Departure at 07.24 from Ski station was the first train on the Folloban line with passengers since 19 December. – Thank you for your patience while I worked. Welcome back, wrote Bane Nor in a traffic report just after 7 o’clock on Sunday. – This is a joyful day, says Helge Underland from Ski. Train commuter Helge Underland was finally able to get from Ski to Oslo S with the Follobanen. Photo: Mariam Eltervåg Cissé He was among the few who needed to join this departure early Sunday morning, but Underland had a clear purpose. – I have to make sure that this works, he chuckled when asked who got him on board. The brand new section between Oslo and Ski was closed on 19 December, just eight days after opening. The Folloban was opened to traffic on 11 December, and with fanfare by the king the following day. – I forgot the flag at home, says Underland Underland works like many others from Follo and further south in the capital, and is a train commuter. With a top speed of 250 kilometers per hour, the 22 kilometer long Follobanen cuts the trip between Oslo and Ski in half from 22 to 11 minutes. – Now I can take a later train on Monday, and otherwise when I go to work, he says. Underland says that he was able to take advantage of the new offer in this short period, but that the experiences were not so good. Even after 13 years of construction and NOK 36.8 billion spent, the most expensive transport project in Norwegian history was marred by canceled and late trains. – It has been a bad week for the railway operation in the area, and we are sorry, but we do not assess the operation of the railway based on four days. I hope we come back stronger, said Sverre Kjenne, executive vice president for operations and technology at Bane Nor, at the time. The reason was a problem with the power system. The improvement work has been demanding, and the opening has been postponed a number of times. – The test drive went well, and the system works as it should. We have run test trips with three double train sets between 09:00 and 15:00 during the day this week as well, and will continue with that until Saturday, said Bane Nor’s press manager, Anne Kirkhusmo, to news on Thursday. Over 600 test runs, such as this one, are carried out before the opening Sunday morning. Photo: Erlend Dalhaug Daae / news From March 5, the route offer on the Follobanen and Østfoldbanen local lines will be the same as it was when the line closed on December 19, but some more work is required on the Blixtunnel, according to the managing director of Bane Nor, Gorm Frimannslund . – We have carried out a risk analysis and the result shows that there is minor work that does not affect train traffic. It is safe to open to traffic again, he says. The Blixtunnel is the longest railway tunnel in the Nordics. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / news This means that the Follobanen will be closed for several days during the Easter holidays and this summer, and that Underland must expect longer journey times during these periods.
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The Folloban is open again – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
