(Myrdal)-Flåm · 1871-today
The railway that had to lose height
In barely twenty kilometres, Flåmsbana had to connect a mountain main line with a fjord nearly nine hundred metres below — without a rack rail and without letting the valley decide every curve.
A railway for the Sognefjord
Hans Gløersen proposed the branch in 1871. Its purpose was practical: connect the planned railway across the mountain with steamships serving the communities of inner Sogn. Before roads linked the region to the rest of the country, people, post and goods travelled by ship to Bergen or by horse over the mountains. 02
Detailed studies began in 1893. Engineers compared a route through Flåmsdalen with a much longer connection towards Gudvangen. They also compared rack railway, cable railway, electric tramway and conventional adhesion. This was not an inevitable railway waiting to be built; it was one answer among several competing transport systems. 02 07
The decision took half a century
On 10 July 1908, Parliament selected the Myrdal-Flåm route as a combined adhesion and rack railway. NSB engineer Ferdinand Bjerke then studied mountain railways in the Alps and recommended a conventional adhesion line instead. Parliament accepted the standard-gauge adhesion solution in 1916. 02
Construction and electric operation were funded in 1923. Work began under engineer Peder Lahlum, but the economic crisis of the 1920s drove the cost estimate to 14.5 million kroner. A proposal to replace the lower railway between Berekvam and Flåm with a road was defeated after political resistance led by Ingolf Elster Christensen. The line survived on paper before it could survive the mountain. 02
Parliament chose the valley first. Engineers then spent eight more years deciding how a train could climb it.
Making a railway fit the valley
The finished railway uses gradients up to 55 per mille on much of the descent. The turning tunnel near Vatnahalsen adds distance inside the mountain and bends through 180 degrees so the conventional train can gain or lose height without a rack. The same topography forced repeated changes of side, protection from avalanches and curves placed wherever solid ground allowed. 01 02
Original construction created 20 rock tunnels. Eighteen were drilled entirely by hand; machine power assisted in two. At three valley crossings, the engineers avoided bridges by diverting Flåmselvi through water tunnels and building the railway across the old river course on fill. Landslides and avalanche exposure continued to alter the detailed alignment during construction. 02 03
The people inside the numbers
The works drew local labourers, experienced navvies, horse drivers and suppliers into a construction society spread between Myrdal, Kårdal, Berekvam, Høga, Flatedalen and Flåm. Horses carried materials along the former Bergensbanen construction road, while farms and private homes supplemented the barracks. Vestland County's account records 6,165,350 working hours between 1924 and 1949. 03 04
Kringom records 280 workers in 1937. Flåmsbana's broader history gives a peak of 400-500, but the two sources do not define the count in the same way. What they agree on is the human cost: dust from the tunnel faces caused silicosis, and two fatal construction accidents were recorded. 02 03
A line built from the valley
Railway work became local work
Construction lasted long enough to become part of ordinary life. People who had transported visitors and supplies by horse found new work on the railway; homes became lodging; the access road became an economic artery. Flåmsbana changed Flåmsdalen years before it carried a public passenger.
Occupation changed the timetable
Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, seventeen years after the Norwegian construction project had begun. Work stopped briefly, then the occupation authorities forced it forward. Kringom connects the pressure for an early freight opening to the movement of materials for the planned aluminium works at Årdal. Temporary freight traffic over the full line began on 1 August 1940, using small steam locomotives. 02 03
Regular passenger traffic began on 10 February 1941. The quay beside Flåm station followed in 1942. Electric operation began on 24 November 1944 after the Kjosfossen power plant and railway installations were completed. The line was therefore neither conceived nor substantially started by the occupying power; the occupation accelerated a long-running Norwegian project and determined the conditions under which it entered service. 01 02 07
What the sources do — and do not — establish
No borrowed war narrative
The route-specific sources document occupation control, German pressure and a mainly local or itinerant railway workforce. Kringom gives an average of 75 workers during the war years. The reviewed accounts do not establish forced labour on Flåmsbana, so this page does not import that claim from other Norwegian wartime railway projects. 03
A line opened without an opening
There is no single date that can carry every meaning of “opened”. A first freight train ran from Myrdal to Berekvam in 1939. Temporary freight reached Flåm in 1940. Regular passenger traffic began in 1941; ordinary operation was formalised in 1942; electric traffic followed in 1944. Each date describes a different threshold. 01 02 07
No official opening ceremony was held during the occupation. The ceremony finally took place in 1980, at the fortieth anniversary. Even the end of construction needs a label: Kringom describes the railway as fully completed in 1946, while Flåmsbana's history follows the final construction administration to 1947. The ledger retains the difference instead of manufacturing a single answer. 02 03
From transport link to destination
After the war, passenger numbers rose, then stabilised at about 115,000 journeys a year through much of the 1950s and 1960s. Closure was repeatedly discussed. Sleeping cars ran between Oslo and Flåm from 1958, and rising traffic in the 1970s and 1980s helped end that round of closure pressure. 02 07
The railway was deliberately rebuilt as a visitor experience during the 1990s. Flåm gained a new station and track layout, while Berekvam received a longer crossing loop that allowed longer passenger trains to meet in the middle of the line. Flåm Utvikling was established in 1997 and assumed sales and marketing in 1998, while railway management and train operation remained separate responsibilities. 02 05
A small railway with very large traffic
Flåmsbana remains a 20.4-kilometre, single-track, electrified branch. Trains can cross at Berekvam. The line is not remotely controlled, and its gradient, short platforms and single crossing point shape capacity and operation. Bane NOR manages the railway; Vy operates the passenger trains under the current arrangement, while Flåmsbana AS holds the commercial role. 01 05
The Railway Directorate recorded 956,000 journeys in 2024. The present agreement continues through December 2027, and the Directorate plans commercial operation after that. 06
The branch in time
From branch proposal to visitor railway
A branch to the fjord proposed
Hans Gløersen proposes a link between the future mountain railway and steamship traffic on the Sognefjord.
Routes and systems compared
Surveyors begin testing Flåm and Gudvangen routes, rack railway, tramway, cable and adhesion alternatives.
Parliament chooses Flåm
The first decision specifies a combined adhesion and rack railway between Myrdal and Flåm.
Adhesion and standard gauge
Parliament approves the conventional standard-gauge solution recommended after studies of Alpine railways.
Construction begins
Funding and electric operation are approved, and work starts under Peder Lahlum.
Rails enter the valley
Tracklaying begins while tunnel and formation work continues.
First freight stage
The first freight train runs between Myrdal and Berekvam.
Temporary freight throughout
Occupation authorities force the work forward, and freight begins over the full line on 1 August.
Passenger traffic
Regular passenger services begin on 10 February.
Rail meets the quay
The quay at Flåm is completed and ordinary operation is formalised under NSB.
Electric operation
The line and the Kjosfossen power supply are completed for electric traffic on 24 November.
The last works finish
The institutional accounts use different end points for final construction and administration; both are retained in the source note.
The opening ceremony
Because no official ceremony was held during the occupation, the formal celebration takes place at the fortieth anniversary.
A new commercial model
Flåm Utvikling is established and assumes sales and marketing while the railway remains publicly owned.
956,000 journeys
The Railway Directorate records the line as one of Norway's busiest tourism journeys.
Sources
From Myrdal down to Flåm
Open each original source, or use Google Translate to read Norwegian pages in English.