Ruter As

Ruter is the Public Transport Executive for the City of Oslo (a county) and the surrounding county of Akershus with more than 1 million inhabitants. Ruter is responsible for planning, procurement and marketing of public transport and is a limited company with two shareholders: Oslo 60 % and Akershus 40 %. In 2008 Ruter had a ridership of 242 million passengers.

The transport operations are performed by various operators in accordance with their contracts with Ruter. The contracts for the operation of bus routes and ferries are awarded based on competitive tendering.

Ruter has an environmental strategy moving towards zero use of fossil fuels and reductions in local air pollution and noise. Ruter’s public transport includes emission-free electric trains, metro and trams. Ruter has the objective to make all public transport environmentally friendly. Ruter has taken the first step to convert it’s buses from fossil fuel operation to environmentally friendly biofuels, and has one line operating with 95% bioethanol. Ruter also use biodiesel and is looking into biogas operation. Fuel-cell buses with hydrogen is an interesting option for the future and Ruter has been granted funding for a hydrogen bus project from the local authorities in Oslo and Akershus.

A national Norwegian hydrogen project, HyNor (www.hynor.no), is building a ‘hydrogen road’ between Stavanger and Oslo, with the aim of broad testing of hydrogen in the transport sector. The idea is to build an initial hydrogen infrastructure, as part of a future permanent infrastructure. Ruter has joined the project node in Oslo (HyNor Oslo). HyNor Oslo has operated a refuelling facility for private cars (located at a Statoil petrol station) in Oslo since May 2009. The HyNor Oslo project has an intention to establish a new refuelling facility for the hydrogen bus project in Oslo.

Ruter will be responsible for a contract with a bus operator in Oslo and will coordinate the hydrogen bus project in Oslo.

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