Transport in Norway - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Transport in Norway is highly influenced by 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...

's low population density, narrow shape and long coastline. Norway has old water transport

Ship transport

Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods . Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history. Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises...

traditions, but road

Road transport

Road transport or road transportation is transport on roads of passengers or goods. A hybrid of road transport and ship transport is the historic horse-drawn boat.-History:...

, rail

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

and air transport

Aviation

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

have increased in importance during the 20th century. Due to the low population density, public transport

Public transport

Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...

is less built out than in many Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an countries, especially outside the cities.

The main governing body is 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...

, which performs operations through numerous subsidiaries. Tasks related to public transport and some roads have been delegated to the counties

Counties of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

and municipalities. Most infrastructure is publicly owned, while most operations are performed by private companies; public transport is subsidized.

In average each Norwegian transported themselves for 70 minutes each day. 8% of passenger transport was made by public transport

Public transport

; road transport is the dominant mode of transport. The transport sector was responsible for 4.1% of the gross national product

Measures of national income and output

A variety of measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate total economic activity in a country or region, including gross domestic product , gross national product , and net national income . All are specially concerned with counting the total amount of goods and...

and 6.6% of employment in 2006.

Civil aviation

Aviation has become an important passenger transport mode since the 1960s. Aircraft are a common used mode of transport on longer distances, and the routes between Oslo and Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger are all among the ten largest in Europe. In Western and Northern Norway, with difficult terrain and lack of rail transport, regional airline

Regional airline

Regional airlines are airlines that operate regional aircraft to provide passenger air service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service...

travel provides quick travel within the region or to the capital.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines System is Norway's national airline.

Airports

Of the 98 airports in Norway, 51 are public, and 46 are operated by the state-owned Avinor

Avinor

Avinor AS is a state owned limited company in that operates most of the civil airports in Norway. The Norwegian state, via the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications controls 100 percent of the share capital. Avinor was created on 1 January 2003, by the privatization of the...

. Seven airports have more than one million passengers annually. 41,089,675 passengers passed through Norwegian airports in 2007, of which 13,397,458 were international.

The main gateway by air to Norway is Oslo Airport, Gardermoen

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen is the principal airport serving Oslo, Norway. It acts as the main domestic hub and international airport for Norway, and the second-busiest airport in the Nordic countries. A hub for Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle, and a focus city for Widerøe, it is...

, located about 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) north of Oslo with departures to most European countries and some intercontinental destinations. It is hub

Airline hub

An airline hub is an airport that an airline uses as a transfer point to get passengers to their intended destination. It is part of a hub and spoke model, where travelers moving between airports not served by direct flights change planes en route to their destinations...

for the two major Norwegian airline

Airline

An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

s Scandinavian Airlines System and Norwegian Air Shuttle

Norwegian Air Shuttle

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA , trading as Norwegian, is the second-largest airline in Scandinavia. In 2010, it transported 13.0 million people. As of October 2011, Norwegian operates a total fleet of 62 aircraft; 17 Boeing 737-300s and 45 Boeing 737-800s...

, and for regional aircraft from Western Norway.

Heliport

Heliport

A heliport is a small airport suitable only for use by helicopters. Heliports typically contain one or more helipads and may have limited facilities such as fuel, lighting, a windsock, or even hangars...

s are common at hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

s and oil platform

Oil platform

An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...

s. The Norwegian Air Ambulance

Norwegian Air Ambulance

The Norwegian Air Ambulance is the air ambulance service in Norway organised through the government owned limited company Luftambulansetjenesten . The service provides helicopter emergency medical service and fixed wing air ambulance operations.Dedicated planes are provided at six airports, and...

service operates twelve helicopters and nine airplanes.

Regional aviation

The regional airport service was introduced in the 1960s, with 30 airports being served by short take-off and landing

STOL

STOL is an acronym for short take-off and landing, a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements.-Definitions:There is no one accepted definition of STOL and many different definitions have been used by different authorities and nations at various times and for a myriad of...

aircraft. These are located mainly in Sogn og Fjordane

Sogn og Fjordane

is a county in Norway, bordering Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland. The county administration is in the town of Hermansverk in Leikanger municipality while the largest town is Førde....

and Northern Norway, in areas with long distances to large cities and with too little traffic to support commercial flights. The airports, which typically have a 800 metres (2,624.7 ft) runway, are run by Avinor, while the airplanes are operated based on subsidized public service obligation

Public Service Obligation

In transport, public service obligation or PSO is an arrangement in which a governing body or other authority offers an auction for subsidies, permit the winning company a monopoly to operate a specified service of public transport for a specified period of time for the given subsidy...

contracts with the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications. The by far largest contractor is Widerøe

