Despite massive protests from local residents, Trondheim Sporvei's board chose in 1963 to follow the director's proposal, with three against two votes. A Büssing bus from Oslo Sporveier was put into service for test runs from 22 September 1966. The buses had problems keeping the schedule, but this was because they were single manned. Four such buses had been ordered by Graakalbanen, the other municipal tram company where Hovdenak also was director. Since they were a limited company, they did not neet political approval to perform such purchases. In exchange for renting the buses, Graakalbanen would rent some trams from Trondheim Sporvei. 1967 ended with a loss of NOK 340,000. Hovdenak believed that the following year would give a loss of NOK 1.6 million for tram and 1.2 million for bus operation. Line 3 had the least passenger of the three tram lines, with 2.3 million passengers annually. This was in part because it did not get more passengers when running through the city center.