Ruter

Ruter AS

Type	Municipally owned
Industry	Public transport
Predecessors	Oslo Sporveier Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk
Founded	1 January 2008
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Area served	Oslo and Akershus, Norway
Key people	Bernt Reitan Jenssen (CEO) Ragnar Søegaard (Chair)
Number of employees	approx. 130 (2011)
Parent	Oslo Municipality (60%) Akershus 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 the shares in which are owned by the Oslo county municipality and 40% by that of Akershus – it is responsible for administrating, funding, and marketing (but not operating) 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 the Norwegian State Railways concerning the regulation of fares on commuter train services operated within the two counties.

The operation of services is performed by other companies:

In 2011, 285 million journeys were done on the Ruter network. 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.

Sporveien is an independent company wholly owned by the City of Oslo. It owns and maintains the rapid transit and tramway systems, including the rolling stock. The company was established on 1 July 2006, when the former Oslo Sporveier was split into an operating company and an administration company. The actual operation of the T-bane is performed by the subsidiary Sporveien T-banen, while the tramway is operated by Sporveien Trikken. Sporveien also owns Unibuss, which has won many of the public service obligation bids for bus operation in Oslo and Akershus. Unibuss also operates the coach service Lavprisekspressen.

Single, day, monthly and yearly tickets are available. Ruter operates on a proof-of-payment basis, and there is a fine of either NOK 950 or NOK 1,150 for traveling without a valid ticket, depending on whether or not the fine is paid on location. Payment is based on a zone fare schematic, and Oslo remains a single zone with free transfer. A single-zone ticket costs NOK 32 if bought in advance, and NOK 50 if bought on a bus or tram. Day passes cost NOK 90 while a month pass costs NOK 690. Children and seniors pay half price. Prices increase if multiple zones are traveled. The Flexus ticket system is in 2011 almost completely introduced.