Jon-Ivar Nygård (Labor Party) wants to end tenders for Norwegian train routes, and award routes directly – to Vy.
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At the same time, he warns that the foreign companies that operate in Norway today – Go-Ahead and SJ – will be allowed to keep their contracts until they expire.
– That’s how it must be. Agreements have been entered into, says the recent Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygård.
They do not know whether NSB’s old train monopoly can be revived in Norway, but in the first instance it is desired to cancel the train competition for Eastern Norway and give the offer to Vy.
This happens with the train lines
Before Erna Solberg’s government came to power, only NSB ran passenger trains in Norway. But after she opened up for competition and tenders for train routes, both British Go-Ahead and Swedish SJ have outcompeted Vy (old NSB) on Norwegian stretches.
Solberg’s government managed to put both the West, South and North to competition – and now only Eastern Norway remains. The competition to run trains on the Østfold line and Drammen line, among others, is already underway – and foreign train companies have announced their interest.
Then comes Jonas Gahr Støre’s (Labor Party) new government, which in its platform says they will “stop further competitive outsourcing of passenger traffic on the railway”. So then the question is:
– Are you going to stop the bidding process?
– There are very clear signals in the platform on what we should do in that area, and then we must consider whether there is room for maneuver or not. We will of course find out in the near future, in dialogue with the government.
– You want to stop the bidding process, but you have to investigate how it is possible first?
– The platform is very clear that we want to stop tender processes, the Minister of Transport answers.
–– Is it now a given that it is Vy who gets the last packages for train traffic in Eastern Norway (which is called traffic package 4 and 5)?
– If you do not expose to competition, then you must award directly. And then you want to make it Vy, confirms the Minister of Transport.
It is unclear whether the monopoly will return
– Do you want Vy to operate all passenger train traffic in Norway again?
– It is in the nature of things that it will be Vy you build on, he answers.
– Do you want the Vy monopoly back?
– We have not decided that we will reintroduce any monopoly, Nygård answers.
He points out that they already have agreements with SJ and Go Ahead that are valid for several more years. In addition, new EU rules, which state that tenders and competition are the main rule, have just come into force in Norway. The new government has announced that they will try to get out of the new EU rules.
– If you had been elected, would you have thrown Go Ahead and SJ out of Norway?
– No, I do not think I can say it that way. They have received agreements and they provide good services on the basis and the conditions they have received. That is not what it is about, the Minister of Transport answers.
– If you stop the tender process for traffic package four, can you be sued?
– There is some of what one must get clarity in, in these assessment processes we have now, what kind of room for maneuver is there. I dare not answer that concretely. We can always be sued, but I do not have a full overview of what kind of risk lies in it at the moment, Nygård answers.
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