Oslo’s city council leader hopes that the negotiations in the Storting will save public transport in Oslo and the other counties – after his own party colleagues in the government offices did not set aside extra money.
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Public transport around the country is in acute danger. Lack of ticket revenues as a result of the pandemic has led to many of the country’s counties announcing cuts in departures.
In Oslo, the municipality has set aside money for Ruter to manage for a while longer. But if road users do not return, there may be cuts here as well.
The counties put their trust in the Støre government to come up with extra subsidies in its supplementary budget that came on Monday this week.
Now Oslo City Councilor Raymond Johansen (Labor Party) is disappointed. He had previously contacted the new government about Ruter’s financial problems, as a result of fewer public transport passengers. He also reminds that the budget has not been adopted and that the government is now in negotiations with SV.
– Should find money
– Nothing is over before the fat lady sings, it is said. The budget negotiations are not over yet. I believe that it is extremely important and it is an encouragement to those who are now going to negotiate in the Storting. They should find money for this, says Johansen to VG.
See the map: This may be due to collective cuts
Raymond Johansen was city councilor for SV in Oslo in the 90s, before he joined the Labor Party in 1997.
– Do you hope that your old party prioritizes it?
– I do not want to use my old party. But there are people in the parliamentary group in my own party who certainly are, so I get to record it in the same way as those in Bergen, Trondheim, Tromsø and everyone else. Then we get to believe that it is going well, he says.
–SV: – Should direct appeal to own party
SV’s fiscal policy spokesperson Kari Elisabeth Kaski says she shares Johansen’s concern about the conditions of public transport now.
– We are afraid that offers will be cut. There will be a negative spiral where fewer people travel by public transport and more people choose the car. So we will do what we can to get a budget in the end that is better than what was presented on Monday, says Kari Elisabeth Kaski to VG.
She comes at the same time with a clear message to former SV`s Raymond Johansen.
– I want to emphasize that it is not SV’s responsibility to rectify everything that the Labor Party-Center Party government does not deliver. I hope Johansen addresses this strong call to his own party, says Kaski.
– Not there now
Johansen says that the Oslo City Council has set aside money that takes into account the failure of travelers.
– But at the same time, both those in government and the Storting have been very clear that they have a zero growth target. The zero growth target is threatened by fewer people taking public transport, he says.
The zero growth target means that passenger transport growth in urban areas must be taken away with public transport, cycling and walking – not with private motoring.
– We are not done with the pandemic yet. Reducing supply when demand is low for other reasons can present lasting challenges in that over time there will be fewer people using public transport, says Johansen.
He adds a reservation:
– If it is now the case that the demand for a while is reduced because many have home offices and travel habits, then it is another thing. But we are not there now, he says.
Demanding
Minister of Transport and Communications Jon Ivar Nygård (Labor Party) wrote in a press release on Monday that it is “demanding for the state to prioritize spending money on maintaining public transport at a higher level than there is a basis for”.
– When the infection control measures have been phased out, it is important that the state does not prevent the transition to a new normal, the Minister of Transport and Communications wrote.
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