Widerøe

Widerøe's Flyveselskap AS, trading as Widerøe, is a regional airline in Norway and part of the SAS Group. It operates a fleet of 34 Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft , serving 41 domestic and 6 international destinations...

with their fleet of de Havilland Canada Dash 8 aircraft, but also Danish Air Transport, Lufttransport

Lufttransport

Lufttransport is a Norwegian helicopter and fixed-wing airline that operates primarily air ambulance helicopters and planes for the Norwegian and Swedish governments...

and Kato Airline

Kato Airline

Kato Airline was an airline based in Evenes, Norway. The airline, using the brand name Kato Air operated scheduled passenger and cargo services, as well as daily freight services for the National Mail company, northern Norway...

have won bids. The flights operate from one or more regional airports to larger hubs; in Oslo

Oslo Airport, Gardermoen

, Bergen

Bergen Airport, Flesland

Bergen Airport, Flesland is an international airport located southwest of Bergen, Norway. Opened in 1955, it is the second-busiest airport in Norway, with 5,296,325 passengers in 2010. Flesland is operated by the state-owned Avinor...

, Trondheim

Trondheim Airport, Værnes

Trondheim Airport, Værnes is an international airport located in Stjørdal, east of Trondheim, Norway. Operated by the state-owned Avinor, it shares facilities with Værnes Air Station of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. In 2010, the airport had 3,521,734 passengers and 55,747 air movements,...

, Bodø

Bodø Airport

Bodø Airport is civil airport in Bodø, Norway. Located just south of the city centre, on the westernmost tip of the peninsula Bodø lies on, it shares facilities with the military air force base Bodø Main Air Station. The airport has a single concrete, runway which runs in a roughly east-west...

, Tromsø and Kirkenes

Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen

Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen is the airport serving Kirkenes in eastern Finnmark, Norway. Høybuktmoen is located west of Kirkenes, at the base of a peninsula jutting into Varangerfjord...

. One service, to Værøy Heliport

Værøy Heliport

Værøy Heliport is a heliport on the island of Værøy in Nordland county in Norway. The airport had 8,372 passengers in 2005....

, is served by helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

. 1,214,508 passengers passed through the regional airports in 2007.

Rail transport

The main railway network consists of 4114 kilometres (2,556.3 mi) of standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

lines, of which 242 kilometres (150.4 mi) is 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 :...

and 64 kilometres (39.8 mi) high-speed rail

High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

(210 km/h) while 62% is electrified at . The railways transported 56,827,000 passengers 2,956 million passenger kilometer

Units of transportation measurement

The units of transportation measurement describes the units of measure to measure the quantity and traffic of transportation used in transportation statistics, planning, and their related fields.-Length of Journey:...

s and 24,783,000 tonnes of cargo 3,414 million tonne kilometer

Units of transportation measurement

s.

The main long-haul network consists of lines from Oslo and westwards along the South Coast to Stavanger

Stavanger

Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...

and over the mountains to 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 north to Åndalsnes

Åndalsnes

is a town in the municipality of Rauma in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Åndalsnes is the administrative center of Rauma. The town has a population of 2,207...

and via Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

to Bodø

Bodø

is a city and a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Salten region.The city of Bodø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Bodin was merged with Bodø on 1 January 1968. Skjerstad was merged with Bodø on 1 January 2005...

. Four lines connect to Sweden, allowing access to the European network. The only high-speed line is Gardermobanen, connecting Oslo to The Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, but plans exist to build more high-speed lines in Eastern Norway, and possibly to other parts of Norway. The entire network is owned by the Norwegian National Rail Administration, while all domestic passenger trains except the Airport Express Train

Flytoget

is a Norwegian high-speed airport rail link connecting Oslo Airport, Gardermoen to Oslo Central Station in nineteen minutes. Run by Flytoget AS , it operates on the high-speed Gardermoen Line using sixteen GMB Class 71 electric trains. Normal service frequency is once every ten minutes, with half...

are operated by Norges Statsbaner (NSB). Several companies operate freight trains.

Investment in new infrastructure and maintenance is financed through the state budget

State budget of Norway

The State budget of Norway is a budget passed by the Norwegian legislature, Storting, each year. It accumulates all income and expenses for the Government of Norway. The document defines the taxes to be collected, and what expenses will be accomplished....

, and subsidies are provided for passenger train operations. NSB operates long-haul trains, including night trains

NSB Night Train

NSB Night Train is a night sleeping car service provided by the Norwegian State Railways on four routes; Oslo - Bergen , Oslo - Stavanger , Oslo - Trondheim and Trondheim - Bodø .The service is provided using El 18 locomotives with WLAB2 and B7 cars on the electrified lines in Southern Norway,...

