MP: Open latches make the flow smoother and reduces congestion

fourteen years ago was Oslo's municipal traffic company Diamonds a wave of complaints about their newly installed tunnelbanespärrar. Travelers got stuck and corrupted in the doors that slammed fast and hard.

Diamonds solved the problem by opening them completely. Also in Copenhagen, Helsinki and in most major German cities are missing the barriers in public transport.

that such a system makes the traffic smoother because travelers don't have to share at the locks and can use all the inputs on buses.

Tomas Eriksson (MP), chair of the regional assembly. Photo: Lisa Mattisson

the green Party went to the election on to open the latches, an issue they pushed for a long time. But they had to drop the issue in order to reign with the Alliance in the Region of Stockholm.

– Open latches would make the flow smoother and reduce congestion. It would also make public transport more welcoming, "says Tomas Eriksson (MP), regional council, and continues:

" I think there is a psychological effect with the closed latches. Travelers are greeted by a closed door indicates that one must prove their right to be there. We in the green Party see public transport as a vital function in the society, which shall be to all and serve all.

I think there is a psychological effect with the closed latches. Travelers are greeted by a closed door indicates that one must prove their right to be there.

– There is a link between how big the risk is to go there and how many tjuvåker. I maintain that it is not only to open the latches, without the need for a system with ticket inspections, which works.

Tomas Eriksson would like to have it in Berlin. Where there are no barriers, but the inspectors are in plain clothes and make themselves known only when tunnelbanevagnen is rolling. In Berlin tjuvåker fewer than in Stockholm and where the risk plankare ' imprisonment for repeated offences.

"As it looks in Stockholm today, it is easy for a tjuvåkare to just turn around and go to the next stop if he see the inspectors," he says.

reported that the proportion of tjuvåkare in the Stockholm public transport is not decreasing despite a sharp increase in the number of controls. The moderates in the Region of Stockholm is strictly against open latches.

– SL has tried to open the latches at Lock many years ago. The result, terrified with 4.6 million in revenue and increased cheating. This would be transferred to the entire public transport network is expected to hundreds of millions in revenue, " says Kristoffer Tamsons (M), trafikregionråd with responsibility for SL traffic.

Kristoffer Tamsons (M), trafikregionråd. Photo: Magnus Hallgren

positive to the plain-clothes inspectors.

" I do not exclude it. But in the first place, we shall increase the controls.

the Relationship between spärrfri public transport and a high fuskåkande is ambiguous. In Gothenburg you do not need to show any ticket when you get on trams and buses. Where is tjuvåkandet around eight-ten per cent, to compare with the SL-traffic 3.2 per cent. Even in Oslo, the share is higher than in Stockholm; two years ago the proportion was sharper at six per cent.

– We aim to get the figure down to five per cent, writes Knut-Martin Løken, project manager at Oslo kollektivtrafiksbolag Diamonds, in an email to DN.

the share is, however, at about the same level as in Stockholm. Where fuskåkte 3.6 per cent last year. The copenhagen metro also lacks the gatekeepers, and they say that tjuvåkandet of 0.1 per cent – but admits that the very low figure is uncertain.

Oslo metro. Photo: Fredrik Varfjell

Kollektivbolagen measure in different ways, which makes the comparison uncertain. Västtrafik figure is based in online surveys where they ask if the customer has fuskåkt. SL count, however, on how many will be taken in the controls and how many travelers as the inspectors think tjuvåker. In Oslo, it is the inspectors that make the estimation and in Helsinki they expect on how many get caught.