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Railway line in Aurland, Norway

The Flåm Line (Flåmsbana) is a long railway line between Myrdal and Flåm in Aurland Municipality, in Vestland county, Norway. A branch line of the Bergen Line, it runs through the valley of Flåmsdalen and connects the mainline with Sognefjord. The line's elevation difference is ; it has ten stations, twenty tunnels and one bridge. The maximum gradient is 5.5 percent (1:18). Because of its steep gradient and picturesque nature, the Flåm Line is now almost exclusively a tourist service and has become the third most visited tourist attraction in Norway. Construction of the line started in 1924, with the line opening in 1940. It allowed the district of Sogn access to Bergen and Oslo via the Bergen Line. Electric traction was taken into use in 1944; at first El 9 locomotives were used, and from 1982 El 11. Until 1991, the train connected with a ferry service from Flåm to Gudvangen. In 1992, freight services were terminated, and due to low ticket prices and high operating costs, the line was nearly closed. In 1998, Flåm Utvikling took over marketing and ticket sale for the line, prices were heavily increased and El 17 locomotives were introduced (replaced by El 18 in 2014). The trains remain operated by the Vy as a subcontractor for Flåm Utvikling, while the line itself is owned and operated by the Bane NOR.

The Flåm Line runs from Myrdal on the Bergen Line to Flåm. Myrdal Station is located in a mountain pass at above mean sea level (AMSL), while Flåm Station is located at AMSL. The line's maximum gradient is 5.5 percent, and of the line's have at least 2.8 percent gradient. The line has standard gauge and a minimum curve radius of , and is the steepest standard gauge railway in Europe. Maximum permitted speed upwards is , while it is downhill. The line has eight stops, twenty tunnels and one bridge. but lacks centralized traffic control (CTC). The infrastructure is owned and operated by the Norwegian National Rail Administration. At Myrdal Station, the Flåm Line runs in the same direction as the trains towards Oslo, but immediately starts running downwards into the Flåmsdalen valley. The first part of the line runs through snow shelters and several short tunnels. Vatnahalsen Station is located from Myrdal, at AMSL. The line then runs through a horseshoe curve and the Vatnahalsen Tunnel. It exits the tunnel onto an artificial shelf on a cliff which falls several hundred meters down. Reinunga Station is located from Myrdal and at elevation. It is followed by Kjosfossen Station, from Myrdal and AMSL,

The line then runs through the Nåli Tunnel, the longest on the line. At the end of the tunnel lies Kårdal Station, traditionally serving the farm furthest up in the valley. The next station is Dalsbotn Station, located from Myrdal and at AMSL. The station also has a railway museum dedicated to the Flåm Line. During the construction of the Bergen Line, the path that ran up Flåmsdalen was upgraded by NSB to allow access to the area around Myrdal. This road was used by horse carriages and later cars, becoming an important access route to the area, but it was too steep and narrow for heavy vehicles. The Hardanger Line, which connected the Bergen Line to Hardangerfjord, opened in 1935, and was the county's first railway to open with electric traction. The first engineering surveys for the Flåm Line were performed in 1893. It resulted in a proposal for a 1067 narrow gauge railway which would be long. Most of the railway would be built as an adhesion railway with a 2.5 percent gradient, although part of it would be a rack railway with a gradient of 10.0 percent. It was at the time estimated to cost 3.3 million Norwegian krone (NOK). In 1904, a radically different route to Sognefjord was proposed: a long adhesion line from Voss to Gudvangen via Stalheim. It was estimated to cost NOK 3.5 million, but was considered by local politicians to be inferior to the Flåm alternative. A third alternative was a combined tramway and funicular, which would be built between Myrdal and Fretheim. It was estimated to cost NOK 800,000, but NSB was concerned that the proposal's light rolling stock would not be sufficient to operate through snow during the winter. Estimated traffic for the Flåm Line was 22,000 annual passengers. As both the other alternatives were discarded, consensus gradually grew for the Flåm alternative, and the Railway Committee for Nordre Bergenhus County recommended this proposal. The plans were approved by Parliament in 1916. However, the decision concerning technical specifications was not taken by Parliament until 1923, when it decided that the line was to be electric. The line was then estimated to cost NOK 14.5 million—the increase caused by inflation during the First World War—of which NOK 1.2 million was to be paid by the local governments. The line was to have tracks which weighed 25 kilograms per meter (50 lb/yd). The curve radius was set to minimum , although exceptionally was permitted. The steepest permitted gradient was 5.5 percent (1:18). In 1915, the first proposal was launched for using a bus service as an alternative to the train. This was rejected because buses were not able to give the comfort and reliability of a train. The idea was proposed again in 1922 by the director of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. Among the strongest opponents to the bus alternative was Ingolf Elster Christensen, County Governor of Sogn og Fjordane and later parliamentarian, who stated that the Nordre Bergenhus County (today Sogn og Fjordane County Municipality) had paid part of the regional financing of the Bergen Line on condition that they receive a branch line to the Sognefjord. In 1925, following the appointment of Mowinckel's First Cabinet, it was proposed that the railway be built as a road, and the tracks laid later. One of NSB's board members proposed instead building a suspended railway. The plans to cancel the railway were stopped because of parliamentarian support for the railway. Part of the political support was because there was agreement on a national railway plan, and removing parts of it would disrupt the geographical compromise.

