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 AtBMAN Lion's City by Ilaparken | |
| Formerly | Trøndelag kollektivtrafikk AS |
|---|---|
| Industry | Public Transport |
| Founded | 15 September 2009 |
| Headquarters | Prinsens Gate 41, Trondheim ,Norway |
Key people | Janne Sollie |
| Services | Bus, Ferry, Boat and Tram traffic |
| Owner | Trøndelag Fylkeskommune |
| Website | www.atb.no/en/ |
AtB AS ("A to B") is apublic transport manager forTrøndelag county and is managed as a corporation. AtB's task is to plan, order, market and developpublic transport in the county.Tariffs are set by the county council as part of the budget process. AtB has three main sources of funding: Ticket revenues, grants from theTrøndelag County Municipality and theEnvironmental Package. AtB has a customer center at Prinsens Gate 41 right beside the bus stopPrinsens Gate P2 inTrondheim. AtB took over aspublic transport manager for bus traffic inTrondheim in 2010, tram traffic onGråkallbanen and other bus traffic inSør-Trøndelag county in 2011,speedboat routes in 2012 and 2014, ferries in 2015, and in 2018, the formerNord-Trøndelag county was also incorporated after the two counties was merged into the new county ofTrøndelag.
All operations are carried out on behalf of AtB by operating companies under contract with AtB. Bus traffic in theTrondheim area is carried out from 2019 on tendering contracts byVy Buss,Tide Buss andGråkallbanen.Expressboat andferry traffic byFosenlinjenFosenNamsos Sjø [no] andFjord1. while the tramway service is carried out byGråkallbanen owned byBoreal. In the Regions aroundTrondheim,Vy Buss,Trønderbilene, andBoreal Buss are the operators. AtB also has taxi operators for School services, who areTrøndertaxi [no] andNorgestaxi [no].
The company was established on September 15, 2009, under the temporary nameTrøndelag public transport AS, while the final name AtB was presented on December 1, 2009. The company changed its formal name to AtB AS at the beginning of 2010. At 1 August 2010, AtB took over responsibility for managing the buses inTrondheim, which until then had been carried out byTeam Trafikk, aVy Buss subsidiary. On January 1, 2011, responsibility for the management of all other non-commercial bus traffic inSør-Trøndelag county and the tram onGråkallbanen was taken over. The management responsibility for the boat service on the "Øyrekken" was taken over on January 1, 2012, while other fast boat traffic for example the service fromTrondheim toVanvikan, was taken on January 1, 2014, and ferry traffic on January 1, 2015.
When the twoTrøndelag counties were merged on January 1, 2018, AtB also assumed responsibility for public transport in the formerNord-Trøndelag county. At the end of 2009, AtB signed an agreement withSwarco Norge AS on the delivery of a system for real-time information and signal prioritization in theTrondheim region (SISST). The system was put into operation in February 2011 with a display of 35 stops and signal priority in some traffic lights, while it was completed in 2013. In total, equipment was installed in approx. 260 buses, 100 stops and 45 signaling facilities. The project was carried out in collaboration withTrondheim Municipality, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and theSør-Trøndelag county council. The System was then changed again in August 2019 with a new announcer voice and updated screens. In connection with the merger of Nord and Sør-Trøndelag into one county from 1 January 2018, the number of tariff zones in the new county was reduced from 810 to only 13, leading to significantly lower fares on some longer journeys, although the price per tariff zone went up.
Nord-Trøndelag was among the Norwegian counties that tried early on with a bus offer, but chose not to continue with it. Four smaller lanes had traffic starts in 1997 and five years of contract duration. These wereVerran Municipality /Steinkjer Municipality /Snåsa Municipality who went to the county cars inNord-Trøndelag (FBNT, laterTrønderbilene), school routeÅsen (Levanger Municipality) toBilruta Frosta –Åsen, school route Vesdal /Inderøy Municipality to FBNT and school routeNærøy Municipality toSturla Fjær onOttersøy.
The first tender inSør-Trøndelag included the then city bus routes 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 43 and 777 inTrondheim, most of which were among the busiest in the city, and had a traffic start on August 23, 2010. Web-ownedTeam Trafikk, which previously had all bus traffic inTrondheim on a concession contract, was awarded the tender in November 2009 in front ofTide Buss,Trønderbilene andVeolia Transport. In the next tender round, the rest ofTeam Trafikk's bus traffic inTrondheim Municipality,Klæburuten's traffic inKlæbu Municipality, andNettbuss Trøndelag's traffic inMalvik Municipality were included.
