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Oslo Metro to remove ticket machines and place card readers on board trains

The Local Norway
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Oslo Metro to remove ticket machines and place card readers on board trains
Grønland T-bane station in Oslo, 2010. Photo: Kjetil Ree/Wikimedia Commons"

Ticket machines are set to disappear from Oslo Metro (T-bane) stations, to be replaced by card readers onboard trains.

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As well as the ticket machines, card readers for the reisekort travel card currently installed at stations will be removed, Aftenposten reports.

Ruter, the company which operates Oslo’s Metro, is to install replacement machines on board trains and has already begun work, according to the report.

“Ticket machines are perceived as not very user friendly and they are being used less. The system is being updated and the use of machines is so low that it is unsustainable to replace them with new ones. The machines will therefore no longer be in use after May 31st next year,” Ruter’s marketing director Ellen Marie Rogde said in a press statement.

Each of the 345 carriages on T-bane trains will be equipped with three card readers, and will be in use from spring 2021.

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“The existing card readers for travel cards (reisekort) at the Metro stations belong to the same data system as the ticket machines. They must therefore be removed when the ticket machines are replaced,” Ruter’s press spokesperson Cathrine Myhren told Aftenposten.

The new card readers will be the same as those currently used on buses and trams in the city.

Work to install the card readers will cost 7 million kroner, with no additional purchasing cost given that the machines have already been acquired by the city for used on other parts of the public transportation system.

They represent a long-term saving given that their maintenance costs are lower than the older machines, Aftenposten reports.

Once the old machines are taken out of use, tickets will still be available via Ruter’s app and service points and customer service centres in Oslo, as well as at some convenience stores and shops. Journeys can also be paid for using the pre-pay reisekort.

READ ALSO: How to save money on transportation in Norway 

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