Six decades of seafaring between capital cities – the Helsinki-Tallinn route turns 60 years
This summer, it will be sixty years since the passenger ship MS Vanemuine sailed
from the port of Tallinn towards Helsinki, reopening the ship traffic between Finland and Estonia. The route had been cut off for two decades due to World War II, but this journey on the 7th of July 1965 restarted the travel and restored the sea connection, which has only grown in significance over the decades.
During that first month around 4,000 passengers made the trip by ship. Since then, the passenger numbers have multiplied: today, the route has more than 8 million annual passengers.
The route is vital to tourism, business travel and cargo transport alike, and it
connects the two capital cities closely together. The number of trips has grown significantly over the past six decades. In the 1960s, the route had one departure a day, whereas now we have about 12 ships departing to Tallinn every day.
The anniversary will be celebrated in the West Terminal 2 on 7th of July. The pop-up stand in the terminal will showcase archived materials from Yle and some of the big milestones in the Helsinki-Tallinn route. Tallinn will also celebrate on the same day: a quiz will be held at the Old City Harbour and the evening will be finished off with an open-air screening of the Finnish film 100 litraa sahtia.
More information about the 7th of July celebrations in Tallinn’s Old City Harbour is available on the venue’s website