Route area 1 includedKlæbu Municipality including routes toTrondheim, routes 2 and 3 covered different parts of the city traffic inTrondheim Municipality, while route area 4 included traffic inMalvik Municipality including a through route toMelhus Municipality. In December 2010, lanes 1 and 2 were assigned toTrønderbilene, lane 3 was assigned toTide Buss, whileNettbuss Trøndelag won the traffic they had previously in lane 4. The contracts forTrondheim had a traffic start on 22 August 2011, while the others had a traffic start on 1 January. 2012. In December 2011, tenders were issued for "scheduled public transport with a large bus in the regions ofSør-Trøndelag". This mainly applies to long routes and regular local routes driven by large buses (12 meters long or larger). Route area 1 covered the area south ofTrondheim Municipality and east ofOrkanger, route area 2 comprised the routing services fromFrøya Municipality in the west toTydal Municipality in the east, while route area 3 included theFosen Peninsula up toOsen Municipality. In July 2012, route areas 1 and 2 were allocated toBoreal Transport Central Norway, while route area 3 was allocated toTrønderbilene.. In May 2012, the supplementary tender "Local public transport in the regions ofSør-Trøndelag" was announced, which applied to regular school routes and otherwise mini and midi bus routes. The tender was canceled in August and advertised again in October of the same year because large uncertainties were discovered regarding seat capacity and school timetable times, and therefore more time was needed for quality assurance.
The offer deadline at the beginning of December was postponed for one of the route areas until the beginning of January 2013 due to further quality assurance. Route area 1 included municipalities south and east ofTrondheim Municipality, route area 2 included municipalities west ofTrondheim Municipality, while route area 3 included municipalities onFosen. In February 2013, route area 1 was allocated toNettbuss Midt-Norge, route area 2 was allocated toBoreal Transport Central Norway, while route area 3 was allocated toTrønderbilene. In January 2017, AtB announced a new tender for all route areas inGreater Trondheim, i.e. those that had traffic starts in 2010 and 2011. The tender was divided into two route areas, where Route 1 includes routes based on depots at Sandmoen, while Route 2 includes routes. linked to depot at Sorgenfri. In July 2017, the route areas were allocated toNettbuss andTide Buss respectively. With this tender and associated restructuring of public transport, AtB invested heavily in introducing the so-called "Metrobus" or theVanHool Exquicity 24 in Trondheim with a requirement of at least 23.5 meters in length on the metro buses, which Belgian manufacturerVan Hool is alone in offering on the Norwegian market with their VanHool Exquicity models.
The start of traffic was August the 3rd 2019, and the contracts last for ten years until August 2029. After two decades without further tender rounds in public transport inNord-Trøndelag, tenders for bus traffic inStjørdal Municipality andMeråker Municipality were announced in December 2016. The tender had a traffic start on 1 July 2018 and is valid for only three years, until August 2021, but with the possibility of extension in up to two years. This coincides with the termination of the other contracts in the route area east ofTrondheim Municipality, which gives a hint that they are expected to be announced together in the next round of tenders. In June 2017, the contract for the tender was awarded toNettbuss, which previously had the relevant traffic on a concession contract. The other bus traffic in the formerNord-Trøndelag will be run on concession contracts expiring on 30 June 2019. Tenders for these areas was announced during 2018, where traffic started on 1 July 2019. This is due to theEU public transport regulation, which requires all public transport contracts above a certain size to be tendered and entered into force by December 3, 2019. Since 2017,Nord-Trøndelag is the only area inNorway where public transport tendering contracts are not generally introduced.
In January 2011, AtB announced a tender for theExpressboat association "Frøya -Øyrekken" with scheduled traffic start on July 1, 2012. When only one tender had been submitted by April, AtB chose to cancel the entire tender competition. In June 2012, all traffic by scheduled boat inSør-Trøndelag, including traffic in the canceled tender, and county-crossing routes toNord-Trøndelag and theKystekspressen toKristiansund, were tendered in a total of three packages with traffic start on January 1, 2014. Package 1 includedDyrøya -Mausundvær - Sula - "Øyrekken", package 2 covered the village route inOsen Municipality, while package 3 included the county-crossing routesTrondheim -Vanvikan andTrondheim -Kristiansund. Initially, the tender was awarded in November 2012 toBoreal Transport Nord, butFosenNamsos Sjø, which had the routes on a concession contract, complained about the decision and accepted that AtB had to rejectBoreal's tender, and in February 2013FosenNamsos Sjø was finally awarded the contract. The first ferry tender under the auspices of AtB was announced in June 2013, where package 1 included the ferry linkBrekstad-Valset, while package 2 included the connectionsDypfest –Tarva andGarten –Storfosna /Garten –Storfosna –Leksa –Værnes. Both packages should have a traffic start on 1 January 2015 and apply until 31 December 2024.
