Frustrated with buses for trains – asks Bane Nor to carry out maintenance when there is no holiday

For the past four weeks, there have been buses for trains on the Sørlandsbanen. Travelers south on Friday were not very excited when news met them at Oslo S. – Why did you choose to travel by bus instead of train? – I did not choose that. It was because I chose to travel on this day, in this way. Then I had to take a bus instead of a train, says Rolf Skåra. There have been several weeks of buses for trains on Sørlandsbanen this summer. Photo: Astri Husø / news – It’s nothing special. I was actually supposed to take the train to Kristiansand, but that’s how it turned out, says Vera Børresen, who had to settle for a bus trip instead. Halving the number of travelers by bus instead of train The demand for travel drops sharply when there is bus instead of train. Go-Ahead, the company that operates it, says Sørlandsbanen is a holiday and leisure market, where they initially expect an increase in the number of travelers in the summer. Instead, they get a marked decrease when there is a bus for a train. – Customers do not like change. When they have chosen the train as a means of transport, they prefer to drive by train. What we see from our figures is that when we have breaks during holiday and leisure periods, demand is reduced by 40-50 per cent, says Emil Eike, who is the managing director of Go-Ahead. Emil Eike, managing director of Go-Ahead, says people should use Sørlandsbanen when there is a holiday. Photo: Moment Studio But Bane Nor says they have to work when the commuters are on holiday. Next year there will be a summer break with buses for trains for six weeks. That makes it difficult for Go-Ahead. – When do you demand that the work be done on Sørlandsbanen? – It will be excluding all weekends, winter, Easter, summer, autumn holidays and so on. That’s when people should use Sørlandsbanen, says Eike. – Too big consequences This is easier said than done, says Bane Nor. They do not have exact figures on how many fewer people travel in summer, but say it is significantly fewer than the number of travelers in spring and autumn. – We choose to work during the holidays because closing the track outside of holidays would have major consequences for many people. All the train companies are involved in planning when we will work in the track. We facilitate a good dialogue with them about when we close to work on the track, or when we are going to build a new one, says acting communications manager for traffic at Bane Nor, Karoline Vårdal. Bane Nor says there will always be a need to carry out maintenance work, and thus bus by train. The need for maintenance increases year by year because more and more trains and passengers are running. – We have to maintain the railway to take care of what we have, we can’t just base ourselves on building new ones, says Vårdal. Published 03.08.2024, at 07.53



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