Color Line’s new “no-show” fee for day-trip passengers has cut last-minute cancellations by more than half since it took effect on 24 March, the Norwegian ferry operator said on Thursday. Under the policy, travellers who book a day return from Oslo, Kristiansand or other ports but fail to board are charged 300 NOK (€27) unless they cancel at least 24 hours in advance. “The measure has had a clear effect,” a company spokeswoman told Aftenposten . She added that the fee also frees up scarce cabin space for passengers who genuinely intend to travel.
The initiative comes as Norway’s domestic ferry sector faces chronic overbooking during the summer season. Last year, Color Line and its rivals logged more than 12,000 no-shows on day routes between March and October, forcing operators to turn away ticket holders and triggering complaints from drivers waiting for onward connections. Transport authorities welcomed the move, noting that it aligns with similar policies already in place on Swedish and Danish domestic ferries.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s public-transport authority, SL, warned of “increased risk of delays and crowding” on Stockholm’s Red Line after a signal fault entered its second week. Reduced speeds between T-Centralen and Mörby centrum have cut peak-hour capacity by 15 %, and engineers have yet to identify the root cause. “We are running at lower speeds to ensure safety, but that inevitably means longer dwell times and more knock-on effects,” said Andreas Strömberg, SL’s operations director . The disruption coincides with the final stretch of the school year and the start of summer tourism, raising concerns about rush-hour gridlock.
In Estonia, the Rescue Service is collecting public feedback on Wednesday’s nationwide EE-ALARM test, the country’s first full-scale public warning system drill. Residents have until Friday to report whether sirens, mobile alerts and radio broadcasts reached them in time. “We need to know if the system works as designed,” said a spokeswoman for the service . The test follows a 2024 audit that found 12 % of sirens were non-functional during a smaller exercise.
Across the continent, France’s Zero Waste movement has delivered a critical assessment of the country’s experimental glass-deposit scheme, launched a year ago in four regions. The association found that only 34 % of supermarkets actually offered the service, and contamination rates reached 18 %, making recycling inefficient. “The pilot was poorly coordinated and under-resourced,” said Laura Martin of Zero Waste France . The government has yet to announce whether the scheme will be expanded or scrapped.