Memorable Events

Accessibility information for bus stops will be added to the new app. We are the first in Norway and third in Europe to show this kind of information, and this is just the start. Our customers will also be able to adjust walking speed. Those who walk faster or slower than average (4.7 km/h) will receive a tailor-made travel suggestion, and thus a more personalised travel experience.

The new contract for Oslo South commences on 9 January. With 109 electric buses on the way in, Ruter is taking another big step towards the goal of emission-free public transport, and an offer that can be used to a greater extent by everyone, regardless of functional level. Almost the entire bus fleet in the Oslo South contract (96%) will be emission-free, while the share of electric city buses will increase to 40%. In the photo we see (from the left): CEO Connect Bus AS, Atle Rønning, City councillor for environment and transport, Sirin Hellvin Stav (MDG) and Ruter’s zone manager Ole Jakob Aanes.

At last we can live as normal again! We celebrated this in February with a campaign where we welcome four new toddlers to the world and the metropolis: «We don’t know where life will take you, but we can take you wherever you want.» The campaign received a great deal of attention and was well liked; it also strengthened Ruter’s position as community-oriented organization.

After many years of growth in public transport, the service was strengthened in 2019 and 2020 to facilitate future growth. The pandemic slowed our passenger growth goals more than expected.In Viken, Ruter has therefore reduced capacity on some routes in 2022, in addition to making some local adjustments. We cannot prepare to operate for money we’re not going to have.

Ruter started testing Reis in early 2022. Reis is a new type of ticket that gives the traveller a flexible and personal travel experience. With Reis, you earn personal discounts based on how frequently you travel over time. The more tickets one buys, the cheaper it will be to travel. Reis is available to a selection of customers, who need to be logged in to use Reis, but the test was scheduled to be scaled up in the spring of 2023 to all of Ruter’s customers throughout Ruter’s area.

If Ruter is to achieve its goal of increased mobility for everyone, we need to include those with special knowledge. Therefore, in 2022 we went looking for summer temps living with disabilities. We were fortunate to secure four talented students who gave us a lot of valuable insight. Among other things, we surveyed customers using QR codes at stops, got many suggestions on how the app can offer better accessibility info, and got clear feedback on changes that must and should be made in Ruter’s own offices.

Together with several partners, Ruter arranged courses in the safe use of electric scooters in downtown Oslo. Here you will find answers to all your questions about the correct use of e-scooters in traffic. You also get the opportunity to try obstacle courses and other things that give an experience of the challenges it is important to be aware of before hitting the road. The City of Oslo, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Trygg Trafikk and several micromobility operators organized the course.

The water situation in Oslo was quite serious in the spring of 2022. To avoid later water shortages, the municipality started working with businesses and residents to reduce water use. Ruter therefore decided to wash fewer buses, boats, trams and subways for a while. «Everyone has a social responsibility in such situations. The vehicles will not be as clean on the outside, but we all need to contribute where we can to reduce our water consumption,» said Bernt Reitan Jenssen, CEO of Ruter.

In June, the City Councillor for Environment and Transport in Oslo, Sirin Stav, and the County Councillor for Transport in the County Municipality of Viken, Olav Skinnes, participated in a workshop developed by Ruter in collaboration with the Norwegian Association of Disabled. The purpose of «Mind the Gap» is to raise awareness and knowledge of what it takes to remove the barriers that prevent disabled people from using public transport. During 2021 and 2022, almost 300 employees of Ruter, Sporveien and the operator, as well as from our owners and the board, participated in «Mind the Gap». In the picture to the left, we see Sirin Stav in conversation with Andra Isaachsen Olvin, a mentor with the Funkis adult education association.

Ruter signed two new contracts in June with the intention to make all public transport in Oslo emission-free by the end of 2023. This is five years before the original goal and a major step towards being able to offer emission-free public transport throughout Ruter’s area during 2028. The contracts with Nobina and Unibuss were signed after the bus tender competitions were completed for eastern Oslo.

E-scooters enter the new Ruter app in earnest. From June 2022, around 50 000 users will be able to see a larger part of the micromobility offer in the app for the first time. This is an important step towards being able to offer a wider range of mobility services – where customers can easily switch between the different services using a common mobile-based solution. That is the direction we at Ruter want to go.

Safety has the highest priority at Ruter. We hold an emergency preparedness conference every year to ensure safety. The theme of this year’s conference was emergency preparedness and technology. Many people from the Ruter family, authorities and institutions with connections to our business participated. Together with the Oslo Fire and Rescue Service and the Oslo Police District, Ruter conducted several scenarios on board Norled’s ferry (Prinsen) that focused on fire on board, possible terrorist acts and subsequent surveillance and apprehension of terrorists on board the ship.

