SHARE
COPY LINK

TRANSPORT

Follo Line railway tunnel open to traffic again

After being closed for more than ten weeks, the Follo Line (Follobanen) railway tunnel is open to traffic again. The track was opened to regular traffic on Sunday at 7 am.

Follobanen
The Follobanen tunnel - the longest railway tunnel in the Nordics - will be officially opened on Monday. Photo by Øystein Grue / Jernbanedirektoratet / Press

“The Blixtunnel between Oslo S and Ski is open to traffic. Thank you for your patience while we worked (on the issues). Welcome back on board the trains,” Bane Nor wrote in a traffic report just after 7 am on Sunday.

The first train departure with passengers left Ski at 7.24 am and arrived at Oslo S at 7.36 am. A press officer at Vy told the news bureau NTB that everything went according to plan on the first departure.

The Follobanen had to close on December 19th last year, just one week after the multibillion-kroner project was opened to traffic.

Bane Nor welcomes back passengers

In a press release, the head of Bane Nor, Gorm Frimannslund, said he is happy that the company can finally welcome passengers back to Follobanen from Sunday.

“This has been a very difficult situation for Bane Nor as an organization and me as CEO and senior manager. It has been over two months since we had to stop traffic, which has affected commuters, other train passengers, and the train companies,” Frimannslund stated.

During the period that it was closed, Bane has carried out multiple test runs on the Follobanen to ensure that everything works as it should.

“For us at Bane Nor, it has been important to carry out thorough troubleshooting and a comprehensive test program to find and correct faults before we could reopen the track to traffic,” Frimannslund added.

“Unfortunately, it has taken longer than we hoped, but now all analyses are satisfactory.”

The Follobanen will reduce the travel time between Oslo and Ski from 22 to 11 minutes. The project cost the Norwegian state 36.8 billion kroner and took 13 years to complete.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TRANSPORT

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?

SHOW COMMENTS