Norway gives green light to controversial train firm merger
The merger process was supposed to begin at the turn of the year, but it was held up by the Norwegian Competition Authority, which ruled on Wednesday that there was no basis to halt Flytoget from becoming a subsidiary of state-owned Vy.
'After an overall assessment of the case, we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence that the merger significantly impedes effective competition and that there is, therefore, no basis for intervention,' Vegard Aandal-Nilsen from the Norwegian competition authority said.
The watchdog looked into the merger as Vy and Flytoget are the only rail firms offering services between Drammen and Oslo Airport. As a result, the authorities were concerned that the lack of competition would lead to increased prices and worsened service.
A completion date of 2028 has been set for the merging of the two state-owned train firms.
When the merger was proposed last year, transport minister Jon-Ivar Nygård said passengers would eventually be able to use tickets across the same services.
Under current rules, travellers with Vy cannot use their tickets on Flytoget services and vice versa, even though both companies stop at several of the same stops and use the same lines.
Tickets for Vy's services from Oslo to the airport are currently around 100 kroner cheaper than Flytoget's and can be bought via the Ruter transport app, but these services also take around 10 minutes longer to get to the airport from the city centre.
Norway's government has argued that merging the two firms would increase capacity for trains in and out of Oslo without building new infrastructure.
However, union officials working in Flytoget, the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, and opposition parties such as the Conservative Party and the Progress Party have been critical of the merger.
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