GONOM Train journeys from the driver's seat

Reading guides

Rail journeys of Norway and Sweden

Six Nordic cab rides on GONOM, from the Bergen and Flåm lines to the Arctic Nordland and Ofoten lines: how they connect, what to watch for and when to go.

How the northern lines fit together

Norway's railways spread out from Oslo like the fingers of a hand. The Bergen Line runs west over the mountains to the coast, and halfway across, at Myrdal, the short Flåm Line drops down to a fjord. The Dovre Line runs north to Trondheim, and from there the Nordland Line continues for about 729 km to Bodø, crossing the Arctic Circle on the way. Together these four lines on GONOM let you follow the country from the capital to the far north almost without a break.

The Ofoten Line is the odd one out. It runs from Narvik to the Swedish border and is not connected to the rest of the Norwegian network at all; its only rail link is east into Sweden, where it continues as the Iron Ore Line through Kiruna. On the other side of the peninsula, Roslagsbanan is a narrow-gauge commuter line out of Stockholm, a gentler counterpoint to the mountain railways.

Across the mountains: the Bergen and Flåm lines

The Bergen Line, opened through to Oslo in 1909, crosses the high, treeless Hardangervidda plateau and climbs to 1,237 m inside the Finse Tunnel, with Finse station at 1,222 m. GONOM's video is NRK's 2009 recording of the whole journey from Bergen to Oslo, the programme that helped start slow television. Watch for the change after Voss as the forest thins, the snow sheds around Hallingskeid, and Finse itself, a station beside a lake with the Hardangerjøkulen glacier to the south.

At Myrdal the Flåm Line leaves the main line and descends about 866 m in 20.2 km to the Aurlandsfjord, on gradients of up to 5.5 per cent. In the cab view you can see how slowly the train moves on the steep upper section, the stop at Kjosfossen built only so passengers can look at the waterfall, and the single passing loop at Berekvam, where trains in opposite directions meet.

North to the Arctic: the Dovre and Nordland lines

The Dovre Line is the main route between Oslo and Trondheim. GONOM's video runs south from Trondheim to Dombås, climbing up the narrow Drivdalen valley past Kongsvoll onto the bare Dovrefjell plateau. The summit, just north of Hjerkinn, is 1,024 m above sea level, and stations such as Kongsvoll and Hjerkinn have no village of their own; they are used mainly by walkers and skiers.

The Nordland Line is Norway's longest railway and has never been electrified, so diesel trains run the whole way. The video is NRK's summer journey from 2012. The first hours follow the Trondheimsfjord and then long forest valleys; after Mo i Rana the line climbs onto Saltfjellet, a treeless plateau at about 680 m. Watch for the moment the forest gives out: the train crosses the Arctic Circle about 1.8 km before the summit, then runs down Saltdalen and along the water into Bodø.

Iron ore to the sea: the Ofoten Line

The Ofoten Line was built to carry iron ore from the mines around Kiruna to Narvik, an ice-free harbour on the Norwegian coast. It opened in 1902, after a construction effort that at its peak employed more than 5,000 people, and electric trains replaced steam in 1923. Ore still dominates traffic, with long, heavy trains sharing the single track with a few passenger services.

GONOM's video is filmed from the cab of a loaded ore train. From Kiruna it crosses birch forest and bog, then runs for a long stretch along the shore of the lake Torneträsk towards Abisko. After Riksgränsen, at the border, comes Bjørnfjell, the first Norwegian station, and then the descent that makes the line famous: the track is cut into the mountainside high above the Rombaksfjord, threading tunnels on its way down to the ore harbour at Narvik.

Seasons: snow, midnight sun and polar night

Snow shapes all of these lines. On the Bergen Line, snow fences and sheds protect the exposed stretches, and the Finse Tunnel, opened in 1992, replaced a section above 1,200 m that was costly to keep clear. Late winter, roughly February to April, is the time for deep snow on Hardangervidda. In Swedish Lapland the ski resort at Riksgränsen stays open until Midsummer when there is enough snow.

North of the Arctic Circle the light changes dramatically through the year. Visit Sweden gives the midnight sun period as about 25 May to 18 July at Abisko and 28 May to 14 July at Kiruna, where the polar night lasts close to a month around midwinter. Bodø, the end of the Nordland Line, sees the midnight sun from early June into July. It has no true polar night, but mountains to the south hide the sun from parts of the municipality from early December to early January.

Roslagsbanan and the city maps

Roslagsbanan runs north from Stockholm Östra on 891 mm track, one of the last surviving examples of Sweden's old three-foot gauge, and it was electrified early, with the Djursholm section running electric trains from 1892. GONOM's video follows line 27 to Kårsta, from villa suburbs through Täby and Vallentuna into farmland and forest. The track is double as far as Vallentuna, then single for the quieter run north.

GONOM also has subway maps for the three Scandinavian capitals. On the Oslo map, all five metro lines share the central tunnel, so you can see them run in parallel from Majorstuen to Tøyen, and Jernbanetorget sits beside Oslo Central Station, where the Bergen and Dovre lines begin. The Stockholm map shows the green, red and blue lines, and the station notes describe the art in its rock caverns; Tekniska högskolan, on the red line, is beside Roslagsbanan's terminus. In Copenhagen, four lines meet at Kongens Nytorv, and at Ørestad the M1 connects with regional trains across the Øresund Bridge to Sweden.

Watch these journeys on GONOM

Subway maps mentioned

Oslo · Stockholm · Copenhagen

Sources

More guides