Package 1 was awarded toNorled, while package 2 was awarded toFosenlinjen.Fosenlinjen was able to suspend the award of the contract toNorled on the basis that the margin in relation to their own offer was too small. As a result, AtB chose to cancel the tender for package 1 and instead announce it again for a shorter traffic period valid from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2018. This tender was announced in February 2015 and the contract was awarded toBoreal Transport in June of that year.Boreal had won the tender based on a solution with one large ferry, but because it wanted a two-ferry solution instead, the contract was canceled just six weeks before the start of traffic, in November 2016, and awarded toNorled instead. In February 2016, a new tender forBrekstad-Valset was announced together withFlakk-Rørvik with a contract period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2028. In June 2016, these contracts were awarded toFjord1 andFosenNamsos Sjø respectively. New ferries were delivered in 2019 for both connections, those are MF Austrått and MF Vestrått for the Brekstad-Valset crossing, and MF Munken and MF Lagatun for the Flakk-Rørvik Connection.
AtB manages a total of 170 routes, 46 city routes, (some of these are only available to lease, and some only operate as School routes) of which 5 are so-called work routes (buses that often run only early in the morning and late in the evening) 17 semi-city routes (buses that start and end in theTrondheim area but doesn't Necessarily start and end in theTrondheim city area, an example can be Communities outside the main City) 87 regional routes, 17 night bus routes, (also includes trams) 18 Expressboat routes, and local traffic inKlæbu Municipality.
The first bidding round was won byTeam Traffic (later merged intoNettbuss Trøndelag), whileTide Buss andTrønderbilene won one and two packages respectively in the second bidding round. From 22 August 2011, all city buses inTrondheim are green. From night to 27 August 2011, AtB also took over responsibility for the night bus inTrondheim.Nettbuss Trøndelag won the last package inTrondheim and also continues to run route 301Melhus -Trondheim -Vikhammer -Stjørdalshalsen whileTrønderbilene took over the bus service inKlæbu Municipality. These routes had a tender start on 1 January 2012. The tramGråkallbanen is also affiliated with AtB.
The Bus fleet inTrondheim is made up out of buses from;MAN,Heuliez,Van Hool,Iveco,Volvo andScania. In the start when AtB took over as the main transport manager, the fleet was mostly based out of the manufacturerSolaris With theUrbino 12 LE CNG and 15 CNG, aSolaris Alpino, 8,9 LE, plus a number of buses from Volvo including theVolvo 7700. All these buses got phased out by AtB after August 2019. AtB also had a supply of Volvo Vest center LEs that were previously used byTeam Trafikk in theTrondheim Region. In June 2012 AtB added 13MAN Lion's City GL CNG'S (or A23) and these became very popular and is now the most widely used bus in the Trondheim Area. 13Volvo 8700s also got purchased to operate on former routes 46 and 47 to and from Klæbu. In terms of regional bus service, theVolvo 8900LE was used widely on former routes 37 and 38 (now route 70 and 71).
These are still used as a flexiblecitybus option for AtB when the usualMAN Lion's City 12 metre variant is not available for service. After August 2019 more than 300 brand new buses were delivered toTrondheim Municipality, for use in the new transport package. 58 "Metrobuses", one of which had a fire which completely broke it apart. 13Heuliez GX337s 23Volvo 7900 fully electrics more than 110 MAN Lion City buses (MAN Lion's City LE L, GL CNG and GL), (or A23) and more MAN Lion's City 12 metres.) Each new bus got an extra door, self open door mechanism, sliding door mechanism, new outside announcer, new information screens, new announcer and the metrobuses also got around 50 USB ports each. AtB also began phasing out buses after 3 August with the likes of all Solaris and Volvo Vest Center buses, all Volvo 7700s, all MAN Lion's City 12 metre buses with only two doors, as well as a few of the MAN Lion's City LE CNG buses with only a few remaining today.
