(English: Travelcard; formerly named Flexus) is an

electronic ticket An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries. Airline ticket E-tickets in the airline industry were devised in about 1994, an ...

system that was introduced on all

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

Greater Oslo Greater Oslo Region ("Stor-Oslo-regionen" in Norwegian) is a statistical metropolitan region surrounding the Norwegian capital of Oslo, with a total number of inhabitants of 1,954,329 as of 1 January 2025. The region includes the city proper o ...

, in 2009 using

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...

technology. The system may eventually replace all paper tickets on trips with

Ruter Ruter AS is the public transport authority for Oslo and Akershus counties in Norway. Formally a limited company – 60% of its shares are owned by the Oslo county municipality and 40% by that of Akershus – it is responsible for the administrat ...

(formerly

Oslo Sporveier AS Oslo Sporveier is a defunct municipal owned company responsible for public transport in Oslo, Norway. It was created in 1924 to take over the city's two private tram companies. In 1927 its started with bus transport, including from 1940 to 1 ...

and

Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk Stor-Oslo Lokaltrafikk AS or SL was the public transport administration for bus and ferry transport in Akershus, Norway from 1973 to 2007. SL was organised as a aksjeselskap, limited company owned by the Akershus county municipality, the Oslo, Ci ...

) and

commuter train Commuter rail or suburban rail is a passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Commuter rail systems can use locomotive-hauled tr ...

s around Oslo operated by the

Norwegian State Railways Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *Norwegian language, including the two ...

. By the end of 2010, there were 340,000 active cards used by Ruter's customer, an increase from 82,000 in January same year. In 2011, the two companies using the Flexus cards decided to stop using the Flexus name and design, instead using different cards, but still with common technology and equal opportunity to buy the same tickets as before these changes in name and design. The cards are from that year named either ''NSB-kort'' for cards produced by NSB or ''Ruter Reisekortet'' (Ruter travel card) for cards produced by Ruter. The goal of the system is to ease and quicken the process of purchasing ticket, create better information about actual travel and reduce non-paying passengers. The system utilises

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...

technology on

smart card A smart card (SC), chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card), is a card used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an Embedded system, embedded integrated circuit (IC) chip. Many smart ...

s and allows an electronic payment to be made via contactless communication between the card and a verifier. A system of one-time tickets called Impuls was also developed. There have been many delays concerning the implementation of the system, that originally was to be taken into use in 2005. The system is partially copied from the Dutch

OV-chipkaart The OV-chipkaart (, short for ''openbaar vervoer chipkaart'' , meaning ''public transport chipcard'') is a contactless smart card and integrated ticketing system used for all public transport in the Netherlands. First introduced in the Rotterda ...

, where testing with the

technology started in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

in 2005. It is now fully operational in The Netherlands. Unlike the OV-chipkaart, Flexus does not provide an

electronic purse Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...

with flexible fare calculation based on distance traveled - it only provides travel products like weekly and monthly passes that will only be valid in zones specified at time of purchase.

References

{{reflist Fare collection systems in Norway Contactless smart cards Public transport in Oslo Public transport in Akershus Oslo Sporveier Norwegian State Railways Smart cards introduced in 2009