"Operations like this show that the benefits of the EIB’s operations are quite tangible on the ground," said EIB president Werner Hoyer. “The mission of the EU Bank is to improve people’s lives through the transactions it performs; I think that helping to improve local public transport is a very good way of doing that. If citizens can travel faster and more comfortably, that improves their lives, even if they don’t always realise it.”
The €100m in finance is part of an approved amounting to €450m, the remaining part of which will be signed over the course of 2017.
The EIB’s support for this second phase of the extension comes on the back of a previous EUR 450m loan provided in 2011 for the first phase of the West Metro, which will enter into service in early 2017. The extended track will have a total length of 7 km, adding five stations to the line between Matinkylä and Kivenlahti in Espoo.
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