TrønderBilene AS (TB) was a bus company operating in Trøndelag and Innlandet in Norway, and Jämtland in Sweden.
The company was established as Fylkesbilene i Nord-Trøndelag (FBNT) in 1920, as a county-owned bus company. It gradually secured most of the bus routes in Innherred and Namdalen. It was also briefly a ferry operator, between 1920 and 1922. In the 1990s, it became the operator of urban bus services: Buster in Steinkjer, Blåmann in Levanger and Verdalsøra, and Elgen in Namsos.
The company was partially privatized in 1999, when Fosen Trafikklag bought 66 percent of the company. Fosen merged in its own operations in Fosen. TrønderBilene bought, and later merged, with Bilruta Frosta–Åsen, Gauldal Billag and Østerdal Billag. Torghatten secured full ownership of TrønderBilene in 2010. Contracts became subject to public service obligation, and TrønderBilene won contracts in both rural Trøndelag, Trondheim and Innlandet. Torghatten sold TrønderBilene to Connect Bus in 2021, who merged in 2023.
Operation
TrønderBilene is an operator of scheduled, charter and school buses, as well as trucks and mechanical services. The main areas of operation are the districts of Innherred, Namdal and Fosen, and the islands of Hitra and Frøya. As of 2009, the company has 324 employees who do 285 man-years. TrønderBilene has 238 buses, and the majority of these are used for school transport. The scheduled bus transport is on contract with Trøndelag County Municipality based on concessions with subsidies. The company also operates urban buses in four towns in Trøndelag: Buster in Steinkjer, Blåmann in Levanger and Verdalsøra, and Elgen in Namsos. The express bus from Namsos via Steinkjer to Trondheim operates as part of Nor-Way Bussekspress. Bus transport accounts for 80% of the company's revenue.
The company has three main mechanical depots, in Åfjord, Namsos, and Steinkjer, as well as four garages in Frosta, Kolvereid, Levanger, and Rissa. Twenty-four people work at the garages, and the company sells services to other bus and truck operators. The company also operates trucks on contract with Schenker.
History
Predecessors The first bus service in Nord-Trøndelag opened on 25 July 1908, when Stenkjær og Namsos Automobilselskap started a service from Steinkjer to Rødhammeren. The route started at Steinkjer Station, where it connected to the Hell–Sunnan Line that had opened three years earlier, and ran to the south shore of the fjordarm Løgnin, where a ferry took passengers to Namsos. The company bought two seven-seat Rex Simplex cars, which made the route in two and a half hours. It was the second bus route in Norway and the first to also carry post.
The next bus company to start in Nord-Trøndelag was Namdalen Automobilselskap. In June 1913, it started a route from Namsos to Fiskum, using a seven-seat Labuire. The route was later the same year extended to Brekkvasselv, and a year later onwards to Gjersvika. By 1920, the company had six cars. In Verdal Municipality, John Fiske started a route from Verdalsøra and Verdal Station on the Hell–Sunnan Line, to Sandvika, adjacent the Swedish border. Fiske bought two Dodge cars, that were still in service in 1920. Inderøy Automobillag was founded in 1917, and operated a route from Røra Station on the Hell–Sunnan Line via Straumen to Utøy.
Establishment The idea to have a county-owned bus company was launched by engineer Emil Astrup, who was head of the Public Roads Administration in Nord-Trøndelag. He wrote a letter in 1918, where he stated that it would be more operationally efficient and easier to coordinate traffic if the bus routes in the county were merged into a single entity that was controlled by a political body. He also wanted to introduce cross subsidies, where profitable routes on main roads would pay the losses suffered on marginal routes in less populated areas. Negotiations with the four incumbent operators started in 1920, and agreements were made whereby the county would purchase them for 560 thousand kroner. The money was borrowed as county-guaranteed bonds. The purchase gave Fylkesbilene 18 cars.
Fylkesbilene i Nord-Trøndelag was established as a county agency, with County Governor Halvor Bachke Guldahl as the first chair. The board was identical to the County Road Board. In addition to the existing routes, the company established new routes from Steinkjer to Ogndal, from Steinkjer to Kvam, from Verdalsøra to Grunnan, from Namsos to Nordli Municipality and from Namsos via Høylandet to Kongsmo. The routes were largely planned to supplement the railway line, that would operate as the main artery north–south through Innherred. The company also took over the operation of the ferry from Rødhammeren to Namsos. It took over the ferry SS Oma that had been in service since 1912. Oma was 28.13 tonnes and had a capacity for 50 passengers. It was replaced by the 100-passenger SS Kaulgarden in 1921, that was in service until 1922, when the Namsen Bridge was opened. This was the only ferry service operated by Fylkesbilene.
Pre-war operations The first year of operation showed 21,000 passengers and a profit of 41,000 kroner. During 1920, there was a strike in the Norwegian State Railways, and Fylkesbilene had to operate a post car on the route from Trondheim via Steinkjer to Sunnan. The company's first head office was at Grand Hotell in Steinkjer, a block away from the railway station. In 1929, the Nordland Line opened from Sunnan via Snåsa to Grong, and the bus route was terminated. In 1928, the company bought its first buses, a series of 16 and 22-seat vehicles from Strømmens Værksted. Studebakers were introduced in 1937 and Volvos in 1938. A bus terminal and offices were built in the center of Steinkjer in 1938. In 1938, the route from Steinkjer to Follafoss and from Steinkjer to Sandvollan, Kjerknesvågen and Utøy were opened.
