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They don’t have to lease their trains from the government, they can bring their own trains if they’d like, but leasing is likely cheaper. The company maintaini

They don’t have to lease their trains from the government, they can bring their own trains if they’d like, but leasing is likely cheaper. The company maintaining the trains do have to bid on the contracts, as well, and can bid for contracts in other countries if they wish. The directorate of railway was there pre-privatization. It’s the infrastructure company that decides the timetables, not the directorate. The directorate assigns the contracts, and the contracts specify the minimum fee for a ticket. Operators are free to decide the interior of the trains, and any additional products on top of the minimum fee. Meaning they can charge more for better seating, reserved seating etc. Vy has their own ticketing service in addition to the government provided one, which they use to sell bus and taxi services to cover as much of your trip as possible. GoAhead doesn’t have their own ticketing service, instead relying on Vy and the government service to sell tickets. This saves them money on development, but makes them lose out on any additional revenue that Vy makes for extra sales. GoAhead has higher customer satisfaction than NSB (the national train company pre-privatization). Idealy you’d have more competition between the operators, but since Norway is mostly single track that is difficult to do. Still, the government will save an estimated 12 billion NOK over the next 9 years based on the current contracts. That’s not to say it’s all good. Long range travel has gotten more expensive (more than one operator involved) and there are now more directors with million kr saleries. Not to mention that the effects of one of these operators going bankrupt will be worse than if one national company did everything.

matsemann 5y ago
I'm one of those (many) people that don't believe in that 12B figure. It is only based on "we used to pay X for this route in the old model, and now we pay Y", but that's two different things to compare and ignores lots of new costs as well. All the offers were also based on traffic growth, meaning subsidies for the tickets in 7-8 years would go down. This would have happened irregardless of the bids (except the contractors have budgeted with it and now carries the risk). And before when it was the government paying the government owned NSB, it was basically the government giving themselves money. Now whatever profit the new companies make are instead going out of the country. Government takes the cost, others take the profit. So unless this happens to result in a much better experience for the customers I think it will be a net loss for society. But time will tell, hard to say too much based on the last year.
- Skinney 5y ago
  Considering most train routes operate at a net loss, «we used to pay x but now we pay y» is really the only interesting metric, no? Profits from subsidies aren’t really profit when you’re the one paying the subsidy. Keep in mind, that before any profit, the government still makes money taxation (sales tax, employee income tax etc.) and several companies are going to operate at a loss for a few years until trafic picks up. I think government saving money on this isn’t unlikely. That’s not the same as customers saving money, though. I agree that time will tell. Until Norway has more double-tracks and can have proper competition, this could go either way.
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
"Operators are free to decide the interior of the trains, and any additional products on top of the minimum fee." So by the sounds of it, you have tp hunt fpr tickets on different websites and exchequer looses out, but in exchange I get a different of seat, and packet of crisps? I am really not getting 'free market innovation' vibes here
- Skinney 5y ago
  If all you care about is the cheapest possible ride, you’ll get that through the government ticketing service. If you travel the same distance often and want to pay extra for more comfort or whatever, you’ll benefit from using whatever ticketing service the operator wants you to use.

matsemann 5y ago

I'm one of those (many) people that don't believe in that 12B figure. It is only based on "we used to pay X for this route in the old model, and now we pay Y", but that's two different things to compare and ignores lots of new costs as well. All the offers were also based on traffic growth, meaning subsidies for the tickets in 7-8 years would go down. This would have happened irregardless of the bids (except the contractors have budgeted with it and now carries the risk). And before when it was the government paying the government owned NSB, it was basically the government giving themselves money. Now whatever profit the new companies make are instead going out of the country. Government takes the cost, others take the profit. So unless this happens to result in a much better experience for the customers I think it will be a net loss for society. But time will tell, hard to say too much based on the last year.

Skinney 5y ago
Considering most train routes operate at a net loss, «we used to pay x but now we pay y» is really the only interesting metric, no? Profits from subsidies aren’t really profit when you’re the one paying the subsidy. Keep in mind, that before any profit, the government still makes money taxation (sales tax, employee income tax etc.) and several companies are going to operate at a loss for a few years until trafic picks up. I think government saving money on this isn’t unlikely. That’s not the same as customers saving money, though. I agree that time will tell. Until Norway has more double-tracks and can have proper competition, this could go either way.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

"Operators are free to decide the interior of the trains, and any additional products on top of the minimum fee." So by the sounds of it, you have tp hunt fpr tickets on different websites and exchequer looses out, but in exchange I get a different of seat, and packet of crisps? I am really not getting 'free market innovation' vibes here

Skinney 5y ago
If all you care about is the cheapest possible ride, you’ll get that through the government ticketing service. If you travel the same distance often and want to pay extra for more comfort or whatever, you’ll benefit from using whatever ticketing service the operator wants you to use.