Bergen Commuter Rail sometimes called Vossebanen is a commuter rail between Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 and Arna

Arna, Norway

Arna is a borough and suburb of Bergen, Norway and a former municipality in Hordaland county.Arna has approximately 12,000 inhabitants. Situated behind mount Ulriken, Arna is geographically close to downtown Bergen, but it takes some time to drive there by road as there is no road tunnel as of yet....

, Voss

Voss

is a municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Voss. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen....

 and Myrdal

Myrdal

Myrdal is a surname, and may refer to:* Alva Myrdal , Swedish diplomat, politician and writer* Gunnar Myrdal , Swedish economist and politician* Jan Myrdal , Swedish author, leftist-political writer and columnist...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The service is operated by Norwegian State Railways using Class 69 electric multiple unit

Electric multiple unit

An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...

s. It is provided on the mainline Bergen Line and all services terminate at Bergen Station.

Service

NSB operates half-hour headway

Headway

Headway is a measurement of the distance/time between vehicles in a transit system. The precise definition varies depending on the application, but it is most commonly measured as the distance from the tip of one vehicle to the tip of the next one behind it, expressed as the time it will take for...

 from Bergen Station to Arna Station

Arna station

Arna Station is the second largest railway station in Bergen, Norway; located in the Arna borough on the east side of Ulriken and between the two tunnels Ulriken Tunnel and Arnanipa. The present station was opened in 1964, when the tunnels was completed...

, through the Ulriken Tunnel

Ulriken Tunnel

Ulriken Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Bergen Line between Bergen Station and Arna Station in Norway. The long tunnel runs under the northern part of the mountain Ulriken in Bergen. Before the tunnel was opened in 1964, the Bergen Line ran via Nesttun. This stretch is now a heritage railway,...

. This service provides a high-frequency service to the community of Arna using the only means to go under the mountain Ulriken

Ulriken

Ulriken is the highest of the Seven Mountains that surround Bergen, Norway. It has an altitude of 643 metres above sea level....

. There are further sixteen departures each way to Voss, of which six only stop at Arna and Dale

Dale Station

Dale Station is a railway station located at Dale in Vaksdal, Norway. The station is served by twelve daily departures per direction by the Bergen Commuter Rail operated by Norges Statsbaner, as well by some express trains the night train to Oslo S...

 before Voss, not allowing trips Bergen-Arna/Bergen-Dale, while ten stop at all stations, giving three services per direction and hour between Bergen and Arna. Three services continue from Voss to Myrdal Station

Myrdal station

Myrdal Station is a mountain railway station and junction, located on the Bergen Line regional mainline in Aurland, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. The railway station is also the upper terminal of the Flåm Line local railway, which ascends from the valley floor of the Sognefjord to the mountain-top...

.

Electric multiple units of Class 69 are used.

The operational deficits are financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications

Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications

The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Transportation and Communications is a Norwegian ministry established in 1946, and is responsible for transportation and communication infrastructure in Norway. It is led by Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa...

. Tickets are sold by NSB. Fares are not integrated with Skyss

Skyss

Skyss is a county owned public transport administration company that will take over the management, but not operation, of public transport in Hordaland, Norway. The company will administrate public service obligation contracts as well as promote public transport in the county. The administration...

, the county transit authority, or Tide

Tide (transportation company)

Tide ASA is a public transport company in Hordaland, Norway which resulted from the merger of Gaia Trafikk and Hardanger Sunnhordlandske Dampskipsselskap . The company provides the public transit network in the city of Bergen, and most of the bus service in Hordaland...

, the bus company in Hordaland.

Future expansion

• Specific plans to expand the Ulriken Tunnel to double track
  Double track
  A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...
  
   are under consideration. This would allow NSB to increase headway to fifteen minutes to Arna, and increase the total number of services on all of Bergensbanen.
• An alternative to this is to build the Bergen Light Rail
  Bergen Light Rail
  Bergen Light Rail is a light rail system in Bergen, Norway. The first stage of the project is a fifteen-station, stretch between the city center and Nesttun, which opened on 22 June 2010...
  
  as a parallel tunnel to Arna, and terminating the shuttle trains to Arna.

External links

• Norges Statsbaner