Espoo Master Plan 2060 blog post series: Smooth traffic is the foundation of a network city

The master plan work is about envisioning the future. What could the traffic look like in Espoo in 2060? How will the traffic affect housing and the use of services?

In our vision, Espoo is an ever-evolving, comfortable network city. Mobility is smooth and services easily accessible. Distinctive residential areas and centres will be created along public transport routes, with a diverse building stock and services to meet the different needs of Espoo residents.

Espoo is growing together with the other municipalities in the Metropolitan Area. In the early 1950s, Espoo was still a rural municipality of 20,000 residents. Nowadays, the city has more than 320,000 residents and, by 2060, the population is projected to rise to more than 500,000.

Espoo’s growth reflects the city’s success: many people want to live, work and run a business here. Growth and the development made possible by it have been part of Espoo’s story for decades, and there are no signs of slowing down.

With the Espoo Master Plan 2060, we will guide growth in a way that makes mobility and everyday life smooth for the city’s residents. Our aim is that, in the future, Espoo’s transport system will form a network that makes it easier and faster to move between different centres and residential areas.

It is important to develop the transport system as the city grows, to avoid congestion in both public transport and passenger car traffic. By transport system, we mean the entirety of different transport routes, passenger and freight transport and traffic services. 

Promoting the use of public transport is the simplest way to prevent congestion. For example, the Friday afternoon rush hour on Ring Road I is a familiar phenomenon for many. The drivers in the queue of cars between Säterinportti and Sello could all fit on one light rail. The greater the share of the growing population that uses public transport, the smoother the car travel in our city will be.

In our master plan work, we are considering how we can develop the transport system so that public transport is a genuinely viable alternative to using a private car.

In the summer of 2024, we published the draft Espoo Master Plan 2060, in which we presented our vision for the comprehensive development of Espoo’s rail network. The lines that generated the most discussion were the ones where the metro option is also being explored:

• the Kivenlahti – Kauklahti line, which was already included in the master plan for the southern parts of Espoo (2010).
• the Matinkylä – Espoon keskus – Jorvi line, which would be a completely new addition to the regional transport network.

There were still many open questions at the draft stage, which is why the lines proposed in the draft plan were only the beginning of the discussion. We received feedback from Espoo residents, neighbouring municipalities and public authorities. We are now continuing our work on the basis of the feedback and preparing a plan proposal. In this blog post, you can read about the different points of views related to the work.

All land use generates traffic flows: people travel to work, school, errands and recreational activities. Goods are also moved from one place to another. Dense land use requires an efficient and effective transport system.

For passenger transport, rail lines are more efficient than traditional vehicle transport. Roadways take up a lot of space in the urban structure, and the noise and air pollution they generate limit the potential of land use in the surrounding areas. Congested bottlenecks form in the vicinity of urban centres when larger roads are funnelled onto smaller roads.

Rail lines are used to bring the high passenger capacity fully to the core land use locations. They also help to relieve congestion on roadways as they are generally separated from vehicle traffic.

Transport system planning is a way of guiding the city’s development. The location of rail lines and the efficiency of the urban structure enable us to target growth to the right places.

Urban structure is formed, especially along the metro lines, where the denser centre area is framed by more spacious residential areas. This creates varied housing options for different kinds of people and for different life situations. Service hubs are created in centre areas, bringing basic everyday services closer to residents. This means that daily journeys to services are short and smooth, which reduces the strain on the transport system.

New rail links are always major investments. It is therefore important that rail transport has enough users. Thus, rails both require and enable dense land use.

Espoo’s urban centres contain a wide range of services that are used by Espoo residents also outside their own neighbourhoods. These include, for example, sports parks, upper secondary schools and cultural services.

A network-like and efficient transport system would make these services more widely and easily accessible to all Espoo residents. Children and young people in particular will be able to get around more easily on their own when public transport provides quick and reliable access to recreational activities and schools.

A Matinkylä – Espoon keskus – Jorvi line would connect the commercial areas of Suomenoja and Lommila, the administrative services of Espoon keskus and Jorvi Hospital. A unique chain of commercial and public services could be created along the route. The line would increase the role and attractiveness of Espoon keskus in particular. Espoon keskus would become a transport hub with comprehensive access to all parts of the Metropolitan Area.

In master planning, we have considered the improvement of access to Jorvi as a significant opportunity. Many people may think that, in an emergency, one would not walk to a metro stop, but acute patient transports account for a relatively small proportion of the hospital’s daily passenger traffic. The vast majority is made up of non-emergency patients, patients’ relatives and hospital staff. A connection from Jorvi to Espoon keskus could, at best, improve accessibility to hospital services from the rest of the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County.

In our master plan work, we are exploring several options for the basis of a network-like city. When reviewing the options, we have tried to assess different combinations of bus, tram and metro lines as comprehensively as possible. Each of the options has its strengths and weaknesses.

The different means of transport have a direct impact on what kind of urban environment Espoo will have.

• The impact of bus transport on the cityscape is modest as bus transport does not steer land use development as strongly as rail transport.
• The tram creates a ribbon-like city along the rails, where urban development is fairly evenly distributed.
• The metro mainly directs urban development into the vicinity of the stations. It creates local centres and service hubs in the station areas.

The speed and reliability of the means of transport are the most important factors when choosing a means of transport. The bus is the most cost-effective solution as it does not require major investments. However, the bus has been found to be the slowest option in the transport calculations. A strong increase in bus transport would lead to increased congestion, which would reduce the punctuality of bus services.

The metro is the most expensive option, but the fastest. It also allows for the most frequent service intervals. The metro would provide a non-stop connection between several urban centres in Espoo and Helsinki. It offers the best preconditions for the development of Espoon keskus.

The tram falls somewhere between the metro and bus solution, both in terms of cost and journey times. The tram solution includes more stops, so they are closer to the residents. However, the journey time in this means of transport is longer than in the metro. It therefore serves the residents along the route well but does not significantly improve the connections between Southern Espoo and Espoon keskus and Kauklahti.

In our master plan work, we are looking ahead to 2060. How should Espoo develop over the next 35 years to accommodate the projected growth and at the same time create a better city for all Espoo residents?

Although the idea of new rail lines may seem far-fetched at first, it is good to keep an open mind about what they will allow: smoother traffic, more accessible services and a diverse urban structure with room for both detached houses and blocks of flats.

It is also important to remember that major land use projects, such as rail lines, are long-term processes. A master plan is not a decision to implement. It is the first step that enables the actual project planning to begin. Although rail lines may seem unrealistic at this point in time, they must be included in the master plan now in order to preserve their feasibility for the future.

At the moment, we are looking for the best overall solution. We are considering many options with different combinations of bus, tram and metro lines. The work includes calculations and analyses on issues such as costs, profitability, capacity and land use.

Based on these results, we will prepare a plan proposal that Espoo residents will be able to review and comment on in 2026.

Authors: Architect Aino Hautala is involved in the master plan’s transport work as a land use planning expert. Master Planner Ruusu Vilokkinen is responsible for integrating land use and transport perspectives. Planning Engineer Daniel Golovine works as a traffic planner at Espoo and specialises in public transport.

Learn more:

• Master Planning in Espoo
• Espoo Master Plan 2060