Several bus routes in the town and municipality of Herning will be entirely free to residents in a pilot project launching on October 1st, the Midttrafik regional transport operator said in a press release.
The buses – routes 140, 150, 160, 168 and 169 – are a mix of yellow city buses and blue regional buses.
The pilot project will be in place for an initial six months, expiring at the end of March 2025.
In addition to the offer of free buses, young people aged 16-26 will be able to purchase a cheap travel card, the HerningUNG card, providing cheap travel on all city and regional buses within Herning Municipality.
The travel card will come at a cost of 210 kroner and allow unlimited journeys on both city and regional buses in Herning. Blue bus journeys that leave the municipality will require the card holder to buy an additional ticket for the section which is not within Herning Municipality.
Cheap youth travel and free buses form part of Herning Municipality’s climate strategy, which involves encouraging more people to choose public transport.
“We want to motivate more people to use the public transport services we already have in the municipality,” official with Herning’s city council, John Thomsen said in the press releases.
The director of Midttrafik, Lars Berg, said the regional transport operator was interested to see whether the pilot project would be successful in incentivising bus travel.
“Midttrafik naturally supports Herning Municipality’s efforts to get more customers to take the bus,” he said.
“We are particularly interested in how many young people get the cheap commuter card. Many youth education programmes are struggling with congestion from cars and overcrowded car parks. In addition we have the climate problem. This is therefore a win-win in several ways if we can get young people to take the bus instead of a car,” he added.
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