Bus fares waived for hours after payment system failure

Bus travel was free for several hours Monday morning in multiple Finnish cities, including Kuopio, after a widespread outage in the Waltti ticketing and payment system, Yle reports.

The disruption, first detected around 7 a.m., prevented passengers from paying via apps such as Vilkku. Drivers allowed riders to board without payment during the downtime.

Jukka Räsänen, a public transport planner for the city of Kuopio, confirmed the issue affected all cities using the Waltti system. The cause remains unknown, but service was restored shortly before 9 a.m.

Räsänen noted such large-scale failures are rare and said no unusual congestion was observed, attributing the lighter load to the summer holiday period. The Waltti system is used in several cities, including Joensuu, Kotka, Oulu, and Tampere.