Tickets for buses and the light rail in Aarhus will cost 15 kroner from 2027, after city council politicians reached agreement on the municipality’s budget deal on Thursday evening. The move marks one of the most significant public transport price cuts seen in a major Danish city in recent years, aimed at making buses and the light rail a genuinely cheap, everyday option for residents.
35 million kroner a year set aside
The municipality will set aside 35 million kroner annually from 2027 to bring ticket prices down to 15 kroner, according to TV 2 Østjylland. That figure stands in notable contrast to an earlier estimate from a consulting firm, which had put the cost of introducing 15 kroner tickets across the municipality’s full bus and light rail network as high as 122 million kroner a year, though that number came with a degree of uncertainty attached.
Mayor Anders Winnerskjold (Social Democrats) judged that the actual cost of the scheme would end up considerably lower than the consultants’ estimate, and according to TV 2 Østjylland, succeeded in convincing the rest of the city council to back that more optimistic assessment during budget negotiations. The gap between the two figures is likely to draw scrutiny once the scheme is up and running, since the final cost to the municipality will only become clear once ridership under the new pricing is measured over time.
A trial that’s already underway
Since March, residents of Aarhus have already been able to buy 15 kroner bus tickets on three bus routes as part of a trial period, giving the city council real world data to draw on ahead of the wider rollout now confirmed for 2027. Extending the discounted price to the entire bus network and the light rail would make Aarhus one of the more affordable Danish cities for everyday public transport, at a time when ticket prices in several other European capitals, Copenhagen included, have been rising rather than falling.
