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Longest railway tunnel in the Nordics to be officially opened on Monday

The Follo Line (Follobanen) railway tunnel project has been completed, and now commuters can enjoy 11-minute-long trips from Oslo to Ski through the Nordic region's longest railway tunnel.

Published: 11 December 2022 13:52 CET

Blix tunnel

On Sunday, the first trains departed on the new section between Oslo and Ski. Photo by Nicolas Tourrenc / Bane NOR / Press

“Today is a historic day, and we are proud to open the Follobanen to traffic so that travellers can feel the positive effects of one of our largest modernization projects in the last ten years,” Bane Nor chief Gorm Frimannslund said, according to news bureau NTB.

On Sunday, the first trains departed on the new section between Oslo and Ski via what is the Nordic region’s longest railway tunnel.

The official opening will be held on Monday morning at Oslo Central Station. King Harald, Crown Prince Haakon, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Transport Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård will be present at the opening.

With a top speed of 250 kilometres per hour, the trains will ensure that the journey time between Oslo and Ski is halved from 22 to 11 minutes.

Potential benefits

Ambitions are high in Ski Municipality, which has a number of construction projects underway. The municipality has planned to build over 4,000 new homes in the city centre over the next two decades, the newspaper Aftenposten writes.

“Railway construction is community building. Historically, the railway has set the lines where cities and towns were established.

“With the Follobanen, we are now making arrangements for Oslo and the areas south-east of Oslo to become a shared living and working area. It will be easier to have a greater distance between home and work, and everyday commuting will improve in the entire region,” Frimannslund added.

Delays

The need for increased capacity on the railway line between Oslo and Ski was already present at the end of the 1980s.

After many years and multiple reports, preliminary work on the Follobanen started in 2010 before the main works started in 2015.

The extensive project has experienced several delays and budget breaches, with a final price tag amounting to 36.8 billion kroner.

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Everything you need to know about Oslo's public transport network

Being the Norwegian capital, it’s no surprise that Oslo has a robust public transport network. You can use a public transport ticket for everything from ferries and buses to trams and trains.

One company, Ruter, handles public transport for the city and the surrounding Akershus area.

Thankfully, you’ll only need a single app or travel card to get around the city. This applies to the different forms of public transport, too. You can go from a bus to a tram to a ferry without having to use a different app or purchase a different kind of ticket.

The Ruter app is the only place to buy tickets digitally, and it is available in English. This app also has integrated map features so you can find the best way to get where you need to be and what zones your ticket will cover.

When it comes to the zones themselves, there are five. The cost of a ticket increases as you travel across zones. However, the main thing to know is that zone one covers the entirety of Oslo itself, and the other zones extend into the surrounding areas of Oslo.

Furthermore, some sections of the public transport network, such as the metro, only operate in zone one, so you don’t need to worry when buying tickets.

Tickets

Ruter offers tickets for single journeys, 24 hours, a week, 30 days, or a year. For those commuting inside and out of Oslo, you can add additional zones to the ticket.

The single ticket currently costs 42 kroner for an adult travelling in one zone . There is a flexible scheme currently in place which makes single tickets cheaper the more frequently you buy them.

This discount resets every 30 days. There are also discounts for children, pensioners, and those in the Norwegian Armed Forces.

A single ticket is valid for 60 minutes and allows unlimited transfers. The ticket duration is extended for every extra zone one travels through. For example, this is handy if you are taking a regional train from the airport to the city centre.

Meanwhile, a 24-hour ticket costs 127 kroner, a monthly ticket is 897 kroner (but will soon be reduced), and an annual ticket is 8,996 kroner. The longer the duration of the ticket, the more money you will save.

Those caught travelling without a ticket will typically be fined 1,470 kroner, or 1,200 kroner if the fine is paid on the spot.

The different transport options

There are two kinds of buses in Oslo: the red ones that operate solely in the city and the green ones that shuttle people in and out of the greater Oslo region.

You can get on the red buses at any of the doors, and some of the green ones need you to show your ticket at the front door.

Buses don’t operate 24/7. However, some of the most important routes will have a nighttime schedule.

There are also six tram lines in Oslo, with around 99 stops and 130,000 daily passengers. The trams are suitable for those with mobility issues as the doors open at pavement level. Most lines remain within Oslo, but line 13 ends in Bekkestua in Bærum, one of the municipalities that borders Oslo.

Oslo’s metro, or T-bane, is popular with both commuters and leisure travellers. There are five metro lines, and all lines converge in the city centre via a shared tunnel. The metro line is particularly good at connecting the city to its forested areas, with plenty of hikes and trails branching off from metro stops.

Passenger ferries connect the city to the islands in the Oslofjord. These ferries are a stone’s throw from Oslo town hall at Aker Brygge. There are also commuter ferries connecting Oslo and towns like Nessoden and Drøbak.

Several commuter train lines exist in Norway. In recent years, these have been plagued by punctuality issues.

Regional trains in Norway carry the R designation (the R11, for example), and you can use Ruter tickets for this. An example is using a Ruter ticket to take the cheaper regional trains from the airport to Oslo rather than the express service.

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