, regional services and four commuter train systems, around Oslo

Oslo Commuter Rail

Oslo Commuter Rail is a commuter rail centered in Oslo, Norway, connecting the capital to six counties in Eastern Norway. The system is operated by the Norwegian State Railways and its subsidiary NSB Gjøvikbanen, using Class 69 and Class 72 electric multiple units . The network spans eight routes...

, Trondheim, Bergen

Bergen Commuter Rail

Bergen Commuter Rail sometimes called Vossebanen is a commuter rail between Bergen and Arna, Voss and Myrdal, Norway. The service is operated by Norwegian State Railways using Class 69 electric multiple units...

and Stavanger.

Rail transit

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

ways operate in Oslo, Trondheim

Trondheim Tramway

Trondheim Tramway located in Trondheim, Norway consists presently of one 8.8 km tramway line, Gråkallbanen, from St. Olav's Gate in the city centre through Byåsen to Lian Station in Bymarka...

and Bergen

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...

. The only rapid transit

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

system is the Oslo T-bane, while the only funicular

Funicular

A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.-Operation:The basic principle of funicular...

is in Bergen

Fløibanen

Fløibanen is a funicular in Bergen, Norway which runs up the mountain of Fløyen. It is one of Bergen's major tourist attractions and one of Norway's most visited attractions. Over 1 million passengers a year have used it over the past few years. Fløibanen was officially opened on 15 January 1918...

. The rail transits are operated by the counties, and integrated into the bus transport. In Oslo the two systems make the backbone of the public transport system

Ruter

Ruter As is the public transport authority for Oslo and Akershus, Norway. The company, organized as a limited company is responsible for managing, but not operating, public transport in the two counties, including bus, the Oslo Metro, the Oslo Tramway and ferries...

, giving Oslo by far the highest public transport share of 20%. In 2007, 101 million passengers were transported 490 million passenger kilometers by rail transit.

Road transport

Norway has a road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

network of 92946 kilometres (57,754.1 mi), of which 72033 kilometres (44,759.3 mi) are paved and 664 kilometres (412.6 mi) are motorway. There are four tiers of road routes; national, county, municipal and private, with only the national roads numbered en route. The most important national routes are part of the European route

International E-road network

The international E-road network is a numbering system for roads in Europe developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe . The network is numbered from E 1 up and its roads cross national borders...

scheme, and the two most prominent are the E6

European route E6

European route E 6 is the designation for the main north-south road in Norway, and the west coast of Sweden, running from the southern tip of Sweden, at Trelleborg, into Norway and through almost all of the country north to Finnmark. The route ends close to the Norwegian border with Russia...

going north-south through the entire country, while E39

European route E39

E 39 is the designation of a 1330 km long north-south road in Norway and Denmark, running from Klett just south of Trondheim to Aalborg, via Orkanger, Vinjeøra, Halsa ... Straumsnes, Krifast, Batnfjordsøra, Molde ... Vestnes, Skodje, Ålesund ... Volda ... Nordfjordeid ... Sandane, Førde,...

follows the West Coast. National and county roads are managed by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration

Norwegian Public Roads Administration

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the state and county public roads in the country. This includes planning, construction and operation of the state and county road networks, driver training and licensing, vehicle inspection and subsidies to...

Motorways exist around the largest cities; many of the larger cities have introduces toll schemes

Toll road

A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...

to help finance roads. In 2008, 130 ferry routes remained in service, operated by private companies on contract with the Public Roads Administration. Since the 1970s the heaviest rural investments have been mainland connections to replace the many car ferries that are needed to cross fjords and connect to islands. There are not enough funding through tax money, so these tunnel

Tunnel

A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...

s and bridge

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

s are normally financed mainly through toll fees. Some mountain pass

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

es have severe snowstorm

Winter storm

A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...

problems in the winter, so often they have to be closed, or cars have to drive after a snowplow

Snowplow

A snowplow is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes...

in a column. The most exposed mountain passes are closed the entire winter.

In 2007 there were 2.6 million automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

s in Norway, or 444 per 1000 residents, an increase of 27% the last ten years—average age was 10.2 years. Road accidents killed 242 people and road transport caused 20% of greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gas

A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...

emissions. Trucks transported 264 million tonnes 15 billion tonne kilometers.

See also: Road signs in Norway

Road signs in Norway

Road signs in Norway are regulated by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Statens vegvesen.Signs follow the general European conventions concerning the use of shape and colour to indicate function. Any text included on supplementary signs will normally be in Norwegian, but may in some cases...

, Vehicle registration plates of Norway.

