FAQ

All Kotka region transport buses are visible in real-time in the journey planner.

Weather, traffic, or other conditions may slow down the journey. The times indicated at stops are estimates based on average travel times. During low traffic, the bus may arrive earlier than expected, while during rush hours, it may be delayed. In the journey planner, stop times are updated according to the bus’s progress. The times shown in printed schedules indicate the earliest possible departure from the stop.

You can collect the Kotka region public transport timetable booklet from service points, libraries, or buses. A detailed list of distribution locations can be found at the bottom of the city-specific page in the “Timetables and Routes” menu.

Select your desired stop from the map in the journey planner or enter the address in the search field and choose the stop from the map.

If a driver fails to stop at a bus stop after you’ve waved your hand, it might be because the driver didn’t notice your signal due to other traffic. To ensure the bus stops, it’s important to raise your hand well in advance to catch the driver’s attention. Keep your hand raised until the bus has activated its indicator lights to signal that it’s stopping.

During dawn or dusk, it’s a good idea to enhance your hand signal with a reflective bus card holder or the light from your mobile phone screen to make it more visible.

Eating and drinking on the bus is not allowed. The purpose of the restriction is to ensure that the buses are kept clean.

Lost travel cards found on the bus will be delivered to Service Point Ruori (Kustaankatu 2, Kotka). For other items forgotten on local transport buses in the Kotka region, you can contact the respective transport operators directly. Contact details of local transport operators in Kotka, Hamina and Pyhtää for lost property enquiries.

A €1.50 fee (cash only) is charged for transporting bicycles and non-folding kickboards on the bus. The bicycle or kickboard must be held on throughout the journey. They may be carried if there is available space and the driver deems it safe for passengers. Please note that large shopping bicycles are not allowed. Folding bikes and small kickboards that fit in the foot space can be taken on board free of charge.

Calm and harmless pets can travel on the bus with their owners at the driver’s discretion, free of charge. Pets must be kept in a carrier or in the passenger’s foot space, ensuring consideration for other passengers. No seat is reserved for the pet.

You can buy a Waltti travel card at service and sales points.

The card is ready to use immediately. You can also order a personalised travel card for yourself or a child under 17 from the Waltti online shop. Please note that when ordering online, the card will be delivered to your home address and may take several days to arrive. The cost of a new card base is €5.

You can top up your Waltti card at service or sales points. Service points include Ruori (Kotka), Pyhtää Library, and Rinkeli (Hamina), and topping up at these locations is free of charge. Customers only pay for the ticket products loaded onto the card.

At R-Kioski (Sammonaukio), a service fee of 3.06% + VAT is applied to the value of the product being loaded.

For bus top-ups, you can load the same period as previously on your card (no zone changes or additions are possible) or add more value. A €2 service charge applies for bus top-ups, payable in cash.

You can also top up your travel card via the Waltti online shop for free, either without registering or by creating a user account. By registering, you gain access to more services, including the ability to link multiple cards to your account for easy top-ups. Your past purchases will also be visible in your account. Registration is simple and requires only an email address and password.

The card is valid for local transport in the Hamina, Kotka and Pyhtää areas.

You can also use the value loaded on your travel card on public transport in other Waltti cities.

A season ticket is only valid in the area where it was purchased.

Ticket prices are based on zone-based pricing, depending on whether you travel within one or more zones. In the Kotka region, there are four charging zones:

• Zone A: Pyhtää and Huruksela area
• Zone B: Kotka local transport and the Huutjärvi-Siltakylä area
• Zone C: Hamina urban area
• Zone D: Hamina Pyhältö area

Starting from March 5, 2025, the Kotka region will have two fare zones, which follow municipal boundaries.

• A City of Kotka
• B City of Hamina and Pyhtää

When traveling outside the zone covered by your ticket, you need to purchase a value ticket that covers the entire travel area. You can do this by selecting “exception trip” on the bus reader and choosing the desired zones. In this case, the entire journey must be paid for with a value ticket.

