I, like many thousands of others in Trondheim, am a student from the east. And even though I’ve become incredibly happy in Trondheim, it’s sometimes nice to see the old people back home. This summer the extreme weather ravaged Hans. The Randklev bridge collapsed, the Dovrebanen was divided and a state of emergency was reported. But how much did we internalize this crisis? The state of emergency has become the norm. It has been over two months, the Dovrebanen still does not go all the way from Oslo to Trondheim and my hope of taking the train home for Christmas is probably now just an unrealistic dream. There are usually 800,000 passengers on the long-distance trains between Oslo and Trondheim each year. Goods equivalent to over 180,000 trailers are transported on the Dovrebanen. A third of land transport between Oslo and Trondheim is usually by rail. Freight and passenger traffic further north to Bodø is also part of the same network. Immediately after the bridge collapse, it was written about how much this cost the companies. Onrail reported a loss of NOK one million per day, SJ a weekly loss of NOK 4.5 million and the freight transport companies have received support of NOK 120 million from the Storting and Transport Minister Jon-Ivar Nygård. Now we see that the airlines are pushing up the prices. The trip home for Christmas will soon sting my student finances. But how can we afford to leave the infrastructure with a broken back for so long? By not being able to act, we both clearly show how vulnerable our infrastructure is and how weak our ability to act quickly is. I and thousands of others are forced to take much more convoluted, more expensive and more environmentally unfriendly travel routes. The flight route between Oslo and Trondheim is one of the busiest in Europe. The train that went was not something to shout much hurrah about either, but at least it was going now. Freight transport has been moved to the roads and the already outdated and crowded Rørosbanen. That things take time if you have to fix things properly makes sense. But it doesn’t seem like this time is being used to actually upgrade the track, create safer rails for freight, more double track sections and a real travel offer on one of the most flown sections in all of Europe. However, these temporary solutions we now have will quickly become permanent if we let it go long enough. Now a long time has passed. It is still completely uncertain what the solution will be and when it will arrive. I would very much like to take the train home for Christmas, but have realized that the only option is to give up. We’re clearly in no rush, so maybe next Christmas, Jon-Ivar?
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There won’t be a train home for Christmas for me this year Jon-Ivar Nygård? – Speech
