Ruter

Ruter AS

Parent		Oslo Municipality (60%) Viken County Municipality (40%)
Website	www.ruter.no

Ruter AS is the public transport authority for Oslo and Akershus counties in Norway. Formally a limited company – 60% of its shares are owned by the Oslo county municipality and 40% by that of Viken – it is responsible for the administration, funding, and marketing (but not direct operation) of public transport in the two counties, including buses, the Oslo Metro (T-banen i Oslo), Oslo Trams (Trikken i Oslo), and ferry services. Ruter also holds agreements with Entur concerning the regulation of fares on local and regional train services operated within the two counties.

Operation

The operation of services is performed by other companies:

• Bus routes are subject to
  Nettbuss, Norgesbuss, Schau's Buss, and Nobina Norge
  .
• The metro system is operated by Sporveien T-banen while the tramway is operated by Sporveien Trikken, both subsidiaries of the municipally owned Sporveien Oslo AS.
• Ferries are operated by
  Tide Sjø, Bygdøfergene Skibs, and Oslo-Fergene
  .

In 2011, 285 million journeys were made on the Ruter network.[2] This is much more than the other regional public transport authorities together, and roughly half of the total number of public transport journeys in Norway together.^{[citation needed]}

Sporveien

.

Ticketing and fares

Single, 1-day, 7-day, monthly, and yearly tickets are available. Ruter operates on a

Flexus

ticket system was introduced in 2011.

Service

Metro

The Oslo Metro is the

with 101 stations of which 16 are underground or indoors.

The first rapid transit line was the

stock.

Tramway

Main article:

Oslo Tramway

The tramway (

(at the terminus of lines 17 and 18).

Commuter rail

The commuter rail has eight services which all operate from Oslo. The system is operated by

. All but one line extend into neighboring counties.

Lines 400 and 500 (along the Østfold, Trunk and Drammen Lines) serve the suburban areas of Oslo, and have 30 or 15-minute headways. The other six lines cover towns further away, and normally have 30 or 60-minute headways. Line 450 serves Oslo Airport, Gardermoen.

The services are financed by the

until 2015. The Ruter tickets are also valid on NSB regional trains, within their geographic area of coverage, which gives more departures to choose from, when going between the most important stations.

Bus

Bus transport is the dominant form of public transport in Akershus, and there is also an extensive bus network in Oslo and in the surrounding area of Viken. Multiple companies operate the busses, including Sporveien's subsidiary, Unibuss.

Ferry

The main ferry route connects the peninsula of

to the Oslo Islands.

Non-Ruter public transport

Several public transport services in Oslo and Akershus are outside the jurisdiction of Ruter, mainly because they are self-financing or because they represent intercity transport. NSB operates both intercity and regional trains to several parts of the country, though these normally have restrictions on transport within Oslo and Akershus.

(the Airport Express Train) and several airport coaches, all that are outside Ruter's jurisdiction, despite the airport being in Akershus.

History

Ruter was created on 1 January 2008 as a merger between Oslo Sporveier and Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk, that were the public transport authority for Oslo and Akershus, respectively.

Akershus

Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk or SL was the public transport authority for bus and ferry transport in Akershus from 1973 to 2007. SL was organized as a

, with a third each. The company planned, marketed and organized the public transport in Akershus, but did not operate any buses or ferries—instead it issued contracts to operating companies based on public service obligation.

The company was created in 1973 in part to help coordinate the public transport around Oslo. The metropolitan area of Oslo stretches beyond the city limits into the county of Akershus. This had created problems coordinating public transport between the counties. All buses operated on contract for SL were uniformly painted green and SL took care of marketing and customer relations for the bus companies. The companies that operate for SL at the time of the merger was

.

Oslo

Oslo got its first public transport with Kristiania Sporveisselskab building a tramway in 1875. By 1894, it was joined by Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei. The two private companies were supplemented by the municipal Kristiania Kommunale Sporveie 1899, but since they were operating the least desirable routes, the city chose to sell the unprofitable company in 1905. In 1924 the concessions of the two private tramway companies expired, and the municipality created Oslo Sporveier to take over all tramway operations in the capital.

The company started with bus transport in 1927, including from 1940 to 1968

have also been operated by the company. The company gradually took over all suburban tramways in Oslo and Bærum, and eventually also operated all bus routes in Oslo. Oslo Sporveier painted their buses red to differentiate them from those operating in Akershus. The first PSO contracts were issued in 1991, and in 1997 it was reorganized as a corporation with operating subsidiaries.

References

External links

• Ruter #