Bus transport

Each county is responsible for the public bus and boat transport in their area, (railways, regional airlines and the Coastal Express

Hurtigruten

Hurtigruten or Hurtigruta is a Norwegian passenger and freight line with daily sailings along Norway's western and northern coast. Sometimes referred to in English as Norwegian Coastal Express, Hurtigruten ships sail almost the entire length of the country, completing the roundtrip journey in 11...

boat, are financed by the state). Buses transported 290 million passengers 3.7 billion passenger kilometers in 2007. 6,194 buses were in operation during 2007; tickets sales was NOK 3,721 million while bus transport received government subsidies of NOK 3,393 million.

Bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

, bus

Coach (vehicle)

A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...

and water bus

Water taxi

A water taxi or water bus, also known as a commuter boat, is a watercraft used to provide public transport, usually but not always in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or on demand to many locations, operating in a similar...

services are normally operated by private companies on contract with the county or their public transport authority (such as Ruter

Ruter

or Vestviken Kollektivtrafikk

Vestviken Kollektivtrafikk

Vestviken Kollektivtrafikk is the public transport administration for the counties of Buskerud, Telemark and Vestfold in Norway. VTK is responsible for planning, organising and marketing bus transport in the three counties, but does not operate any buses...

). Long-haul coach services are operated by various companies, most of whom cooperate through NOR-WAY Bussekspress.

Water transport

The coastal infrastructure is operated by the Norwegian Coastal Administration

Norwegian Coastal Administration

Norwegian Coastal Administration is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the water transport infrastructure along the 92,000 km Coast of Norway. It is responsible for coastal navigation infrastructure, pilotage and harbour and port infrastructure, including lighthouses...

, while port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

s are operated by the municipalities. Norway has 90000 kilometres (55,923.5 mi) of shoreline, 400,000 leisure craft and a 715 ships in the merchant marine

Merchant Navy

The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...

Merchant marine

Norway is the fifth largest beneficial shipowning country, with 5% of the world's fleet; though a high portion of these are registered in flags of convenience

Flag of convenience

The term flag of convenience describes the business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners, and flying that state's civil ensign on the ship. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to reduce operating costs or avoid the...

, Norway has 15 million gross tonnes

Deadweight tonnage

Deadweight tonnage is a measure of how much weight a ship is carrying or can safely carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew...

of ships under its flag. The government has created an internal register, the Norwegian International Ship Register

Norwegian International Ship Register

Norwegian International Ship Register or NIS is a separate Norwegian ship register for Norwegian vessels aimed at competing with flags of convenience registers like Panama, Liberia etc. Originally proposed by Erling Dekke Næss in 1984 it was established in Bergen in 1987 and is managed by the...

(NIS), as a subset of the Norwegian Ship Register

Norwegian Ship Register

The Norwegian Ship Register or NOR is a domestic ship register for Norway. The register is managed by Norwegian Ship Registers .-Registration:All ships over 15 metres must register, as must offshore platform and equivalent...

; ships on the NIS enjoy many benefits of flags of convenience and do not have to be crewed by Norwegians.

Ferries

Fast ferries

High-speed craft

A high-speed craft is a high speed water vessel for civilian use, also called a fastcraft or fast ferry.The first high-speed craft were often hydrofoils or hovercraft, but in the 1990s catamaran and even monohull designs have become popular.Most high-speed craft serve as passenger ferries, but the...

operate many places where fjords and islands make it quicker to follow the waterways than the roads; some small islands are served by water bus

Water taxi

es. Public transport by ship transported eight million passengers 273 million passenger kilometers in 2007. The Coastal Express

Hurtigruten

(known as Hurtigruten) operates daily cruiseferries

Cruiseferry

A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship with a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while others use the ships as means of...

from Bergen to Kirkenes

Kirkenes

is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway...

, calling at 35 ports. International cruiseferries operate from Southern Norway to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

and Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

Pipelines

The petroleum

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

and natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

production on the Norwegian continental shelf

Norwegian continental shelf

The Norwegian continental shelf is the continental shelf over which Norway exercises sovereign rights as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea...

uses pipelines to transport produce to processing plants on mainland Norway and other European countries; total length is 9481 kilometres (5,891.2 mi). The government-owned Gassco

Gassco

Gassco is a Norwegian state owned company that operates of natural gas pipes transporting annually of 88.5 billion cubic meter of natural gas from the Norwegian continental shelf to Continental Europe and the United Kingdom....

operates all natural gas piplines; in 2006, 88 billion cubic meters were transported, or 15% of European consumption

External links

Official gateway for all public transit authorities and companies in Norway
Norwegian National travelplanner
Ministry of Transport and Communications
Transport at Statistics Norway
Statistics Norway
Statistics Norway is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876.Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All releases are published both in Norwegian and English...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.