Gardermobanen
| Gardermobanen | |
| |
|---|---|
| A Airport Express Train at Oslo Central Station on Gardermobanen | |
| Info | |
| Type | High-speed railway |
| Start station | Oslo S |
| End station | Eidsvoll |
| No. of stations | 5 |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1999 |
| Owner | Jernbaneverket |
| Operator(s) | Norges Statsbaner Flytoget |
| Rolling stock | BM70, BM71, BM72, BM73 |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 64 km |
| Track length | 128 km |
| No. of tracks | 2 |
| Gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) |
| Electrified | 15 kV 16⅔ Hz AC |
| Operating speed | 210 km/h |
Gardermobanen is a high speed railway line between Oslo and Eidsvoll which runs past Lillestrøm and Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. The line is 64 km long. It now serves as the main line east of Oslo, relegating the old Hovedbanen to mainly commuter and freight traffic except for the places where the two lines run concurrently.
Construction
When it was decided that the Gardermoen airport was to expanded to become Oslo's main airport, a rapid means of travel to the airport was required. The new track consisted of mainly two parts. The first part was a new line to the airport itself, west of the old line. The second a shortcut between Oslo and Lillestrøm to cut the travel time down, this was the long Romeriksporten tunnel, the longest railway tunnel in Norway.
The line to the airport was opened on time for the opening of the newly expanded airport, but construction of the Romeriksporten tunnel was plagued with difficulties. The tunnel ran underneath the lake of Lutvann and some other minor lakes, and there were serious problems with water leakages. The water level in the Lutvann lake dropped by about a metre because of these leakages. The troubles were further exacerbated by the revelation that the substance used to plug the leaks, Rhoca Gil, contained the toxic chemical acrylamide, which needed to be replaced. The tunnel was finally opened on October 22 1999, one year after schedule.
Operations
The line is used mainly by the Airport Express trains operated by Flytoget AS. The rolling stock for these trains are the BM71 3-car electric multiple units. They are sometimes coupled together to form six-car trains. The journey between Oslo Sentralstasjon and the airport is 19 minutes.
The regional passenger trains on Dovrebanen to Lillehammer and Trondheim also use Gardermobanen.
