The matter in summary: Go-Ahead wants to resume stops at several stations on the Sørlandsbanen, but Bane Nor refuses. Bane Nor wants to continue driving past the stations in order to keep their timetables, which has caused an uproar in affected municipalities. Chair of the transport committee in Telemark, Anne Nora Oma Dahle, and eight mayors have made a petition about the Sørlandsbanen. Mayor of Midt-Telemark, Siri Blichfeldt Dyrland, expresses disappointment and irritation at the situation. Go-Ahead reports that there have been only 19 fault-free days on the route so far this year. Bane Nor admits that the infrastructure is a large part of the challenges, with a single-track railway on almost the entire Sørlandsbanen and a large maintenance backlog. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Bane Nor wants to continue driving past train stations on the Sørlandsbanen in Agder and Telemark. It is so that the trains will be able to keep their timetables. The proposal has caused an uproar in the municipalities affected. – Annoyed and disappointed – Bane Nor must give Sørtoget the opportunity to make more stops on the Sørlandsbanen, as the train company Go-Ahead demands, says head of the transport committee in Telemark, Anne Nora Oma Dahle. Now she and eight mayors have created a petition about Sørlandsbanen. One of the mayors is Siri Blichfeldt Dyrland in Midt-Telemark municipality. – I get irritated and disappointed, she says. Siri Blichfeldt Dyrland, mayor of Midt-Telemark municipality. Photo: John-Andre Samuelsen / news The mayor says that they have been told that they should get back the stops they have lost this year. Go-Ahead has reported that there have been only 19 fault-free days on the route so far this year. – I think it is completely irrelevant. It’s only a matter of a few minutes. What is actually the problem is the infrastructure and the railway. There are a lot of mistakes. It must be rectified, says Dyrland. Still passing by – It is with a heavy heart that we say that some trains have to pass by some stations on some departures, says Stine Smemo Strachan, communications manager at Bane Nor. Stine Smemo Strachan, communications manager at Bane Nor Photo: Bane NOR Bane Nor admits that the infrastructure is a large part of the explanation for the challenges. There is a single-track railway on almost the entire Sørlandsbanen. At the same time, there is a large maintenance backlog, says Strachan. – But we want nine out of 10 trains to be on schedule. That is our goal and we are working towards it. It has been a long time since we achieved this on Sørlandsbanen, so then we had to think a little differently. – Has Bane Nor considered other solutions than cutting stops? – Yes. We are continuously working to improve punctuality. We look at everything. Where it is possible to insert extra crossing tracks, we ask for a budget for this. Where it is possible to change timetables, get freight trains to run at other times, we do everything we can to improve punctuality, she says. Bane Nor has planned a meeting with the mayors in August where they will go over their input, challenges and solutions. Sørlandsbanen Photo: Go-Ahead Sørlandsbanen is 549 kilometers long and stretches from Drammen to Stavanger. There are 45 stations and stops along the route. Sørlandsbanen is operated by Go-Ahead Nordic. The train company took over operations from Vy (formerly NSB) on 15 December 2019. Sørlandsbanen follows an internal route over Kongsberg, Bø in Telemark and through Indre Agder to Kristiansand. Further west, the track runs across the many valleys in Agder before it comes out to the coast in Egersund and crosses the Jæren north to Stavanger. Source: Bane Nor Published 17.07.2024, at 21.27
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Go-Ahead will stop – Bane Nor refuses – news Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
