Canceled departures, incomplete information and angry travelers. That was the result when the company Nobina today took over bus traffic in Stockholm’s southern suburbs.
– Traffic starts are always a complicated matter, overnight we phase in 900 employees. During the day, we have canceled 190 departures, says David Erixon, press manager at Nobina.
Problems with the signs, delayed and canceled departures and buses that are empty in the parking lot are some of the things that are written about in the local Facebook groups in the southern suburbs of Älvsjö, Huddinge and Liljeholmen in Stockholm during Monday.
“The drivers don’t seem to know which stops to stop at,” writes a Facebook user.
The chaos is due to the fact that a new traffic operator, Nobina, has taken over Stockholm traffic in Söderort, Huddinge and Botkyrka.
190 departures have been cancelled
Nobina’s press manager, David Erixson, says that although they have been working on start-up, introduction and technology for months, it was only this weekend that they got access to all staff, which has made the start-up, where around 70 new electric buses would be phased in, more difficult.
– Traffic starts are always a complicated matter, overnight we introduce 900 employees to new technology. During the day, we have canceled 190 departures, says David Erixon to TV4 Nyheterna and continues:
– 95 percent of all trips have gone as they should, but it doesn’t help the person who waits for the bus and is late for work, so you have to be humble about that and you can only apologize for that.
SL warned in advance
He says that they have a large staff working “literally day and night” to make sure that all employees who have not had access to the training for the new electric buses get it.
SL already warned in advance that there would be delays in connection with the change from older to newer buses and risks of lack of traffic information in the app and on the traffic boards. “This is because the vehicles move from Keolis to Nobina with only one day’s notice,” writes Region Stockholm in a press release.
There has previously been a “mood of rebellion among bus drivers” before the new traffic operator Nobina would take over because they would get fewer and fewer pee breaks.