Flåm Line

Route

The Flåm Line runs from Myrdal on the Bergen Line to Flåm. Myrdal Station is located in a mountain pass at 863.6 meters (2,833 ft) above mean sea level (AMSL), while Flåm Station is located at 2.0 meters (6 ft 7 in) AMSL. The line's maximum gradient is 5.5 percent, and 16.1 kilometers (10.0 mi) of the line's 20.20 kilometers (12.55 mi) have at least 2.8 percent gradient. The line has standard gauge and a minimum curve radius of 130 meters (430 ft), and is the steepest standard-gauge railway in Europe. Maximum permitted speed upwards is 40 km/h (25 mph), while it is 30 km/h (19 mph) downhill. The line has eight stops, twenty tunnels and one bridge. The line is electrified at 15 kV  16.7 Hz AC using overhead wire, and is equipped with Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R), but lacks centralized traffic control (CTC). The infrastructure is owned and operated by the Norwegian National Rail Administration.

At Myrdal Station, the Flåm Line runs in the same direction as the trains towards Oslo, but immediately starts running downwards into the Flåmsdalen valley. The first part of the line runs through snow shelters and several short tunnels. Vatnahalsen Station is located 1.13 kilometers (0.70 mi) from Myrdal, at 811 meters (2,661 ft) AMSL. The line then runs through a horseshoe curve and the 880-meter-long (2,890 ft) Vatnahalsen Tunnel. It exits the tunnel onto an artificial shelf on a cliff which falls several hundred meters down. Reinunga Station is located 2.20 kilometers (1.37 mi) from Myrdal and at 767 meters (2,516 ft) elevation. It is followed by Kjosfossen Station, 4.40 kilometers (2.73 mi) from Myrdal and 670 meters (2,200 ft) AMSL, which serves no other purpose than allowing tourists to look at the waterfall Kjosfossen.

The line then runs through the 1,341.5-meter-long (4,401 ft) Nåli Tunnel, the longest on the line. At the end of the tunnel lies Kårdal Station, traditionally serving the farm furthest up in the valley. The station is 6.34 kilometers (3.94 mi) from Myrdal and 557 meters (1,827 ft) AMSL. On the other side of the valley is Trodlatoppen, the site of several avalanches every year. The line then runs through the 1,029-meter-long (3,376 ft) Blomheller Tunnel, after which it reaches Blomheller Station, 8.40 kilometers (5.22 mi) from Myrdal and 458 meters (1,503 ft) AMSL. The railway then crosses the river Flåmselvi and runs through a series of short tunnels.

At 10.51 kilometers (6.53 mi) from Myrdal, the line reaches Berekvam Station, located at 344 meters (1,129 ft) AMSL. It is the only station to have a passing loop and thus the only location on the line where trains can meet. Because the station is unstaffed and lacks CTC, crossing must be performed using flags at day and torches at night, set by personnel who travel from Myrdal or Flåm. At Høga, the railway crosses the river again, this time by the river running in a tunnel under the tracks. The next station is Dalsbotn Station, located 13.90 kilometers (8.64 mi) from Myrdal and at 199 meters (653 ft) AMSL. Just before reaching the last tunnel, the 424-meter (1,391 ft) long Furuberget Tunnel, the line passes by the waterfall Rjoandefossen, which with a 140-meter (460 ft) vertical drop is one of the line's main attractions.

History

Planning

Plans to build a railway to connect Norway's two largest cities, Oslo and Bergen, were launched by Andreas Tanberg Gløersen in 1871. He proposed that the line run via Hallingdal and Voss and include two short branch lines which would connect to the two major fjord systems in the area, Sognefjord and Hardangerfjord. The narrow gauge Voss Line from Bergen to Voss opened in 1883, and the Bergen Line was completed as standard gauge in 1909. During the construction of the Bergen Line, the path that ran up Flåmsdalen was upgraded by NSB to allow access to the area around Myrdal. This road was used by horse carriages and later cars, becoming an important access route to the area, but it was too steep and narrow for heavy vehicles. The Hardanger Line, which connected the Bergen Line to Hardangerfjord, opened in 1935, and was the county's first railway to open with electric traction.

The first engineering surveys for the Flåm Line were performed in 1893. It resulted in a proposal for a 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge railway which would be 18.0 kilometers (11.2 mi) long. Most of the railway would be built as an adhesion railway with a 2.5 percent gradient, although part of it would be a rack railway with a gradient of 10.0 percent. It was at the time estimated to cost 3.3 million Norwegian krone (NOK). In 1904, a radically different route to Sognefjord was proposed: a 47.13-kilometer (29.29 mi) long adhesion line from Voss to Gudvangen via Stalheim. It was estimated to cost NOK 3.5 million, but was considered by local politicians to be inferior to the Flåm alternative. A third alternative was a combined tramway and funicular, which would be built between Myrdal and Fretheim. It was estimated to cost NOK 800,000, but NSB was concerned that the proposal's light rolling stock would not be sufficient to operate through snow during the winter. Estimated traffic for the Flåm Line was 22,000 annual passengers.

As both the other alternatives were discarded, consensus gradually grew for the Flåm alternative, and the Railway Committee for Nordre Bergenhus County recommended this proposal. New plans from NSB criticized the mix of rack and adhesion railway, and instead proposed a conventional adhesion line all the way. Engineer Ferdinand Bjerke traveled to Continental Europe to study several combined railways. He published a preliminary report in 1911, which recommended an adhesion railway, although he also felt the need for a detailed study of a rack railway. His final report was finished in 1913, and although it recommended adhesion, it pointed out that the line's capacity would be smaller than predicted and that costs would be three times as high—NOK 5.5 million. The plans were approved by the Ministry of Labour and NSB's main board in 1915.

