(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Information Manager Arvid Bårdstu in NSB willingly admits that there is nothing to save for people in Kragerø taking a bus to Neslandsvann and trains to, for example, Oslo. The Sørlandsbussen, which NSB itself owns, is a much better alternative.
But that after the closure of the Kragerøbanen NSB has some responsibility for the public transport between Kragerø and Neslandsvann, he rejects.
- It is the county municipality that has that responsibility, says Bårdstu.
- Many in Kragerø are annoyed at how difficult NSB makes it and no longer bother to go to Neslandsvann to take the train. Instead, they take the Sørlandsbussen?
- Yes, I will probably believe it, we have experienced a decline on the Sørlandsbanen. But Neslandsvann is not exactly the navel of the world. We have said that if there is to be any point in maintaining stations such as Neslandsvann, then the county municipality must contribute to making it possible to travel all the way.
- The traffic manager in Drangedal Bilruter believes that NSB is to blame for a vicious circle where fewer and fewer people take the train due to accessibility, which in turn means that their train bus between Neslandsvann and Kragerø has almost no passengers to carry?
- Yes, on the one hand, it is a vicious spiral that has a self-reinforcing effect. The problem with ticket availability is probably real. But if you have a phone and credit card, you can call in and book tickets and go straight on the train.
- Gunvor Våsjø from Kragerø tried to visit her son in Hokksund this summer, but had to give up the train because she could not buy tickets in Kragerø the same day she was to travel, because she could not buy tickets at Neslandsvann station or on the train, because it did not did the bus go to Neslandsvann, and because the train does not stop at Hokksund station anymore?
- No, I think that's a little sad. But she could have turned up at the station and been taken anyway.
- The experience in Kragerø is that people have been left on the platform if they do not have tickets?
- Yes, I think so, people have probably had to stay behind sometimes. But in nine out of ten cases, you get to join. Nevertheless, it is obvious that it is not easy to take a trip by long-distance train if you do not have a credit card. We have to look at that. We are not at all happy that people give up NSB because they do not get tickets. On the other hand, we can not continue with serviced stations that do not pay.
- Why can not people buy tickets on the train, as before?
- The authorities have decided. It is about safety requirements, that NSB must know how many people are on the train at any given time. Besides, we do not want crowded trains where our conductors have to get over passengers in the aisle.
- NSB owns Nettbuss, which operates Sørlandsbussen. Now that more and more travelers to and from Kragerø prefer the bus to the train, is NSB not helping to shift traffic from the train, which you believe is the best environmental alternative, to more polluting buses?
- No, Nettbuss is a separate player that must compete with other bus companies. The railway is most environmentally friendly, but this applies when large crowds take trains on longer distances. Trains with few passengers are not necessarily more environmentally friendly than buses.
- So you do not see any connection in NSB making the train less accessible, at the same time as Sørlandsbussen – owned 100 percent by NSB – makes it increasingly easier and cheaper to travel on the same routes?
- We fight every day to fill up the trains, that is the best we can do for the environment. It is possible that people in Kragerø have received a worse offer in relation to trains. But everything boils down to seventh and finally down to economics. This is a political issue, and Norway is at the bottom of Europe, at the same time as we are an elongated country with a scattered population, concludes information manager Arvid Bårdstu in NSB.
