Lux Express is expanding the Tallinn-Tartu bus service and adding 500 new seats per day

The number of bus passengers on the Tallinn-Tartu route has again surged, prompting Lux Express to add four additional half-hour buses to the schedule. Starting in May, there will be an additional 500 seats available every day.

In the first three months of this year, Lux Express buses carried nearly 170,000 passengers between Tallinn and Tartu, which is over 10,000 more than during the same period last year. While the increase in bus travel between the two cities last year was largely due to railway construction work, the first quarter this year saw no such impact, with nearly 6.5% of passengers preferring the bus for reasons other than the railway work.

"On the one hand, the trend that started years ago continues, where people increasingly want to travel by bus between cities instead of by car. On the other hand, the growth is driven by the ongoing economic crisis. Moreover, feedback has shown that customers who previously traveled by train have simply gotten used to the comfort, entertainment, and affordable prices of the bus," explained Ingmar Roos, a member of the board at Lux Express.

Due to the growth that began last summer, organizing additional trips has become a new normal for Lux Express. In just the first three months of this year, 248 extra buses were added to the route. This means that during peak times—mainly on weekends and during rush hours, when tickets are sold out—two Lux Express buses will depart in the same direction simultaneously. Thanks to this special arrangement, nearly 14,000 passengers were able to reach their destinations on time in January, February, and March.

"On one hand, this is a good problem for the company, but on the other hand, it's a real challenge, as for every sold-out trip, we need to find both a free bus and a driver. Since it's not practical to solve such logistical crises every week, we have decided to make a groundbreaking change in the mobility market in Estonia and the Baltic region starting in May," said Roos.

The first change is the addition of four half-hour buses to the route. Previously, there were 347 weekly trips between Tallinn and Tartu, but now the schedule includes 16 additional fixed departures. The new regular trips will start in Tartu at 10:30 and 12:30 , and in Tallinn at 9:30 and 13:30.

"We are facing a very busy summer: domestic tourism is picking up, school graduations are taking place, and people are traveling to Tallinn for the Song and Dance Celebration, while at the same time, railway construction is continuing. Our innovation offers a solution to both this situation and the growing demand. Starting in May, this will allow 15,000 more passengers to travel on the Tallinn-Tartu route each month than currently," said Roos.