You need to visit a service point with your card, where the incorrect zone will be replaced with the correct one. The wrong zone cannot be corrected in the online store.

A personal card can only be used by the cardholder.

A holder-based card can be used by anyone belonging to the same or a cheaper customer group. The customer groups for a holder-based card are only child and adult.

If the card is lost, a personal card allows the value or season ticket to be transferred to a new card. A holder-based travel card is like cash, meaning the lost card cannot be blocked, and its tickets cannot be transferred to another card.

A holder-based card cannot have a season ticket loaded onto it, and it works only as a value ticket. It also cannot be ordered from the Waltti online store, but it can be recharged.

• A Waltti card can be purchased either as a personal card or a holder-based card. A season ticket is always personal.
• A personal card can only be used by the person in whose name the card was purchased. On the other hand, a holder-based card can be used by anyone who has the card.
• Even a holder-based card is purchased according to age group, meaning an adult cannot travel with a card bought for a child. However, children from the same family can use the same card.
• A child can travel on an adult’s card, but in this case, the adult fare will be charged for the child’s ticket as well.
• The value on a holder-based card can be used by multiple people from the same or a cheaper customer group at the same time: when boarding the bus, you need to tag the card as many times as there are people traveling.
• The value on a personal card can also be used to pay for the travel of several people from the same or a cheaper customer group, as long as the cardholder is also traveling with the group on the same journey.

• You can load a season ticket (30 days, 90 days, or 360 days) or value onto a Waltti travel card.
• When you load a ticket onto your travel card, the tickets are not available in the Waltti Mobile app, and vice versa.
• 90-day or 360-day season tickets are available only after 5.3.2025

• With a season ticket, you can travel unlimited within the validity period of the ticket. If you use the bus almost every weekday, for example, for commuting, the season ticket is a more affordable option for you.
• Value tickets load a specific amount of money, which is used as the card is used. It’s worth loading value onto the card if you use the bus occasionally, or at most a couple of times a week.
• You can have both a season ticket and value loaded onto the same card at the same time. If both a season ticket and value are loaded, the card will primarily use the season ticket, unless you request otherwise through the bus reader (exception trip button).
• In addition to a season ticket, you can load value onto your card if you want to pay for your friend’s trip, if you need to travel to a zone that is not covered by your season ticket, or if you want to ensure that you have enough balance in case you forget to load a new season ticket before the current one expires.

You can have both value and a season ticket loaded onto your Waltti card at the same time. When you load your card at a Waltti store or service point, you can choose whether to load value or a season ticket. If your card has both a season ticket and value loaded, it will prioritize using the season ticket.

You can check the last valid day of your season ticket and the remaining balance of your value at the bus reader when using your card.

You can also ask the driver about your card’s status or visit a service or sales point with your card.

In the Waltti online shop, you can check both the validity of your season ticket and the balance of your value.

• You can get a student discount on the tickets loaded onto your Waltti travel card by visiting a service or sales point with your Waltti card and student ID. You can also update your student status in the Waltti online store using your own online banking credentials. The student status can be updated on the card for up to one year ahead.
• In the Waltti Mobile app, you can identify yourself as a student using your banking credentials and verifying your status through the Opintopolku service. See the instructions.
• If you are under 17, the junior group will be the most affordable option for you.

• A secondary education student (high school, vocational school, etc.) who has been granted KELA’s school transport subsidy for travel exceeding 10 km, can load a KELA-supported season ticket onto their Waltti travel card via the Waltti online store or service points.
• Please note that KELA’s school transport subsidy cannot be loaded at R-kioski.
• It is not yet possible to load KELA-supported tickets in the Waltti Mobile app.
• See instructions for loading the KELA-supported ticket.