The administration office for the construction was established in 1923 and was until 1935 located at Voss. In that period, construction was led by Peter Bernhard Kristian Lahlum, who was also responsible for the Hardanger Line. To start with, there were 120 men working on the construction, although this quickly increased to 220. The numbers fluctuated between that and as low as 80, although hit an all time high of 280 people in 1937. To house the employees, eight barracks were built. Among the first things built were housing and station buildings, which could then be used by people working on the construction. The local economy was stimulated by farmers being paid for transport. Using horses, they would transport tourists by day and building materials by night. The competition was fierce, resulting in fights for customers, although it calmed down after traffic police were introduced. In 1924, there was a landslide at Høga, covering the area planned for the railway. The area was made of phyllite and was the geologically most unstable area on the route. The initial response was to plan for a tunnel past the area, but this was quickly rejected because of the high price. Instead, the line was moved further away from the mountain side. Other slides during construction included an avalanche near Store Reppa on 10 February 1925, which deposited up to of earth. In April 1925, a landslide took place above Berekvam. On 8 February 1928, an avalanche did some damage to the right of way near Nåli. The tunnels were the most difficult and time consuming part of construction. Of the twenty tunnels, machines were only used for the Nåli and Vatnahalsen Tunnels—the rest were built by hand. Hand construction was done by drilling up to through the rock, filling the holes with dynamite and blasting. Construction of tunnels started in 1924 and the first tunnel was completed in 1926; the last tunnel was completed in 1935. On average, tunneling proceeded at between 116 and 180 man hours per meter (35–55 hr/ft). Ten stations were built for the line, including a major upgrade to Myrdal and port facilities at Flåm. Myrdal Station was given side tracks and additional buildings to serve transferring passengers, with the upgrades costing NOK 0.5 million. Berekvam was the only place on route which received a passing loop. Flåm Station cost NOK 0.8 million and was designed in the 1930s NSB simple wooden functionalist style, similar to what is found on the Nordland Line and the Sørland Line. Other stations received small, wooden buildings with a waiting room, as well as a room for cargo at Vatnahalsen, Håreina and Dalsbotn. With the German occupation of Norway in 1940, work started later in the season, but the German authorities wanted to speed up the work to make the line usable for steam trains that same year. They scheduled the line for completion in 1942. From 1 May 1942, Rolf Aksnes took over as head engineer after Kielland. Another power station was built there, and taken into use on 27 October 1944. Built by Kværner and Norsk Elektrisk & Brown Boveri (NEBB), it had a power output of
The costs for the project ended at NOK 26,651,900, of which NOK 22.0 million was for the railway. This total included NOK 2.3 million for a power station and NOK 1.2 million for a ferry quay at Flåm. The largest cost was for earthwork, which ended at NOK 9.1 million; other major costs were NOK 2.4 million for rolling stock, NOK 1.6 million for stations, NOK 1.2 for tracks, NOK 1.5 million for snow protection and NOK 675,000 for electrification. The Class 64 trains remained in service on the Flåm Line until May 1947. The locomotives were custom built for the steep gradients on the Flåm and Hardanger Lines, and were delivered with an axle load of and a Bo'Bo' wheel configuration. The locomotives weighed and the maximum permitted train weight was If the trains were to stop at Kårdal, the weight was further limited to
