During July, my summer holiday was to Norway! The week we went coincided with a heatwave with temperatures in the early 30s for the entire trip! 

We flew from Edinburgh - Bergen with Norwegian Air on Thursday 10th July, with a flight time of less than an hour! Once at Bergen Airport, there are various transport options for reaching the City Centre including a regular tram service, which takes about 30-35 mins or an express bus service which takes roughly the same time. We opted for the express bus as it stopped directly outside our hotel in the Bryggen area and the tram was terminating at Central Station due to engineering works at Byparken.   

Bergen's tramway first began operation in 2010 between Byparken and the Airport, with a second, much shorter line opening in 2022 between Byparken and Fyllingsdalen.   Both lines have a regular headway particularly on week days and use a mixture of street, open and tunnel running with many decent viewpoints along the routes.   A fleet of 34 red & white liveried Stadler Variobahn trams operate on the pair of routes.   An extension to the tramway is due to commence construction in 2026 that will take the tramway through the historic Bryggen area and northwards to Asane, adding 12.7km to the route.

75-69 & 75-70 at BergenVy trains liveried 75-69 & 75-70 await their next duties at Bergen station 14.7.25 Being wide awake at 5am Norway time (4am British time) on my first full day in Bergen (Friday 11th July) and unable to get back to sleep, I decided to get up and have a walk around the city centre to explore a bit while it was quiet and ended up at the station! The station building at Bergen looks grand from the outside and inside, the overall roof gives the look of London Kings Cross station!   The station has 4 platforms with a depot to the left and the freight & container yard to the right.

Bergen station is served by three services:

• L4 Bergen - Arna shuttle
• R40 Bergen - Voss / Myrdal
• F4 Bergen - Oslo (Bergensbanen)

143.054 at BergenHectorRail liveried Former SJ Rc3 loco 143.054 arrives into Bergen with a container working, which has originated from the Oslo area 11.7.25 Local, regional and some early morning Bergensbanen services are served by Vy Rail Class 76 EMUs with the remaining F4 Bergensbanen services being run by Class 18 Electric locos with coaching stock.   Shunting and rescue work is done by Class 8 diesel shunter locomotives.  

On this day, there were delays with most of the regional services heavily delayed, this meant that a series of late running container trains arrived in the space of 45 minutes! The container workings were worked by Railpool class 187 locos and by a Swedish Class 143 Hector Rail loco.   This also allowed me to see one of the sleeper services from Oslo arrive.   

Later that day, we sampled the Bergen Floibanen, Bergen's Funicular Railway! The 2 car service operates on a very regular basis and can take as little as 3 minutes to reach the summit of Mount Floyen.   Mount Floyen offers stunning views over Bergen and with a hotel at the top and a herd of goats that greet visitors, what more could you ask for!   Rather than catch the Funicular back down, we opted to walk it.  There are various routes back down the mountain that all bring you back out around the Floibanen station at Bryggen and allow you to explore some of the narrow streets with traditional Norwegian buildings enroute.  We actually ended up doing this each evening in Bergen, taking a different route back down each time!

On the Sunday afternoon, I rode on the weekend only Line 3 heritage tram service from Engen in the City Centre to Møhlenpris. The service is mainly operated by former Berlin Reko TZ69 tramcars but there is also the last surviving car of Bergen's original tramway and a pair of old Oslo tram cars.  The tramway is approx. 1 mile long and runs to Oslo's Transport Museum, which is based in the former tram depot and as well as storing the trams, has a selection of other transport relics, including a pair of old funicular cars and a class 2 diesel loco.

On to Monday 14th July and it was time to say farewell to Bergen and head to Oslo! The journey to Oslo was the 300 mile 7 hour long trip on the very scenic Bergensbanen railway!

The train was headed by class 18 electric loco no 2262 for the 11.49 trip with the train having 8 carriages.   The facilities onboard are fantastic and everywhere is spotlessly clean! The train was made up of the usual Standard class and first class coaches along with a compartment car where the compartments seated up to 6 people.   There was also a children's play area a large bicycle / ski storage area and a cafe with a decent selection of food and drinks.

18-2262 at BergenVy trains 'Se Norge. Ta Toge' branded EL18-2262 awaits departure from Bergen with the 11.49 F4 Bergensbanen working to Oslo 14.7.25 We sat in one of the compartments in coach 5, which we found to be very comfortable.   The scenery was absolutely amazing for almost the entire journey, at some of the higher up sections of track enroute, there was still snow on the ground!   Other than Bergen to Arna and from the outskirts of Oslo to Central station most of the route was single track with passing loops at most stations. 

18-2245 at Oslo CentralSJ Nord's 'Se Norge. Ta Toge' branded EL18-2245 arrives at Oslo Central with with an F6 service from Trondheim 17.7.25 Oslo Central Station has 19 platforms, 6 of them are terminating there and is served by local, national and international services.

• Local services are provided by Class 69, 72 and 75 EMUs
• Regional services are provided by Class 74 and 75 EMUs
• Express trains to Kristiansand, Stravanger and Trondheim are provided by class 73 EMUs (Trondheim also served by Class 18 loco hauled sets) Bergen served by Class 18 loco hauled sets and class 75 EMUs and Gothenburg by RC6 loco hauled sets and X55 Regina services
• High Speed Airport services are served by class 71 and 78 EMUs

Oslo also has 5 metro lines, unfortunately due to major works, the lines were closed in the central area when I visited.   The tram system in Oslo is very fast and frequent, with notable scenic lines numbers 12 and 19 ideal for sightseeing.    

Overall, I'd recommend a trip to Norway!