• If your Waltti travel card is a holder-specific card, the senior status can be updated at a sales or service point.
• Your personal travel card will automatically recognize senior prices based on your date of birth.
• Senior-priced tickets are not available in the Waltti Mobile app.

• Yes, you can. If you pay for your journey with value loaded onto your card and use the bus again within one hour, your second journey will be free. However, the card must still be used at the reader, even though the journey won’t be charged.
• In Waltti Mobile, the transfer time is 90 minutes for single tickets. The ticket must be used at the reader for all trips within the transfer time, even if the journey is not charged.

Re-stamping with a season or value ticket is not possible within 2 minutes of the previous tap.

• If it is a personal card, contact the Ruori service point. Ruori acts as the lost property office for lost cards.
• If your card cannot be found, it can be deactivated and the remaining products, such as value or season tickets, can be transferred to a new card. The price for a new card is €5. You can pick up a new card to replace the lost one not only at Ruori but also at other service points.
• A holder-based travel card is like cash, meaning the lost card cannot be deactivated, and the tickets on it cannot be transferred to another card.

You can buy single tickets on the bus using a contactless payment card or cash. The prices are based on the zones, just like for value and season tickets.

You can order a personal travel card for yourself or for a child under 17 years old living in your household who does not yet use identification services.

You can purchase both a season ticket and a value ticket for the same card, or choose one of the ticket products. Please note that for online orders, the card will be delivered to your home address, and the delivery may take a few days.

Yes. You can find more information about contactless payment. Please note that with contactless payment, you can only pay for one person’s trip.

You do not receive a receipt for contactless payments on the bus, as the charged price is calculated in the backend system based on the trips you made during the validity period of the ticket.
You can check your payments, trips, and print receipts via the customer portal for contactless payments. Enter your payment card details on the customer portal login page. For mobile wallet receipts (e.g., Wallet), you can request them by emailing joukkoliikenne@kotka.fi. Remember to include the last 4 digits of your bank card from the mobile device (they are not the same as those shown on the bank card).

There can be several reasons for this, including:

• The card asks for a PIN. In this case, the card needs to be used in a point-of-sale terminal, where you can enter the PIN, such as in a store. The bus reader cannot accept a PIN.
• The payment card does not have contactless payment functionality.
• The reader was unable to read the card for some reason. Try presenting the card to the reader again.
• The payment card has expired.
• The contactless payment feature is not available on the bus.
• The payment card has insufficient funds.
• The security limits on your payment card have been reached. You can adjust your security limits in your online banking.

The malfunction of contactless payment or the absence of a contactless payment device on the bus does not entitle you to free travel.

If the contactless payment does not work, the journey can be paid for using a mobile ticket, Waltti card, or cash (with a maximum of a €20 bill).

• The phone or other mobile device does not support the payment app.
• NFC (Near Field Communication) is turned off.
• No payment card has been linked to the app. If there are issues adding the payment card, you can inquire with your bank.
• The required authentication information has not been entered.

The absence of a contactless payment device on the bus or the failure of contactless payment does not entitle you to free travel.

The bank places an authorization hold on your bank account before the charge is made. The authorization hold is valid for at least two hours. The amount in the authorization hold is usually different from the actual price of the trip.

Yes. During the validity period of the ticket, you can transfer between buses free of charge within the zones you purchased. When transferring to another bus, follow the same procedure as when paying for your first trip.

In case of unclear situations, the customer should contact Kotka region transport customer service via email at joukkoliikenne@kotka.fi.

Typically, a PIN code is required for the first transaction with a new payment card. Therefore, the first payment cannot be contactless unless the card has been activated through online banking.

The validity period is displayed on the bus’s card reader. The driver cannot check the validity period for you.

Yes, cash remains one of the accepted payment methods.

The fare is determined based on the time the ticket is scanned, not the scheduled departure or estimated stop times of the bus. A single ticket cannot be used if it has expired. We recommend allowing some extra time to ensure the ticket remains valid, even if the bus arrives later than expected at the stop.