Drammenbanen

A railway built around passengers

Earlier Norwegian railways generally connected a coastal town with an inland district and its goods. The Drammen project was different: Christiania and Drammen already had coastal shipping and a usable road connection. The 1868 plan proposed a direct railway between the cities themselves. 03

The new train cut a journey of roughly five hours by horse and wagon to just over two hours. Its traffic area contained around a quarter of Norway's population, giving the line a large passenger market from the beginning. 03

Not everyone in Drammen wanted it

The completed plan followed three years of investigation. Drammen's merchants were among its strongest opponents: they feared the railway would weaken local trade and the steamship services between the cities. Drammen city council nevertheless funded planning, and construction began in 1869. 03

The narrow-gauge Kristiania-Drammenbanen opened from Oslo Vestbanestasjon to Drammen on 7 October 1872. The opening was deliberately simple, but the railway's effect was not. 02 03

Passengers arrived in numbers

The new line quickly carried more passengers than any other Norwegian railway. The Railway Directorate records annual traffic approaching 650,000 and solid operating surpluses. From the first operating year, dedicated local trains ran to Asker and Sandvika in addition to four to six through train pairs to Drammen. Early weekday freight traffic could be as little as one train a day. 03

The railway also helped reshape settlement west of Christiania. Easier travel encouraged population growth, particularly through the corridor towards Asker. The local railway and the city-to-city railway were therefore present almost from the same beginning. 03

The narrow railway became a main line

Drammenbanen was built to Carl Abraham Pihl's 1,067-millimetre gauge. As Norway's standard-gauge network grew, the busy route had to be rebuilt. Work began in 1913 and formed part of a wider programme that continued into 1922. 03 06

The official sources describe the final phases differently. The Railway Directorate says the standard-gauge conversion itself was complete in 1920. The Railway Museum dates the railway as “finished converted” in 1922, when the new electric and double-track operation to Sandvika also opened. This page keeps both records visible and treats 1913-1922 as the complete rebuilding period. 02 06

Electric power arrived before it crossed the river

On 26 November 1922, electric operation began and the first double-track section opened between Oslo V and Sandvika. The wires continued west to Brakerøya, making Drammenbanen Norway's first state railway with electric operation. 02 03 06

Electric trains did not initially reach Drammen station. The old bridges across Drammenselva and their axle-load limits delayed the last section until 1930. Double track advanced more slowly still: it reached Asker in 1955, Brakerøya in 1973 and Drammen only in 1996. 01 02 03

Lieråsen changed the map

The original railway west of Asker curved through Heggedal, Røyken and Lierbyen. Building a second track along that route was rejected in favour of a new line through Lieråsen. In 1973, the new double-track railway opened to Brakerøya and shortened Drammenbanen by 12.5 kilometres. 01 02

Lieråstunnelen is 10,723 metres long. Much of it passes through Drammen granite, but weakness zones, breccia, swelling clay and rock burst complicated construction. The alignment had to be altered during tunnelling, producing the well-known internal zig-zag on the Lier side. 04

The first 13 kilometres of the old route survived for local traffic. Today, the 13.55-kilometre railway from Asker to Spikkestad carries its own name, Spikkestadbanen. The section beyond Spikkestad through Lierbyen and Kjellstad to Brakerøya closed when the new route opened. 02 05

The western railway crossed Oslo

For more than a century, the railway ended at Oslo V. Oslotunnelen opened on 30 May 1980 and connected the western lines to the railway network on the eastern side of the city, creating through journeys that the original terminus could not provide. 01 02 06

Oslo V remained in use until 1989. Since then, trains from the west have run through the tunnel and Oslo S. The present Drammenbanen therefore begins inside a tunnel that did not exist during the first 108 years of the railway. 02

Two more tracks, not a replacement railway

By the late twentieth century, local, regional, airport, long-distance and freight trains were competing for the same two tracks. The response was Askerbanen: a new pair of faster tracks between Lysaker and Asker, built in two principal stages. Sandvika-Asker opened in 2005, the rebuilt Lysaker station followed in 2009, and Lysaker-Sandvika opened in 2011. 01 02 06

The result is four tracks with different jobs. The older Drammenbanen continues to serve the local stations; Askerbanen allows faster trains to pass beneath much of the same corridor. Its tunnels and construction have their own dedicated history on the next page.

The line beneath the Bergen journey

The Railway Directorate gives Drammenbanen a present length of 41.66 kilometres from Oslo S to Drammen. A journey routed over Askerbanen between Lysaker and Asker covers 40.03 kilometres. Those figures describe two different paths through the same corridor. 01

For Oslo-Bergen, Drammenbanen provides the underground departure through central Oslo, the western approach to Lysaker, the high-speed continuation from Asker through Lieråsen and the arrival at Drammen. After Drammen, the route continues to Gulskogen and Hokksund as Sørlandsbanen. 01

The full line is double track and carries passenger and freight traffic. Its 150-year history is one of repeated rebuilding while the corridor remained essential. 01 02