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Oslo City Council to make public transport cheaper with new ticket

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
Oslo City Council to make public transport cheaper with new ticket
Oslo will announce plans to make public transport in the city cheaper when it unveils its budget on Wednesday. Pictured is a bus outside Jernbanetorget Station. Photo by Gunnar Ridderström on Unsplash

A single ticket on Oslo's public transport network could become up to 40 percent cheaper as part of a new initiative that will be unveiled when Oslo City Council presents its budget on Wednesday.

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Oslo City Council will set aside up to 200 million kroner to try and make public transport in the Norwegian capital of Oslo cheaper, public broadcaster NRK reports. 

On Wednesday, the city council will present its budget for next year, where it will announce that funds will be set aside for making public transport a more affordable option. 

"We are launching a new ticket product. It is good news for the city's population," Environment and Transport Councilor Sirin Stav told NRK. 

A new ticketing option will reduce the cost of a single ticket the more somebody uses public transport. The current price of a public transport ticket on the Ruter app is 39 kroner. 

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However, the new flexible ticket will benefit those who use public transport in the city frequently, but not often enough to make the 814 kroner monthly ticket worth it. The new scheme has been tested by 400 Ruter customers since February. 

NRK reports that the ticket will track how many singles you have bought in the previous 30 days. If you make less than 21 trips on Oslo's bus, tram and metro network, the new ticketing option will be cheaper than a monthly ticket per journey. 

The Transport and Environment councillor said the new ticketing option was the result of increased demand for flexible solutions following the rise to prominence of the home office. 

"There has certainly been a demand for more flexible tickets. Ruter has worked on this over time. They first had to launch a new app, and now these new, flexible tickets are finally coming," Stav said. 

On average, the new flexible scheme will allow passengers to save around 20 percent, and up to 40 percent in certain cases. 

When introduced, if the budget presented on Wednesday gets the green light from the city council, the new flexi-tickets will be available in Zone 1 of Oslo and parts of Bærum. 

Extending the scheme further out of Oslo would require Viken County Council to put money on the table as Ruter is partly owned by the respective county councils of Oslo and Viken. 

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