The city is five islands. We are the bridges.
Vorlenna sits in the Serelian Sea — Serel Hav in Lennic — a ring of five islands around one sheltered sound: Kenmar at the centre, Ruuvik to the north, Tallis on its cliffs to the south, Solmaa and the fortress islet of Miren out to the east. The climate is maritime and moody: bright, long summers, fog in autumn, and westerly gales that the timetable has learned to respect.
Lietvirk — literally "movement works" — was founded in 1947, after the harbour winter of 1946 froze the private ferry companies out of business and the city resolved that no islander should ever again be stranded by an account book. We have been a single public authority ever since: one fare, one map, one promise. Today that promise is Viis vaia, yks linna. — five lines, one city.
We speak to the public plainly, in both of the city's tongues. Every station carries its Lennic name and its English one, in that order, because that is the order the city learned them.
Lietvirk in numbers
- 212,000
- residents served across five islands
- 38 m
- journeys carried last year
- 5
- lines across three modes
- 20
- stations and piers
- 96%
- of departures on time in 2025
- 05:30–00:30
- the network’s working day
A short history of getting across
- 1652
Vorlenna is chartered as a free harbour on the Serelian trade route; rowed ferries link Kenmar with Ruuvik and Tallis.
- 1871
The first steam ferry, the Solkin, begins scheduled crossings of the Ruu Sound — twelve minutes, twice an hour, weather permitting.
- 1909
The Kenmar Tramways Company electrifies the shore route. The green cars have run the promenade ever since.
- 1947
After the harbour winter of 1946 strands the islands for six weeks, the city merges the Harbour Ferries Board and the Kenmar Tramways Company into one authority: Lietvirk.
- 1963
The Tallis bridge opens and the tram crosses the strait for the first time. Southbound ridership triples in a year.
- 1988
The M2 Mirvai opens between Kolnes and Vesnes — Vorlenna’s first metro, built shallow beneath the market streets.
- 1996
The Ruu Sound tunnel completes the M1 Vorvai from the university to South Point. The last winter icebreaker ferry is retired with full honours.
- 2014
One ticket for everything: the korti card unifies fares across metro, tram and ferry.
- 2024
The F2 Ruuvai converts to battery-electric vessels, charged from the tide turbines off Kolnes.
How we are run
Lietvirk is owned by the City of Vorlenna and answerable to its council. Director General Ilme Sarvo leads a staff of around 640 — drivers, skippers, engineers, station staff and the small office above the Keskraan ticket hall. Our accounts, board minutes and punctuality figures are published quarterly and posted in every station.
Fares cover a little under half of what the network costs; the city funds the rest, on the long-standing principle that the boats and trains are part of the streets.
The mark
Our symbol — the island ring, the swell, and the summer sun in the north-east — has flown from every mast and hung in every station since 1947. The ring is the city, the wave is the sound that divides it, and the sun sits north-east because that is where light first touches Vorlenna on midsummer morning.
You will find it on vehicles, tickets, piers and this website. If it is not there, it is not us.
A few words of Lennic
Every name on the network is built from a handful of old Lennic roots. Learn these and the map starts to read itself: Suurvor is the grand harbour, Ruuvik Randa the north-island shore, Etelnes the south point.
- vor
- harbour
- vik
- landing, cove
- ken
- bridge
- randa
- shore
- raan
- square
- maa
- fields, land
- nes
- point, headland
- lin
- fortress
- tal
- hill
- ruu
- north
- etel
- south
- ves
- east
- kol
- west
- sol
- sun
- mir
- market
- kir
- church
- lehta
- park, grove
- orsa
- old
- nyva
- new
- kesk
- middle
- suur
- grand
- vai
- line, way
- liet
- movement, journey
- virk
- works, service
- korti
- ticket
- yks
- one
- tav
- day
- mena
- month
- metra
- metro
- ratta
- tram
- havlot
- ferry (sea-boat)
- hav
- sea
- len
- island
- linna
- city