact that they're also putting up downtown parking fees. Shooting up by as much as 50% in the Old Town, the new prices - in the rest of the city at least - have been defended by Vice Mayor Jaanus Mutli as 'still being cheaper than in Helsinki'.

This in turn could be in line with City Hall's policy on roadworks: the 2008 budget has seen spending on the city's pot-holes-and-no-gutters infrastructure slashed. Perhaps the idea is that if people are stubborn enough to live on their own property in the suburbs and still drive into the city, they will have to put up with bad roads and high parking prices when they get there.

On the other hand, if they idea is to clear the roads of cars and get people onto public transport (which will still be travelling on the terrible roads they won't be spending nearly as much money on) it seems strange that the other major announcement was that ticket prices for buses, trams and trolleybuses would also be going up (yet again) in 2008, by as much as 20%.

Never missing an opportunity to pass the buck and/or take a swipe at the government, our Jaanus explained this away as being the result of rising fuel prices and the state's decision to increase excise duties. He also added that drivers are demanding pay rises and that the city has to fund the purchase of new vehicles without any of the help that other towns and counties receive from the central government.

However, in news that would have brought sweet relief to about three people in the country, Mutli revealed that the list of people who can travel on public transport for free will be expanded from New Year's Day - to include those Estonians who were involved in the clean-up operations following the Chernobyl disaster. Won't they be sitting pretty... providing they're in good health, living in the city centre, don't own their own property and don't have a car they need to park on the street.

You wait half an hour for a bus...

Someone from Eesti Päevaleht Online with a video camera has been asking Joe Public what he thinks of the city's public transport. Turns out that apart from one young mother who only hopped on a bus to satisfy her tiddlywink's curiosity and a couple of people who end with "...but things seem to be improving", almost everyone has the same complaints.

1. They smell.

It's not very charitable to say so, but boy are there some stinky people in Tallinn: either the great unwashed or the homeless, often with the added pleasure of their bags full of empty beer cans as they head for the recycling points to claim their 50 cent refunds. The heady mix of dirty bodies, dank clothes and all manner of odours emitting from them does not a pleasant environment make on the city's buses, trams and trolleys when, in the case of the latter two especially...

2. They're dirty.

But then I suppose dirty people lead to dirty buses and what not. It doesn't help that the majority of them were made in the heyday of Soviet production when 'Made In Czechoslovakia' was still being stamped on everything. The trolleybuses come in for particular criticism on this count (except the snazzy new ones). It's the kind of thing where I always wash my hands as soon as possible after riding in them - even if it's the middle of winter and I was wearing gloves the whole time.

3. They're often late.

Or indeed early, as I keep finding with bus no. 8 now that they've changed the timetable but seem to have forgotten to inform the drivers. Sod's law though: on the days I set out earlier for the bus stop in case they do come early, they turn up 5 minutes after they're meant to.

4. They're always full.

Not that there's much you can do about it, I suppose. But in combination with the other three above, it does get to a straw-that-broke-the-camel's back kind of point. You've been waiting for ages for the thing, probably in the cold and drizzle, and when it turns up it looks like it hasn't seen a cleaner in years, everyone is packed in like sardines, many of them smell like they are sardines, and the man you're squashed up against has the worst case of dandruff you've ever seen. Which flakes off his scalp in your direction every time the doors open.

I would probably also add to the list that 5. the tickets, for what you get, are overpriced to buggery. I baulk at the €2 you pay to hop on one of Helsinki's trams, but given how efficient, comfortable and sparkly they are, the fact that the ticket is only twice as expensive as a trip on one of Tallinn's rusting 1960s trolleys is a small price to pay.

http://www.epl.ee/video/402794