For 15 months, the flexible and regional booking transport service Pilot Nes was tested, and the findings from the Municipality of Romerike are of great value when Ruter plans the mobility services of the future. After completing the test in the summer of 2022, Ruter’s overall assessment is that the service increased the mobility of residents in a sparsely populated municipality and simplified the everyday lives of especially the elderly and people with disabilities.

The last of five electric island boats arrived in Oslo in the summer of 2022. The new vessels all have space for 350 passengers, which provides significantly higher capacity than previous vessels, which had room for 236. The vessels are universally designed, with wide walkways, elevators and an easy-to-use staircase to the sun deck. The Nesodd boats went electric in 2020. That means that all boats in Ruter’s system will be emission-free when the express boats are also scheduled for arrival in 2024.

Ruter is exercising the last two option periods with Norled to operate the express boat lines. Ruter is also submitting a change order for the transition from diesel to battery-electric operation. The agreement is an important measure in order to reach our goal of being emission-free by 2028. The change order means MS Baron and MS Baroness will be rebuilt and start sailing emission-free on 1 July 2024. A battery swapping system will also be established onshore at four locations in the grid. The battery swapping system will be the first of its kind in the world.

In September 2022, the new Ruter app won silver at Fast Company’s 2022 Innovation by Design Awards in New York, one of the most coveted design awards in the industry. Fast Company celebrates companies and products that solve today’s challenges with an eye on tomorrow’s problems, and simply work to design a better world. The award from New York joins a string of design awards for the new app in 2022. In May, it won gold in the Visual Award in Oslo, in the category Digital Design, and in June it went all the way to the top again at the European Design Awards in Tallinn, where it took gold in the Mobile Apps category. In the photos we see (from the left): Vegard Fleischer Orkelbog, Anna Björnerhag / Even Flom, Ester Kaasa and Christoffer Bølum.

In September, we increased the value of the app for logged-in customers. They can now see an estimate of how full the bus is that they plan to travel on. The functionality will include other modes of transport over time.

People travel less collectively and do not use the city as much as before. We have gone several rounds to showcase places that most people may not know about in town, to get them off the couch, on board and out for a ride. The campaigns have succeeded in increasing passenger traffic. Over 40% want to travel more collectively when they see the ad.

In 2022, Ruter will make major changes to the operation of adapted transport (TT) in Oslo, and in October the new operating company Minibus 24-7 will take over responsibility for the TT trips driven by special vehicles (wheelchair adapted minibus). Even though the service is externally the same, the autumn will be demanding for many customers. TT will become a better service, and contribute to sustainable mobility for all.

In November, Ruter had 31.5 app orders per day for age-friendly transport, the highest ever. This took place after visiting all the neighbourhoods that offer this service. During the visits, we informed everyone about the offer, received feedback from customers and conducted training in the app for age-friendly transport.

In 2022, the first of Oslo’s new trams became fully operational, which was duly celebrated in November. Planning director at Ruter, Snorre Lægran, was part of the celebration at Olaf Ryes Plass, which you can see in the film. By 2024, all 87 new universally designed trams will be in place. Then everyone can travel by tram in Oslo, regardless of functional ability.

Between 16 November and 15 December, customers received almost a 40% discount on their 30-day ticket in zone 1, as long as they register in the Ruter app – thanks to attractiveness funds from the City of Oslo. The offer was very well received. Over 40% of residents over the age of 16 in Oslo said they have used the offer, while 5% responded that the campaign made them travel by public transport on trips they previously would have taken by car. This was also a contributing factor to public transport reaching a market share of 40% in Oslo in December, the highest level since the start of the pandemic in February 2020.

On 11 December, Ruter improved the bus service in Nordre Follo, Son, Vestby and Ås in connection with expanding the train services on the Østfold Line. For as many residents as possible in Follo to benefit from the new train service, where both the local train and the regional train will have an increased frequency, the overall bus service will be strengthened and changed.

At the end of 2022, Ruter and Holo signed a new cooperation agreement for the upcoming pilot project with self-driving ordered transport in Groruddalen. Ruter has collaborated with the mobility company on testing autonomous vehicles in public transport for several years now. The agreement assigns Holo the role of operating company for the new booking transport offer to be tested. Holo’s subcontractor for vehicles and software will be the Intel-owned technology company Mobileye. In the picture we see the red vehicles that will soon be seen in Groruddalen, with the Ruter logo.