Kolumbus
Encyclopedia
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
ed Kolumbus is the public transportation administration in Rogaland
Rogaland
is a county in Western Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and organised as a county agency
Kommunalt foretak
Kommunalt foretak or KF, in English: Municipal Enterprise is a type of enterprise owned by Norwegian municipalities. Fylkeskommunalt foretak or FKF, in English: County Enterprise is an equivalent enterprise owned by a county. KFs and FKFs offer no limited liability for the owner, though they do...
. The agency is responsible for planning, marketing and organising the public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
in Rogaland, including bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es and passenger ferries
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
, but does not perform any transport itself. Instead it awards public service obligation
Public Service Obligation
In transport, public service obligation or PSO is an arrangement in which a governing body or other authority offers an auction for subsidies, permit the winning company a monopoly to operate a specified service of public transport for a specified period of time for the given subsidy...
(PSO) contracts to independent operators. The agency was created on January 1, 2002 and has 35 employees and offices at Byterminalen in Stavanger
Stavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
. All buses operated in Rogaland are branded as Kolumbus and painted green.
The companies that have contracts with Kolumbus are Tide
Tide (transportation company)
Tide ASA is a public transport company in Hordaland, Norway which resulted from the merger of Gaia Trafikk and Hardanger Sunnhordlandske Dampskipsselskap . The company provides the public transit network in the city of Bergen, and most of the bus service in Hordaland...
, Nettbuss
Nettbuss
Nettbuss AS is the largest bus company in Norway owned by the Norwegian State Railways . It was until 2000 known as NSB Biltrafikk. The company has 14 operating subsidiaries throughout Norway and in Denmark and Sweden....
and Veolia (buses) and Stavangerske
Stavangerske
Stavangerske is a defunct Norwegian ferry operator based in Stavanger. A subsidiary of Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskap , it operates car- and passenger ferries primarily in Rogaland county. The company's ferries with less than 100 seats are operated by Fjordservice...
, Torghatten Trafikkselskap
Torghatten Trafikkselskap
Torghatten ASA is a Norwegian shipping company based in Brønnøysund. The company's areas of operation include operating bus, car ferries, fast ferries, travel agencies, real estate, security and maintenance...
, L. Rødne og Sønner
L. Rødne og Sønner
L. Rødne og Sønner AS is a passenger ferry operating company in Rogaland and Hordaland, Norway. It operates 14 ferries, of which 11 are fast ferries...
and John Arne Helgøy (ferries).
History
In 2003 the first PSO contracts were awarded to in Greater StavangerStavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
. At the same time there was a number of changes in the routes and ticket zones, creating some confusion. In 2006 the routes in Jæren
Jæren
Jæren is a traditional district in the county of Rogaland. The others are Dalane, Ryfylke and Haugalandet.Jæren is the largest flat lowland area in Norway, stretching from the municipality of Randaberg in the north to Hå in the south. The coast is flat compared to the rest of the Norwegian coast,...
and Dalane
Dalane
Dalane is a traditional district in the south-western part of Norway, consisting of the municipalities Lund, Sokndal, Eigersund and Bjerkreim. Dalane is one of the 15 districts in Western Norway....
were also changed to PSO contracts. The same year the new ticketing system was introduced, but this system has had major starting problems, resulting in many trips not being charged and loss of income for the companies.
Kolumbus Card
Electronic ticket
An electronic ticket is a digital ticket. It may be issued by an airline, in road, urban or rail public transport, and in entertainment.-Airline ticket:...
ing system lanched in 2006. It allows all travels with bus, ferry and the commuter trains on Jærbanen
Jærbanen
The Jæren Line long railway line between Stavanger and Egersund, in Jæren, Norway. The line is officially the western-most part of the Sørland Line. Owned by the Norwegian National Rail Administration, the line has double track from Stavanger Station to Sandnes Station, and single track from...
to be paid with the cards. The cards are personal and prepaid and allow the user to charge the card like a prepaid card for a mobile telephone, giving the use a credit
Credit (finance)
Credit is the trust which allows one party to provide resources to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately , but instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date. The resources provided may be financial Credit is the trust...
that can use to pay for travel. The card can also be charged with a monthly ticket. The Kolumbus Card uses non-contact smartcard techonology so the card can stay in the wallet while it is swept by the reader.
The agency has sent the Kolumbus Card to all residents above 16 in Rogaland, but other people can get at free card at the Kolumbus office. There has also been created a miniCard that allows users to pay for only single trips without the Kolumbus Card.