Double-decker buses brought a record number of passengers to the Tallinn–Tartu route

Lux Express’s double-decker buses brought a record number of passengers to the Tallinn–Tartu route, in just four months, over 15% more people traveled between the two cities than last year. A new record was also set this year for passengers traveling with bicycles.

In June, July, August, and September of this year, the number of passengers on Lux Express’s domestic routes in Estonia grew by nearly five percent compared to last year, surpassing 800,000 for the first time. This growth was driven primarily by the Tallinn–Tartu line, which carried nearly 280,000 passengers over the four-month period.

According to Ingmar Roos, Member of the Management Board of Lux Express, this growth confirms that the €6 million investment has delivered the expected results, and the new 63-seat Lux Express Superior buses introduced to the Tallinn–Tartu line at the end of May have been well received by passengers.

“While the summer 2024 passenger numbers were influenced by factors such as railway traffic disruptions caused by track renovations and events related to Tartu’s status as European Capital of Culture, this year the main reason for growth is the larger seating capacity of the newly added double-decker buses and passengers’ growing preference to travel on them,” Roos explained. “We can see that the 500 additional seats per day have solved the previous problem, where many passengers were left without tickets during peak times.”

Passengers have also praised Lux Express’s decision to introduce a new line in mid-June — Võru–Põlva–Tallinn — which allows people from southern Estonia to reach Tallinn by 10 a.m. on weekdays. There are now six direct daily departures between Võru and Tallinn, and two direct daily departures from Põlva to Tallinn.

“Thanks to the double-decker buses, we were able to reassign the freed-up buses to other routes, making intercity bus travel even more convenient,” said Roos. “This had an immediate effect — an almost 8% increase in passenger numbers on the Võru–Tallinn line compared to last year.”

On other domestic routes in Estonia, Lux Express’s passenger numbers were mainly affected by the modest summer, which had an impact on many sectors of domestic tourism. On those routes, summer passenger numbers remained at last year’s level or decreased by a couple of percent.

“We clearly saw how the poor weather influenced people’s holiday plans,” Roos explained. “If a traveler had no reason to head from Tallinn to Pärnu, Haapsalu, Narva, Kuressaare, or Kärdla in the morning because of bad weather, they also had no reason to return in the evening or in the following days. There were far fewer people making these shorter seaside and holiday trips this summer — and that was directly reflected in our results.”

A new record was also set this year by passengers traveling with bicycles on Lux Express buses. While from January to the end of September last year the buses carried around 11,400 passengers with bicycles, this year the number reached nearly 13,000. Unstable summer weather did not deter cyclists significantly: from May to the end of September last year, about 10,000 cyclists traveled between cities by bus, whereas this year there were 600 more.