Kolumbus
 |
|
| County owned | |
| Industry | Public transport |
| Founded | January 1, 2002 |
| Headquarters | Stavanger, Norway |
|
Area served
|
Rogaland |
| Parent | Rogaland county municipality |
| Website | www.kolumbus.no |
Kolumbus AS, formerly Rogaland Kollektivtrafikk FKF, is the public transportation administration in Rogaland, Norway and organised as a county agency. The agency is responsible for planning, marketing and organising the public transport in Rogaland, including buses and passenger ferries, but does not perform any transport itself. Instead it awards public service obligation (PSO) contracts to independent operators. The agency was created on January 1, 2002 and has 35 employees and offices at Byterminalen in Stavanger. All buses operated in Rogaland are branded as Kolumbus and painted green. Before Kolumbus was created, there was several smaller companies who was responsible for the transport in the different parts of Rogaland. However, because of complications with bus lines not overlapping with each other, the bus companies finally decided to unite and become Kolumbus, or Rogaland Kollektivtrafikk (Rogaland Public Transports) as it is also known as.
The companies that have contracts with Kolumbus are Tide Buss, Nettbuss, Norgesbuss and Boreal Norge (buses) and Stavangerske, Torghatten Trafikkselskap, L. Rødne og Sønner and John Arne Helgøy (ferries).
Trains are not within the responsibility on Kolumbus. NSB has the responsibility and sells tickets for almost all trains in Norway. But Kolumbus has negotiated validity for period passes for both trains and buses. There are local trains Stavanger - Sandnes and Stavanger - Egersund (Jæren Commuter Rail).
In 2003 the first PSO contracts were awarded to in Greater Stavanger. At the same time there was a number of changes in the routes and ticket zones, creating some confusion. In 2006 the routes in Jæren and Dalane were also changed to PSO contracts. The same year the new ticketing system was introduced, but this system has had major starting problems, resulting in many trips not being charged and loss of income for the companies.
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Wikipedia