When World War II broke out in Norway on 9 April 1940, all the company's buses were taken over by the armed forces. From 17 May, the buses were returned to the company, but quotas for petrol were introduced, and the company was forced to install wood gasifiers on its fleet. Both Steinkjer and Namsos were bombed in 1940, but in both towns the company's facilities survived, except the garage in Steinkjer. The buses were at the time spread around the county, and only a single bus was destroyed. After the war ended in 1945, the company had 21 operational buses. The company needed to have a license to purchase buses, and in the following five years, 17 buses were bought for about 1 million kroner. They were mostly Volvos and Scania-Vabis, including one from the municipal bus company in Høylandet Municipality. In 1946, Fylkesbilene bought Kvam Billag and the routes from Steinkjer to Øvre Kvam. At the same time, the route to Follafoss was extended to the county border at Verrabotn. From 1 January 1948, Fylkesbilene bought the private bus operators in Ytre Namdal, and started routes from Vikna Municipality, Nærøy Municipality, Leka Municipality and Bindal Municipality via Otterøy Municipality to Namsos. The company in Høylandet was bought to allow direct connection from Ytre Namdal via Høylandet to Grong. The same year, the company introduced a direct service between Verdalsøra and Levanger, that previously had only been served by the railway. Post-war operations
On 16 December 1948, the snowmobile route from Steinfjellet to Gjersvika was opened. Within two weeks, additional routes were introduced from Brekkvasselv to Gjersvika and over Lifjellet. The company had four Bombardier vehicles for the routes. The routes were terminated in the early 1960s, when proper roads were built. A new bus station opened in Namsos in 1953, with the city receiving a new depot three years later. Routes from Steinkjer to Stod were started in 1961, after Fylkesbilene bought Østgårds, and the following year from Steinkjer to Vingsand. From 1964, the board was no longer identical to the County Road Board, but was instead directly appointed by the county council.
In 1965, Fylkesbilene attempted an airport coach service from Steinkjer and Levanger to Trondheim Airport, Værnes, but failed to make money and terminated it the same year. The same year, the company established a route from Vanvikan via Leksvik to Mosvik and onwards to Steinkjer. From 1 January 1967, the company took over the route Vanvikan–Kråkmo and started a direct service from Leksvik to Trondheim. In 1966, the first town buses were introduced in Namsos, in 1967, a direct route from Namsos via Foldereid to Rørvik was introduced, and on 1 February 1968, the company took over Olav Hårberg's route from Namsos to Kjerstivika. From 1 July 1969, a combined bus and cargo route was established from Namsos to Sørli. The company's main depot was opened on 25 November 1969 outside Steinkjer, and cost 2 million kroner.
In 1972, the company opened a garage in Verdal for 680,000 kroner. It was supplemented by two urban services, to Brannan and Ydsedalen, in 1975. In 1973, Fylkesbilene introduced a route parallel to the Nordland Line from Steinkjer via Snåsa to Grong. Routes in Beitstad were taken over from Ivar Sems Bilruter on 1 November 1976. School routes in Overhalla were taken over in 1977. In 1978, passenger transport on the Namsos Line from Grong to Namsos was terminated, and Fylkesbilene took over the route. On 1 April 1979, Fylkesbilene took over the routes and nine buses in Levanger from Fjerdingen Busselskap, including five scheduled services and four school services.
On 29 April 1979, Fylkesbilene opened its combined bus station and train station at Steinkjer Station. It was the first such combined station in Norway, having cost 3.7 million kroner. In 1981, Fylkesbilene bought Arne Bruem's concessions and buses that operated the town bus in Steinkjer. From 1 September 1985, the infrastructure was upgrade and higher frequency introduced. The yellow Buster buses were introduced on the town routes in 1991. A garage was opened in Kolvereid in 1979, costing 1.5 million kroner. From 15 September 1983, Fylkesbilene started distribution of food produce from the cooperatives Namdalsmeieriet, Bøndenes Salgslag and Gartnerhallen to food stores in Namdalen, in a cooperation to reduce transport costs. In Verdalsøra, the company opened a bus station at Verdal Station on 1 October 1983 for 2 million kroner. In 1985, the bus route from Ytre Namdal was moved, so it went to Grong instead of Namsos.
A town bus service was introduced in Levanger in 1985. In 1989, a new depot opened in Levanger. The same year, the company introduced the Environment Card monthly pass, that halved the price. The following year, the company's ridership doubled. 1990 also saw the introduction of a new livery: the old brown, red and beige colors were replaced with a "eurowhite" livery with a brown, red and beige cheatline. From 1994, the Blåmann town bus branding was introduced in Levanger and Verdal.
TrønderReiser The work to establish a charter division began in the early 1980s, when the company realized that it had a large amount of idle capacity during the daytime, in the evenings and in the weekends. A concession was granted in 1983 and the first trip was from Follafoss to Meråker for two days. In 1984, eight trips were offered, and six were made. Sales were done through Bennett Reisebureau and NSB Reisebyrå. By 1986, the division had a revenue of 4 million kroner and by 1994, it had reached 17 million and offered 92 trips. That year, the division was rebranded TrønderReiser, before being sold to some of the employees in 1997. Ownership passed to Sende Busstrafikk in 1999, but by then the floor had fallen out of the bus tour market, and it filed for bankruptcy in December 2000.
Privatization