Tired of buses for trains? Then you should perhaps avoid trains in Northern Norway for the next few days. Train passengers in northern and central Norway have to settle for ten hours and 19 minutes by bus if they want to take the Nordlandsbanen between Bodø and Trondheim during the day. Probably Norway’s longest journey by bus by train. The reason is that three out of five diesel locomotives on the 726 kilometer long train route are undergoing repairs. The heavy diesel locomotives are from the 1980s and require a lot of maintenance. SJ therefore does not have enough trains to carry out the departures and therefore prioritizes night departures. – Glad we don’t have to go that far – They must be able to change old locomotives on the only section where trains run in the north, says Anne Grete Eng. She is not going all the way to Trondheim, but believes the short trip to Rognan should have been by rail. – I’m glad we’re not going that far. There is something different about traveling by train than by bus. You can move a lot more, she points out. Anne Grete Eng (right) with her daughter Marie Hauge. Photo: Ola Helness / news On interrail – by bus Some people who take the bus all the way to Trønder’s capital, on the other hand, are the two French friends Jacque Audiau and Francois Pourbart. – It will be a long trip. We thought we would take the train, which is a more comfortable way to travel. But it won’t be like that. You can move more freely on the train. I am quite disappointed that there was no train, says Audiau. Nordlandsbanen Route: Bodø-Trondheim Track length: 726 km Stations and stops with passenger traffic: 42,293 bridges and 154 tunnels Diesel operation Remote control Trondheim S – Eiterstraum Gevingåsen tunnel with new section Hommelvik – Hell opened 2011 The electrification of 120 kilometers of railway in Trøndelag means that the bimodal trains on the Trønder Line will be able to run electrically on the section (Støren -) Trondheim – Stjørdal from December 2024. Further north to Steinkjer, the trains will continue with diesel operation. (source: Banenor.no) The two friends are on an interrail trip through Norway. – We were looking forward to the train ride. We have a ticket that allows us to travel four days this month. It was a good price, so it’s a shame that it will be by bus and not by train today, says Audiau Jacque Audiau and Francois Pourbart keep their spirits up before the 70-mile bus journey to Trondheim. Photo: Ola Helness / news Maria Iseli from Switzerland has her bicycle with her on the trip to Trondheim. – We weren’t sure if we could take it with us, but it seems to be going well, she says with the bike in hand outside the bus, which will take her to Trondheim. – We’ll see how it goes with such a long bus trip, but fortunately I have plenty of snacks with me on the trip. Swiss Maria is in good spirits despite a long bus ride ahead of her. Photo: Ola Helness / news Breakdown The train trouble arose last Saturday when one of SJ’s locomotives broke down at Rognan. SJ hopes to have one of the locomotives back in operation on Tuesday next week – with the last bus trip on Monday. – First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone who is affected by this. Unfortunately, this is an expected situation. The trains are beyond their technical lifespan, says Steinar Olsen, director of operations, safety and quality at SJ Norge. The locomotives that SJ uses on the route are leased from Norske tog AS. They are around 40 years old. – We have spoken about this several times now. Both to the politicians and to Norske tog, which delivers the locomotives to us. The locomotives on the Nordlandsbanen are old. New trains will not be in place until 2028 at the earliest. Photo: Rune Fossum In an email to news, Norske tog writes that they understand that both SJ and passengers are not satisfied with the outdated train equipment used on the route. – These are old trains that have reached their technical lifespan. It takes about seven years to acquire new locomotives, so it is easy to see that the process of acquiring new trains should have started earlier, says Director of Materials at Norske tog, Kjell-Arthur Abrahamsen. – When can new locomotives be in place? – The first train to Nordlandsbanen will be delivered according to plan towards the end of 2028. Abrahamsen emphasizes that major maintenance of all the locomotives is ongoing, and life-extending measures to ensure better reliability and availability. Published 22.06.2024, at 17.12
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Here, passengers must take Norway’s longest bus for train – news Nordland
