Free bus and 40 % discount on express boats

From 22nd August there will be a period with free bus in an area around Ålesund town, Sula and Giske.

The objective of the campaign is to encourage more people to try public transport. The free period starts the same day as the road toll is introduced in Ålesund.

Free bus applies when you start and end your trip in the defined area

The free bus offering is for people who complete the whole journey – i.e. both enter the bus and leave the bus – within the defined area for free transport.

The area for free bus includes the following zones: 300 Ålesund, 302 Moa, 303 Blindheim/Solavågen, 304 Magerholm, 305 Brusdalen, 306 Ellingsøya, 307 Taftesund, 308 Valderøy-Giske, 309 Godøya, 310 Roald, 311 Digernes, 314 Glomset, 321 Langevågen, 322 Sulesund.

Here you can see a map of the area with free bus.

If you trip starts outside the free area, or you start in the free area but will travel to the outside of the defines area, you must pay for the complete journey as before. The same applies if you buy a period ticket that covers an area outside the defined free bus area.

No ticket within the free area

In the period with free bus tickets will not be issued if you both start and end your trip within the free area. Consequently, you will not have a ticket to validate on the ticket reader on board. However, if you travel into the free zone or continue outside the free zone you must have a valid ticket and must validate the ticket on the ticket reader.

Travel guarantee not applicable

The travel guarantee is related to a ticket purchase. When no ticket has been bought, the travel guarantee does not apply. This means that the travel guarantee does not apply to free trips within the defined area.

Refunds

As stated in the fare regulations, the remaining value of a period product can be refunded according to the following guidelines: period ticket 30 days kan be refunded in the period when it is valid. The ticket will be seen as used up until the day it is cancelled. The refund is calculated in accordance with the following formula: price for the period ticket with a deduction of 2 trips to the price of a single ticket minus 17 % discount for the days that the period ticket has been used.

Note that the period ticket for Ålesund is already discounted. If you apply for a refund for an area ticket for Ålesund, there may not be anything left to refund when the refund formula has been applied.

There will be more people on the buses

In the period with free bus, we expect more passengers on the buses. There will be extra buses to the extent that we are able to. These buses may be tour buses without FRAM profile.

Some days it will not be possible to add extra buses due to a lack of buses and/or drivers.

We ask all our passengers to be considerate of fellow passengers, use the available space on the buses, listen to directions from the driver, and wait for the next bus if the bus is completely full. Between Ålesund town centre and Moa there is a buss every 10 minutes in the rush hours and approx. every 20 minutes during the day outside of the rush hours.

If you normally travel with a bus that is fairly full and you need to be somewhere to a specific time, for example start of school, we recommend taking an earlier bus than what you normally do.

40 % discount on all express boats to and from Ålesund

From 22nd August there will also be a 40 % discount on all express boats to and from Ålesund. The discount applies to all ticket types and is for the routes Hareid-Valderøy-Ålesund, Langevåg-Ålesund and the Nordøy route.

Note! There will be a completely new setup for public transport to and from Nordøyane from 28th August, when the Nordøyvegen is open.

New bus line numbers and efficiency measures

The buses will mainly drive the same routes as before – with some adjustments, but the three-digit line numbers will be replaced. There will be four main lines with numbers 1 to 4 and local lines with two-digit numbers

You can see the line map for buses in Ålesund from 22nd August 2022 here.

The background for the changes is a wish to simplify the line structure, make the bus service as predictable as possible and to reduce travel time where possible.

In 2018 FRAM introduced different line numbers for each direction of a bus line. This resulted in a a very complex system with many line numbers. With this renumbering we will have four main lines for the biggest routes, making it easier for the public to find their way in the system.

This transition is part of the work connected to Bypakke Ålesund and the plan for the development of Ålesund central area towards 2030, which is a cooperation between Møre og Romsdal Fylkeskommune (Møre and Romsdal county authority), Ålesund kommune (the municipality of Ålesund) and Statens vegvesen (The Norwegian Public Roads Administration).

These are the new bus line numbers

The following lines will be discontinued in their current form

Important changes

• New main line 1 Hessa-sentrum-Moa-Myrland (current lines 601/602):
  • The bus to and from Slinningsodden will be changed from a ring route to a pendulum style route. There will be a new turning point at Slinningsodden, and the bus will drive the same route back and forth, on the south side of Hessa. Most of the people living along the current route on the north side have a short walking distance to an alternative bus stop on the south side.
  • Changing to a pendulum style route means that the travel time between Hessa and Ålesund town centre will be reduced with a minimum of 5 minutes and as much as 10 minutes on certain departures. 
  • With the new driving route, passengers avoid having to take a “round trip”. Also, the bus will no longer be stopping at Skarbøvik ungdomsskole to adjust to the scheduled time. All regulation will now take place at the end stops.
  • Departures that serve as school transport to/from Hessa school will use the same driving route as previously, on the north side at Slinningen (one departure in the morning, two in the afternoon).
  • The bus will still alternate from Sævollen and Slinningsodden.
  • Line 1 will go to Myrland during day time, as today, but only to Moa in the evenings and weekends. This means that this line will no longer go all the way to Magerholm evenings and weekends. The distance Moa-Magerholm will be serviced by the new line 2. This will give a reduced service offering evenings and weekends to/from Myrland.
• The new main line 2 Sentrum-Moa-Magerholm (current lines 631/632) will go evenings and weekends in addition to the current day time schedule. This is very positive for the inhabitants of the Flisnes-Emblem area, who will get shorter travel time in the evenings and weekends, as they will not have to travel via Myrland.
• New local line 12 Ålesund-Lerstadbakken-Moa-Fremmerholen (current lines 633/634) will include current line 644 Fremmerholen. The bus stop Atlanterhavsparken will no longer be serviced due to high variations in passenger numbers. The nearest stop to Atlanterhavsparken aquarium will be Tuenesvegen (approx. 1 km from the Atlanterhavsparken aquarium).
• Line 649 Bestillingsbussen (on-demand line) will be discontinued. With the new structure, the service in Lerstadvegen will be improved, providing a better regular bus service for most of the inhabitants in the area that is now being serviced byt “bestillingsruta”. There will be departures to Fjelltun with line 10 both Saturday evening and Sunday.
• The night bus will drive the same route and have the same departures as before, but will have a separate line number.
• For several lines there will be adjustments to remove minor differences in departure times between summer and winter, allowing for one schedule for the whole year.

Mesures at bus stops

Together with the line restructuring, FRAM will implement measures to improve the information setup at bus stops. Some of these measures will be implemented at the same time as the line number changes, whereas other measures will be implemented at a later stage.

• The bus stops along the main lines will have signage indicating which lines that service the stop. The largest stops (the stops with the most passengers) will be prioritized and the other bus stops will follow.
• On the largest bus stops where there is a bus shelter and electricity available, electronic signs that indicate the next departures will be installed. This will not be in place for the 22nd August, but will be implemented as soon as possible.
• FRAM will establish a standard for other types of information that should be available at bus stops and implement the standard as soon as possible.