The bus station will remain a departure point for local transport until summer 2025 – changes in the routes to the city centre and Karhula from 9.12.

13.11.2024 | Since June 2024, Kotka’s local transport has had an exceptional route to the city centre due to the renovation of the Kotkansaari local transport terminal. The changeover to the normal route was to take place when the new local transport terminal was completed.

However, the renovation of the Karhula infrastructure will cause additional route deviations for public transport from 9 December onwards, when timetables will not allow travel to the local transport terminal on Kotkansaari. The return to the normal route will therefore only take place when the summer timetables come into force at the beginning of June 2025.

“The background to the new route deviations is the closure of a section of Ahlströmintie in Karhula, so that the work on the Karhula infrastructure changes, which is due to be completed before summer 2025, can be completed. The detour route that will come into force with the closure will take more time for buses in Karhula, and so the routes in the centre of Kotka must be as short as possible,” says Esa Partanen, Kotka’s public transport manager, explaining the delay.

“Keeping the routes in the city centre short is better achieved with the local transport terminal from the current starting point, Kotka bus station. In Karhula, the section of Ahlströmintie between Vesitorninkatu and Aumakatu will be completely closed to vehicle traffic from Monday 9 December, when the changes to public transport routes will also come into effect,” Partanen says.

In addition to Karhula, there will also be changes to public transport routes elsewhere in Kotka.
“Most of the route changes that will come into effect on 9 December are due to the closure of Ahlströmintie in Karhula, but the routes of lines 27, 27M and 27 R in the direction of Western Kotka will also be changed in the same context, as these lines have been experiencing scheduling problems on their current routes. In the city centre, the changes will mainly be felt on arrival, and for line 1 also on departure from the city centre. In Karhula, the changes are reflected in the advance of many departure times and, for a few individual services, in the stops used. There will also be some timetable changes in the direction of Suulisniemi and Ylänummi,” Partanen says.

“All changes will be visible in the route guide, i.e. at kotka.digitransit.fi and in Waltti Mobile by the end of November. On our website jonnejaminne.fi the new timetables will be visible by 5 December,” Partanen continues.

“We have tried to minimise changes to the timetable times. However, there are so many changes to the routes in the city centre and Karhula that new printed timetables will be produced for the timetables valid from 9 December. Unfortunately, due to the tight timeframe, the new printed timetables will not be distributed until January. The changes will also be announced at key stops and on buses”.

Long list of changes

Schedule changes from 9.12:

Lines 1 and 1A Kotka – Hamina: Karhula departure times to Hamina will be 5 minutes earlier.
Lines 5B, 5C, 5R Tiutinen – Karhula: arrival times to Karhula will be moved 3–5 minutes later for the majority of services.
Line 6B Suulisniemi – Karhula: some departures from Karhula and Suulisniemi will be brought forward by 5 minutes.
Line 9B Ylänummi – Karhula: sunday departures from Karhula and Ylänummi will be 5 minutes earlier.
Line 9J Juurikorpi – Karhula: morning departures from Karhula will be brought forward by 3 minutes; in addition, some arrivals to Karhula from Juurikorpi will be delayed by 3–5 minutes.
Lines 25, 25S, 25T, 25Y City centre – Mussalo – Karhula – Suulisniemi (25S)/Tiutinen (25T)/Ylänummi (25Y); Departure times from Suulisniemi, Tiutinen and Ylänummi are brought forward by 5–7 minutes. In addition, for services from the city centre, departure times from Mussalo, Munsaari, Karhuvuori and Karhula will be 5 to 7 minutes earlier.
Line 37B Karhula – Mäntykangas – Ristinkallio – Karhula: arrival times in Karhula will be delayed by 5 minutes.

Lines with changes to stops in the city centre:

Lines 1 and 1A Kotka – Hamina
Line 9 City centre – Karhula – Ylänummi
Line 25S City centre – Mussalo – Karhuvuori – Karhula
Line 25S City centre – Mussalo – Karhuvuori – Karhula – Suulisniemi
Line 25T City centre – Mussalo – Karhuvuori – Karhula – Tiutinen
Line 25Y City centre – Mussalo – Karhuvuori – Karhula – Ylänummi
Line 27 City centre – Karhuvuori – Mussalo – City centre
Line 27M City centre – Karhuvuori – Munsaari – Mussalo – City centre
Line 27R Ristiniemi – Mussalo – Karhuvuori – City centre
Line P012 (Saturdays) City centre – Karhula – Huruksela
Line P015 (Saturdays and Sundays) City centre – Karhula – Rantahaka

From 9.12. onwards, line 1 will no longer run via the market square when leaving the city centre, but the next stops after the bus station will be Kotkankatu and the railway station.

Lines 1, 1A, 9, 27, 27M, 27R, P012 and P015 will arrive in the city centre from 9 December from Kotkankatu directly to the bus station, the stop before the station will be the Keskuskoulu stop, i.e. these buses will no longer run via Satamakatu, Ruukinkatu, Market square and Kirkkokatu when arriving in the city centre.
There is an exception for one morning service on line 27M: the 7.35 service will continue via Satamankatu to Ruukinkatu, where it will change to line 27.

On lines 25, 25S, 25T and 25Y from the city centre, from 9 December onwards, the buses will no longer run from the bus station via the market square, but will leave the bus station immediately in the direction of Puistotie.

Lines with changes to the stops in Karhula:

Bus 9J Juurikorpi – Karhula; on weekdays the 6.50 bus from Karhula will have a stop north of Vesitorninkatu from 9.12., and the intermediate stops between Karhula Vesitorninkatu – Otsola Kalamiehentie will be omitted from this service.
Bus 35B Huruksela – Karhula; for the weekday morning service, the stops at Tikankatu and Ratakatu will be omitted on arrival at Karhula.