The Norwegian railway system comprises 4,109 km of (standard gauge) track of which 2,644 km is electrified and 274 km double track. There are 697 tunnels and 2,760 bridges.
The Norwegian Railway Directorate manages the railway network in Norway on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation. Bane NOR is a state enterprise which builds and maintains all railway tracks, while other companies operate them. These companies include Vy and subsidiaries Vy Gjøvikbanen and CargoNet, Flytoget, Go-Ahead, SJ Norge, Green Cargo, Grenland Rail and Hector Rail.
Norway is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Norway is 76.
History
The first railway in Norway was the Hoved Line between Oslo and Eidsvoll and opened in 1854. The main purpose of the railway was to move lumber from Mjøsa to the capital, but passenger service was also offered. In the period between the 1860s and the 1880s Norway saw a boom of smaller railways being built, including isolated railways in Central and Western Norway. The predominant gauge at the time was (narrow gauge), but some lines were built in (standard gauge). The height of the era came in 1877 when the Røros Line connected Central Norway to the capital. In 1883 the entire main railway network was taken over by Norwegian State Railways (NSB), though a number of industrial railways and branch lines continued to be operated by private companies.
Three urban railways, in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim, were started as in 1875 (Oslo), 1897 (Bergen) and Trondheim (1901). Oslo's system, as the only one, started with horse cars, the others were electrified from the beginning. Electric cars were introduced in Oslo in 1894 and the last horse car operated in 1900.
Bergen closed down its first generation system between 1944 and 1965, but (re-)introduced light rail transit (LRT) in 2006.
The second construction boom of the main railway arose in the 1910s and included the Bergen Line across Finse to Bergen, connecting Eastern and Western Norway. A number of other larger projects were also built in the 1920s, including a second line, the Dovre Line, to Trondheim. This period also saw the first electrified railways and a steady conversion from narrow gauge to standard gauge. Norway chose to electrify its network at .
During World War II there was a massive construction by the German Forces as part of creating Festung Norwegen, including large sections of the Nordland Line and the completion of the Sørland Line. After the war the main effort was to complete the Nordland Line (which reached Bodø in 1962) and the decision to electrify 50% of the network, a task not completed until 1970. This allowed the retirement of steam locomotives, which were replaced with electric engines like the El 11 and El 13 or the diesel powered Di 3. In 1966 Norway's only rapid transit, Oslo T-bane was opened, but in the same decade the Bergen tramway was closed. In the 1970s and 80s many branch lines were also abandoned.
In 1980 the massive project of connecting the eastern and western railway networks around Oslo was completed with the opening of the Oslo Tunnel and Oslo Central Station. In 1996 NSB was split into the Norwegian Railway Inspectorate, Norwegian National Rail Administration and an operating company NSB BA. Since then, the companies have been split into 10 separate corporations. In 1998 the first new line in 36 years was opened when the high-speed Gardermoen Line was opened to allow travel at 210 km/h between Oslo, Oslo Airport and Eidsvoll. The 1990s also saw the massive introduction of multiple units on passenger trains. In the 2000s the freight segment was deregulated and a number of freight companies have started competing with the NSB subsidiary CargoNet.
The national main routes in Norway are considered to be among the slowest in Europe, and slower than parts of East Africa, with average speeds below 80 km/h.
Network
Track
The main railway network consists of 4,087 km of lines, of which 262 km is double track and 60 km high-speed rail (210 km/h). In addition there is 225 km of urban railways, of which 218 km is double track. In addition there are some industrial tracks and minor branch lines and some abandoned and heritage railways. The entire main network is (standard gauge), as are the urban railways in Oslo and Bergen. Of the operational railways in Norway, only the Trondheim Tramway has a different gauge, the meter gauge, . Some heritage railways, though, operate with various kinds of narrow gauge.