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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.

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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Norway’s famous Trollstigen road to be closed for the rest of 2024

The Trollstigen road was closed for the rest of the year by officials in west Norway on Thursday, less than two weeks after it opened for the summer.

Norway's famous Trollstigen road to be closed for the rest of 2024

Norway’s iconic Trollstigen road was closed by Møre and Romsdal county council on Thursday after six rockfalls in ten days.

The closure comes after the road was only opened for summer on June 7th. When the road opened this year, several measures were implemented to try to reduce congestion and the risk of rockfalls.

“Now it is the case that we have tried with all possible means to keep this road open. But now it’s the case that now we just have to stop before someone gets seriously injured or loses their life,” county road manager Ole Jan Tønnesen told public broadcaster NRK.

Geologists examined the road before the final decision to close it for summer. After a car was hit by a rock on Monday, geologists, the council, and a private contractor carried out a risk assessment.

The road, a mountain pass famous for its 11 hairpin turns, is on county road 63 between the municipalities of Rauma and Fjord. Around a million people use the road every year.

The Trollstigen plateau would remain open from the Valldall side. The plateau has a car park and several viewing platforms for visitors to take in a view of the famous hairpin bends on the mountain road.

READ ALSO: Which parts of Norway are likely to be overcrowded with tourists this summer?

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