Construction

The administration office for the construction was established in 1923 and was until 1935 located at Voss. In that period, construction was led by Peter Bernhard Kristian Lahlum, who was also responsible for the Hardanger Line. After the Hardanger Line was completed, Lahlum retired, and the office was moved to Flåm where responsibility was taken over by Adolph M. B. Kielland. To start with, there were 120 men working on the construction, although this quickly increased to 220. The numbers fluctuated between that and as low as 80, although hit an all-time high of 280 people in 1937. To house the employees, eight barracks were built. Among the first things built were housing and station buildings, which could then be used by people working on the construction. The local economy was stimulated by farmers being paid for transport. Using horses, they would transport tourists by day and building materials by night. The competition was fierce, resulting in fights for customers, although it calmed down after traffic police were introduced.

In 1924, there was a landslide at Høga, covering the area planned for the railway. The area was made of phyllite and was the geologically most unstable area on the route. The initial response was to plan for a tunnel past the area, but this was quickly rejected because of the high price. Instead, the line was moved further away from the mountain side. Other slides during construction included an avalanche near Store Reppa on 10 February 1925, which deposited up to 3.5 meters (11 ft) of earth. In April 1925, a 1,000 cubic meters (35,000 cu ft) landslide took place above Berekvam. On 8 February 1928, an avalanche did some damage to the right-of-way near Nåli.

The tunnels were the most difficult and time-consuming part of construction. Of the twenty tunnels, machines were only used for the Nåli and Vatnahalsen Tunnels—the rest were built by hand. Hand-construction was done by drilling up to 4.2 meters (14 ft) through the rock, filling the holes with dynamite and blasting. Construction of tunnels started in 1924 and the first tunnel was completed in 1926; the last tunnel was completed in 1935. On average, tunneling proceeded at between 116 and 180 man-hours per meter (35–55 hr/ft). The work caused death or lifelong respiratory problems through silicosis caused by inhaling the smoke. There were two fatal accidents, one in 1925 and one 1938, both related to tunnel work.

Ten stations were built for the line, including a major upgrade to Myrdal and port facilities at Flåm. Myrdal Station was given side tracks and additional buildings to serve transferring passengers, with the upgrades costing NOK 0.5 million. Berekvam was the only place on-route which received a passing loop. Flåm Station cost NOK 0.8 million and was designed in the 1930s NSB simple wooden functionalist style, similar to what is found on the Nordland Line and the Sørland Line. Other stations received small, wooden buildings with a waiting room, as well as a room for cargo at Vatnahalsen, Håreina and Dalsbotn.

Operation

Regular operation with electric locomotives was introduced on 25 November 1944. To begin with, Class 64 railcars were used. NSB had originally planned to use electric multiple units, but changed the plans during the war and instead decided to use locomotives and cars. The Class 64 trains remained in service on the Flåm Line until May 1947. They were normally used on the Hardanger Line, but were regularly taken back into use on the Flåm Line when the traffic was at its lowest.

NSB ordered three El 9 locomotives from Thune on 4 October 1940. The units were delivered in 1942, with the electrical components from NEBB and the transformers and controllers from Per Kure. A delay was caused by bombing of Per Kure by the resistance. The locomotives were custom-built for the steep gradients on the Flåm and Hardanger Lines, and were delivered with an axle load of 12 tonnes (12 long tons; 13 short tons) and a Bo'Bo' wheel configuration. The locomotives weighed 48 tonnes (47 long tons; 53 short tons) and the maximum permitted train weight was 85 tonnes (84 long tons; 94 short tons). If the trains were to stop at Kårdal, the weight was further limited to 65 tonnes (64 long tons; 72 short tons).

Initially, there were three trains on the Bergen Line in each direction per day, so only a single locomotive was necessary on the Flåm Line. From 1949 there were two locomotives on the Flåm Line and from 1955 all three were used there. Five passenger cars in aluminum were delivered by Strømmens Værksted. The cost of the three locomotives and five cars was NOK 2.4 million.

The railway quickly saw an increase in traffic, with an average 11 percent annual increase from the opening until the mid-1950s. In part to allow access to Kjosfossen, Kjosfossen Station was opened in 1951. By then, ridership had stabilized at 115,000 people per year. A significant portion of the traffic consisted of tourists, in part from cruise ships docked in Flåm. In the latter half of the decade, NSB launched the Norway in a Nutshell package, which included a ride on the Flåm Line. A sleeping car was introduced on the night train between Flåm and Oslo in 1958. It made three trips in each direction per week during the summer season, and achieved an 84 percent occupancy rate. The same year, Berekvam Station became unstaffed. Traffic remained stable throughout the 1960s, while interest in developing the railway for tourists declined and local politicians stated that a road was needed to attract tourists to Aurland. The power station was upgraded to 14,000 kilowatts (19,000 hp) in 1969.

Service

The line is solely served by a tourist-oriented service operated by Vy on behalf of Flåm Utvikling. From May through September, there are nine or ten departures in each direction per day. In the rest of the year, there are four. Fares do not follow the normal fares for Vy and are considerably higher than on other train routes. InterRail tickets are not valid for free travel, but give a 30 percent discount. Travel time varies between 50 and 59 minutes between the end stations. In 2007, the line was the third-most visited tourist attraction in Norway and carried 547,000 passengers in 2010. Between 1998 and 2015, the service was provided by push–pull trains consisting of an El 17 at each end and with B3 carriages. The locomotives were built by Henschel in 1987, with electrical equipment from NEBB. They have a power output of 3,000 kilowatts (4,000 hp) and a Bo'Bo' wheel arrangement. Starting in 2014, El 18 replaced the El 17.