Sørlandsruta

Sørlandsruta AS
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryBus transport
Founded1951 (1951)
FateMerger
SuccessorConnect Bus
HeadquartersMandal, Norway
Area served
Agder, Norway
Revenue70 million kr (2009)
Number of employees
130 (2017)
Parent
Websitesorlandsruta.no

Sørlandsruta AS was a bus company which operated in Agder, Norway between 1951 and 2023.

Sørlandsruta was founded in 1951 as a merger between thirteen bus companies in Vest-Agder. It merged with Søgneruta in 1965. Sørlandsruta was originally headquartered in Kristiansand, but moved its head office to Mandal in 1965.[1] It underwent a three-way merger effective 1 January 1984 with Agder Bilruter and De Sammensluttede Bilruter. Two years later it bought Flekkefjord Bilruter.[2]

Norgesbuss bought Sørlandsruta in 1995,[3] but sold it the following year to TK Brøvig.[4] Ownership passed to FOB Holding in 2007,[1] before Sørlandsruta was sold to Torghatten in November.[5] Traditionally, the most important route was Kristiansand–Mandal–Farsund–Flekkefjord that operates on a half-hour headway.

Sørlandsruta's core operations were made subject to public service obligation from 2012. The company won the inaugural tender with Vest-Agder Kollektivtrafikk. They then won the contract for the neighboring areas of Flekkefjord, Kvinesdal and Sirdal, starting in 2016.[6][7][8] Due to the county merger in 2020, administration of the routes passed that year to Agder Kollektivtrafikk.

The Swedish private equity fund EQT and the Norwegian government-owned private equity company Nysnø bought Torghatten, a publicly listed company with many small owners, in March 2021, paying 7 billion kroner for the company.[9] EQT immediately started selling off all of Torghatten's assets and operations which were not related to ferry operations. The company's bus operations, though the subsidiaries Norgesbuss, Sørlandsruta, Torghatten Buss and TrønderBilene, where sold to CBRE Investment Management.[10] CBRE established the common brand Connect Bus, which Torghatten Buss and the other companies were merged into. Between them, the four bus companies had 2200 employees and 1500 buses.[11] Sørlandsruta was briefly renamed Connect Bus Sørlandsruta in 2022, before being merged into Connect bus in October 2023.

References

  1. 1 2 "Historie" (in Norwegian). Sørlandsruta. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  2. ↑ Aukland, Lodin (1998). Med rutebilen gjennom Vest-Agder (in Norwegian). Kristiansand: Rutebilhistorisk Forning. p. 144. ISBN 8299484502.
  3. ↑ "Norgesbuss kjøper opp Sørlandsruta". Fædrelandsvennen (in Norwegian). 7 November 1995. p. 19.
  4. ↑ "Eier og driver 225 busser". Fædrelandsvennen (in Norwegian). 20 June 1996. p. 6.
  5. ↑ "Nye eiere i Sørlandsruta". Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. 30 November 2009. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  6. ↑ "Sørlandsruta AS vant anbudet om busstjenester i Mandal, Lindesnes og Lista". Vest-Agder County Municipality. 17 August 2011. Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Viktig anbudsseier". Brønnøysunds Avis. 21 September 2011. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "Sørlandsruta vant ny anbudskontrakt". Torghatten. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  9. ↑ Forland, Gisle (1 March 2021). "Liten kommune fikk mange nye millionærer over natta: – Blir vel noen nye Teslaer og boblebad" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  10. ↑ Tømmerås, Ola (6 October 2021). "Oppkjøpsfond overtar en av Norges største bussoperatører: – Dårlig nytt for offentlig kollektivtransport" (in Norwegian). FriFagbevegelse. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  11. ↑ "Selger bussvirksomheten" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 September 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2026.
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