Skånetrafiken

Skånetrafiken [www.skanetrafiken.se] is the regional public transportation authority and operator in Skåne län, in the south of Sweden.

Skånetrafiken was founded in 1999 when the two counties Kristianstads län and Malmöhus län were merged into one region. During this merger the two respective transport authorities were amalgemated. Presently, Skånetrafiken is a part of the regional government of Region Skåne.

The principle mission of Skånetrafiken is to plan for and market public transport in Skåne as well as procure and organise the work of private transport companies who run the transport services for Skånetrafiken. The private companies offer bids to run routes or staff certain functions for Skånetrafiken.

The main office is located in Hässleholm with a second office in Lund. The managing director of Skånetrafiken is Gösta Ahlberg.

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Public transport services in Skåne and beyond

Skånetrafiken operates train services on several lines within Skåne called Pågatåg. Furthermore, through SJ AB, Skånetrafiken operates train services to and from Denmark -- the Öresundståg -- in Skåne whereas on the Danish side it is DSB who is the operator. The Pågatåg trains are purple with a red stripe whereas the Öresundståg trains are primarily grey. Beginning in 2009 actual operation of the Öresundståg will be taken over by DSB First which is a company founded by DSB and First for this specific purpose.

Urban bus services are available in 10 cities and towns in Skåne with the majority of services in Malmö, Helsingborg and Lund. Regional buses routes that connect cities and town operate throughout Skåne. A colour scheme is used to distinguish urban from regional/inter-urban buse: the former are green whereas the latter are yellow. Skånetrafiken makes a distinction between three kinds of "yellow" buses: Pendeln which are frequent commuter bus lines between for example Höganäs and Helsingborg or between Lund and Malmö; SkåneExpressen which travel greater distances between larger towns with few stops (similar in a sense to trains) and which cater to long-distance travellers; and the other, remaining, regional buses which Skånetrafiken has yet to differentiate and give a name.

Depending on the results of the bidding process, different bus companies are awarded contracts for bus lines. The principle bus companies running bus services for Skånetrafiken are Veolia, Arriva, Swebus, Bergkvarabuss.

Some services for transportation of handicapped people are also run by Skånetrafiken under the name of Serviceresor.

Additionally, Skånetrafiken operates a boat service between Landskrona arbour and the island of Ven.

Buses to/from airports are not formally a part of Skånetrafiken at this time.

Some train and bus services between Skåne and the adjoining counties of Blekinge, Halland and Kronoberg are organised in conjunction with corresponding regional transit authorities in the respectice counties.

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Patronage/ridership

Skånetrafiken has been experiencing increasing patronage on all of it services and most of it lines for a number of years. Figures for 2006 and 2007 appear below:

Note that by "Trains within Skåne" this is an estimate based on number of tickets sold by Skånetrafiken.

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Tickets, prices and ticketing system

Since Skånetrafiken manages all public transport in Skåne, tickets can be transferable between lines and services. Furthermore, a passenger can buy a ticket on an urban bus in one city for a combined ride by bus - train - bus to a final distination in another city. This ease of ticketing may have been a contributing factor to the positive development in patronage since the inception of Skånetrafiken in 1999.

Skåne is divded into a number of zones. The price of a trip is determined by the number of zones crossed during a particular journey. The cost of a trip on an urban buses in only one zone will vary slightly between cities and towns.

Tickets can be purchased in cash, as part of a debitcard system, or via a 30 day transit pass. Tickets for single journeys on busses are bought from the driver or a debit card is inserted into a magnetic reader whereby the a ticket in effect is issued. If boarding a bus with a transit pass the passengar insert the pass into the same reader. For train trips tickets are purchased from machines on or near the platform. The debitcard is inserted into a similar machine and a ticket is issued.

The debitcard can be refilled with cash (ie trips) at Skånetrafikens Customer Centres or at an affiliated organization. 30 day passes can be bought at the same locations. The 30 day passes can be purchased for a varying number of specified zones. An entire county 30 day pass is also available.

Prices are set by Skånetrafiken. During recent years prices have gone up, in part to finance new trains. There is no senior citizen discount. However, recently 17-19 year olds have been reclassified as "children" who thus pay only half the adult fare. This, according to Skånetrafiken, is part of a long term goal of increasing patronage as the habit of using public transportation over cars should be reinforced during the later teenage years.

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Critique

The entire ticketing system in Skåne was supposed to have been switched in 2007 and the debitcard and 30 day commuter cards were supposed to have been merged into a common smart card system. According to Skånetrafiken this will now occur during 2009.

Skånetrafiken has been critised during particularly 2007 for not being sufficiently quick and decisive in response to increases in patronage. The success of some routes has been so good that overcrowding has plagued some train services and bus services for months with no response on the part of Skånetrafiken: this has been particularly the case for rush-hour train service to/from Denmark. Skånetrafiken claims to have made changes in internal decision procedures to catch these problems more quickly in the future.

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Reference(s)

* [http://www.skanetrafiken.se Skanetrafiken.se]