Gråkallbanen also operates 15 trams on the Tram line 9 which is the only surviving line inTrondheim after the rest got removed. Line 9 uses 14 trams in day to day service fromSiemens and partlyDuewag. The 15th is a sightseeing tram used for tourist operations.
The bus network from AtB was revamped the night from the 2nd of August to the 3rd of August 2019, where a massive hauling operation began to move every asset to its new depot. Around 10 - 20 more routes came on the network as well as the routes being shorter than before. AtB built brand new "Metrobus stations" which is a larger bus stop with more space for the crowded parts of the city, as well as revamping smaller bus stops. The Metrobus, which is the spotlight of this operation, was formerly called "Superbus" by its length and size. The Metrobus can carry around 112 passengers but not much more than a normalarticulated bus. The new System by AtB has received a mixed criticism. The system is called out for not having ticket card register machines on the Metrobus as all other buses in the network has them. It was also a big issue formerly, where there weren't enough card registering machines and ticket machines at bus stops, but AtB promised that this will be fixed and it has been. A new announcer voice was also implemented into the bus announcing systems, WhereMari Hauge Einbu is the voice actor. Many travelers have praised the voice for being very easy to understand. A number of Bus Stops were never completed in time for the Grand Opening in 2019, but most of these will open in late 2020 . One of these is located at Østmarkneset on the far end of Lade. On the 3 February, AtB did a number of changes, some of which includes: Line 10 with new terminating stops, Line 12 with a new terminating stop on a selected number of trips, new terminal at the shopping hub City Syd and a new line which services the Gløshaugen University area, and Ilsvika toPirbadet. On February 17 a new Metrobus stop opened near the Siemens Administrations in Sluppen.
AtB administrates 6Expressboat lines, whereFosenNamsos Sjø owns and operates them. The Expressboats on theTrondheim-Kristiansund connection are built by the Brødrene Aa. These are composite vessels, with low displacement, that allow them to reduce the size of the engine considerably and get more environmentally friendly boats. Compared to the old vessels, the new Boats have reduced the emissions by 40% compared to the old weather-resistant aluminum structures that sailed the connection for 12 years. The vessels MS «Dice» and MS «Tyrhaug» were handed over to FosenNamsos Sea in 2014. Reserve: MS «Ladejarl» (2002). TheTrondheim-Brekstad connection, prioritized by shuttle boat for those who commute the route daily. The improvement is also due to the main combat aircraft base atØrland Municipality The commuter boat MS "Trondheimsfjord I", was built and constructed by Brødrene Aa in 2008, this one also of composite material. The coastal express route toKristiansund is also used on the connection. Reserve:MS «Ladejarl» (2002). TheTrondheim-Vanvikan connection, a stretch with a lot of traffic from commuters from Fosen. Composite vessels are also used to maximize environmental benefits. The vessel used isMS "Trondheimsfjord II" (2008). Reserve:MS "Agdenes" (1991), upgraded with new engines in 2010.Dyrøy-set of islands.
The connection is served by a combination catamaran and car ferry. The connection has daily departures, and is used for transport of general cargo to / from the Øyrekken off Frøya. Vessels:MS "Frovær" (2014) andMF "Frøyaferja" (1976). Reserve:MS "Seed Freight" (1991).Countryside boat Osen. FosenNamsos runs the relationship for AtB. The connection is operated byMS «Osenfjord», a composite catamaran built by the Brothers Aa in 2014.Brekstad-Valset, a huge strained relationship due to the Main Combat Base in Ørlandet. The relationship is run byNorled, who won the tender with start-up on 1 January 2015. FerriesMF «Ytterøyningen» (2006) and MF «Frafjord» (1979). The ferries were commissioned from 1 January 2015, but after a lengthy process of complaints, AtB decided to place the connection on a new tender round from 2017.Fjord1 is now running the route with MF Aust and Vestrått. AtB also took over theFlakk-Rørvik connection in 2019 whereFosenNamsos Sjø runs the ferries. (MF Munken and MF Lagatun) AtB also operates Line 830 Sandviksberget - Sætervika - Sandviksbærget, Line 835 Sandviksberget - Skjærvøy - Sandviksberget, Line 850 Dypfest - Tarva, Line 855 Garten - Storfosna and line 860 Garten - Storfosna - Leksa. A few "unofficial" lines are also run.