The railway quickly saw an increase in traffic, with an average 11 percent annual increase from the opening until the mid 1950s. Between 1975 and 1982, NSB started running direct trains between Ål and Flåm. When the line opened, it received a lot of freight traffic for the construction of a power station in Årdal. From the opening, the Flåm Line was the fastest means of transport between Sogn and both Oslo and Bergen, and most post was also sent via the line. From 1977, most of the post was instead sent by truck via Gol, and only post from Aurland went via the railway. Other products sent by the line were milk to the dairy in Voss, which terminated in 1983, as well as fruit. Partial loads saw a large increase during the 1960s, after NSB and the ferry operator Fylkesbaatane i Sogn og Fjordane teamed up to send packages via Flåm to Oslo and Bergen. Flåm had several arrivals until 1973, when Linjegods was established. Following a reorganization, the number of calls was reduced to once per week. Freight volume fell further during the 1980s; an attempt in 1978 to force the three major distributors Linjegods, Firda Billag and Sogn Billag to route traffic via the Flåm Line failed. During the 1970s, NSB started the process of finding a replacement for the El 9. New locomotives would cost NOK 20 million, and the company saw it as unrealistic to invest so much in a marginal branch line. NSB had also concluded its away with the steam program, and therefore had a lack of locomotives in general. If a new class of locomotives was to be built, it would have to satisfy more than the requirements for the Flåm Line, so NSB instead started investigating whether any of the older models could be used. Tests were performed in 1971 and 1973 with El 11, built between 1951 and 1964, and El 13, built between 1957 and 1966. Neither was considered optimal: El 11 allowed the train weight to increase to , but the train had the steps for the voltage regulator and the commutation set for too high speeds. El 13 had rheostatic brakes, which were not suitable for the gradient; the locomotives were also better suited for mainline service and would therefore not be prioritized for branch lines. In 1972, the Flåm Line was rebuilt to allow an axle load of El 11 was chosen as El 9's replacement in the mid 1970s, but it was not until November 1980 that El 11.2098 started being rebuilt for its new service. Upgrades included rheostatic brakes and electromagnetic brakes, new speed measurement and curve lights. The locomotive was taken into use on the Flåm Line in June 1982. The main disadvantage with the class was the small windows, as the trains were designed for commuter traffic rather than sight seeing. In 1992, a new station building was taken into use at Flåm. During the 1990s, X10 commuter trains from Stockholm were borrowed during the summer for extra trains. These trains had larger windows than Class 69, giving better views. A museum and documentation center was established in 1995. Originally located in an annex of Fretheim Hotel, it moved in 1999 to the old station building at Flåm. In March 1997, NSB announced that they had plans to privatize the operations of the line from 1998. The responsibility for setting the schedule, selling tickets and marketing was transferred to Flåm Utvikling, a newly established company that NSB owned 49 percent of, and Aurland Ressursutvikling 51 percent. The latter was owned by Aurland Municipality, the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway and Aurland Sparebank, a local bank. With the change of ownership, NSB also decided to replace the aging El 11 with El 17. The locomotives had been delivered in 1987 and were intended for express train service, but had been plagued with technical problems and were not considered reliable enough to operate as single locomotives. The six newest trains of the class were painted in a new green livery and branded as Flåmsbana rather than NSB. Older B3 carriages were renovated, given new panorama windows and painted in the same color scheme and taken into use on the line. The line received GSM R from 1 May 2005.

The line is solely served by a tourist oriented service operated by Vy on behalf of Flåm Utvikling. From May through September, there are nine or ten departures in each direction per day. In the rest of the year, there are four. Fares do not follow the normal fares for Vy and are considerably higher than on other train routes. InterRail tickets are not valid for free travel, but give a 30 percent discount. Travel time varies between 50 and 59 minutes between the end stations. In 2007, the line was the third most visited tourist attraction in Norway and carried 547,000 passengers in 2010. Between 1998 and 2015, the service is provided by push–pull trains consisting of an El 17 at each end and with B3 carriages. Starting in 2014, El 18 replaced the El 17.