Arbeiderpartiet (AP) leader Jonas Gahr Støre was caught at ticket control for not having a valid ticket at the Stortinget Metro station in Oslo on Thursday morning.
“My app is not working. When I press the pay button, it doesn’t work. Nevertheless, I received a fee,” the labour party leader explained to Dagens Næringsliv.
The newspaper was coincidentally with ticket controllers in Oslo when they met the leader of the AP. Støre confirmed to the newspaper that he was charged because he could not show a valid ticket.
Støre came from Denmark on Thursday morning. He then took the subway from the Railway Square to the Storting.
“The app usually works just fine, but today it locked so I could not buy a ticket. Then I should have left the subway, but I hoped it would work better along the way. So it did not, and thus it was a very expensive trip but I have to cope with it,” said Støre to NTB.
Ruter posted the following message on Twitter later on Thursday: “There have been no technical challenges with our RuterBillett app today. If there is downtime in the app, you will be notified of technical issues when trying to purchase.”
Ticket control on the subway is carried out by Sporveien, on Ruter’s behalf. It costs 950 kroner if you are caught travelling without a ticket and you settle the fee on the spot. It will be 200 kroner more expensive if you choose to pay after you have been invoiced.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
This one I can’t resist to comment:
Actually, the really remarkable part is a political leader to take the subway as all the other citizens. Congratulations Jonas, & congratulations Norway. We don’t see this in most other countries.