MDG wants a high-speed railway Bergen-Oslo that can provide 11 hours of direct trains to Berlin – NRK Vestland
If you want to travel by train from Bergen to Berlin today, you must expect a total travel time of 24 hours. At least 20 hours on the train, and with four train changes, in Oslo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen and Hamburg.
MDG meiner Norway should aim to halve this travel time.
– We want a “Hansa Express”. For example, when you go to the train station in Bergen, it should say Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Hamburg on some of the gowns, says acting party leader Arild Hermstad.
– To Berlin!
At the train station in Bergen, Siren Moe-Nilsen and Linda Mikalsen get off the train after a trip to Voss. They like the idea of an 11-hour direct route to a slightly more exotic Berlin.
– It had our bang. We pack a packed lunch. Now we’re going to Berlin!
On Thursday, the MDG presented its alternative proposal for the National Transport Plan for the period 2022-2033.
– Is «Hansaekspressen» a concrete NTP proposal, or first and foremost a vision?
– This is central to us. We can not live in isolation from what is happening in the rest of Europe. In our neighboring countries, hundreds of billions are being invested in faster and more trains. While we here in Norway discuss how we should save a quarter of an hour to Voss. It’s getting too small.
Good conscience
Instead, MDG is looking to reduce the travel time Bergen – Berlin to 11-12 hours.
– Then families, groups of friends and new lovers can travel on a weekend trip with a clear conscience, says Hermstad.
Parliamentary representative Helge André Njåstad in the Progress Party was blown away by the vision.
– Let us first make sure that the people of Bergen can travel safely to Voss and ferry-free to Stavanger, before we think of a weekend trip by train to Berlin, he says.
Today, it only says “Arna”, “Voss”, “Ål” or “Oslo S” on the boards at Bergen station.
Director of Tourism in Bergen, Anders Nyland, laughs well when we ask him to see «Copenhagen», «Hamburg» and «Berlin».
– In classic Bergen’s lack of embarrassment, I must say that it had ours quite stylish.
He has not heard of such a vision before, but my direct train Bergen – Berlin can be exciting.
– Germany is a very important market for Bergen and Western Norway. Greedy many Germans want to come here, the Bergen line is a spectacular measure to get here on, and environmentally friendly and efficient travel methods are interesting.
Expensive
The vision of the MDGs will not be cheap. On the Norwegian side, the party will set aside around NOK 60 billion:
- NOK 14.7 billion for the new Vossebanen
- NOK 25 billion for the Ringeriksbanen
- NOK 5 billion for the high-speed line Oslo – Gothenburg
- NOK 15 billion for double track Intercity to Fredrikstad
In addition, MDG will set aside two billion kroner for the construction of the Oslo – Stockholm high-speed line, and «several billion kroner» for modern train carriages adapted to night trains and better mobile and network coverage along the railway.
Denmark and Germany are currently building a new railway line combined with a motorway in an 18-kilometer immersed tunnel under the Fehmarn Strait. The train journey Copenhagen – Hamburg will be two hours shorter when it opens in 2029.
– From the same time, we should be able to dream of being able to take from Bergen to Berlin twice as fast as today. This will be a bit like “Orientekspressen” but in a modern version with healthy, comfortable trains, says the Bergen MDG leader.
– Bergen is 1000 km from Berlin?
– The main problem is that it takes too long Bergen-Oslo, and from there we are too poorly connected on the light rail Gothenburg-Copenhagen-Hamburg.
Rather than the autobahn to Trondheim
Hermstad rejects that it is unrealistic to have a high-speed train line Bergen-Oslo completed at the same time as the tunnel under the Fehmarn Strait between Denmark and Germany in eight years.
– Many of the plans that reduce the travel time on the Bergen line to less than five hours have already been planned. They just need money. And Sweden is very eager to expand Oslo-Gothenburg, but Norwegian transport authorities held back.
Without comparison otherwise: While the MDGs are against motorway plans and want to link Berlin to Bergen by high-speed trains, Hitler at one time planned to build a four-lane highway from Trondheim to Oslo and directly on to Berlin.
– Bergen has always been connected to the outside world, and we must have ambitions to be able to travel to the continent by international high-speed trains, says Hermstad.