Just two years after seeing nine million passengers use it in a year, Helsinki port announced it had broken the ten-million barrier on 20 December when the Tallink Shuttle fast ferry Star docked at West Harbour terminal at 1330 after her two-hour crossing.

On board was Estonian grandmother Irene Reidla, who had come from Tallinn to work in Finland as a standby nursery teacher, but was met by port officials to be presented with flowers, a diploma and free tickets to travel on all the companies operating Tallinn-Helsinki, Viking, Eckerö and St Peter Lines and Tallink.

The majority of the annual traffic figures, 7.3 million, is made up of passengers going between the Estonian and Finnish capitals.

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