Norway's Bergen Railway
www.facebook.com
The Bergensbanen train in Western Norway and its extraordinary journey.
https://www.pbs.org/static/images/favicons/apple-touch-icon.cd53d5e995a1.png
PBS.org
[narrator] This is the Bergensbanen, considered one of the world's most beautiful train lines.

It has linked Norway's second-largest city of Bergen in the west with the capital of Oslo in the east for more than a century.

Crossing icy plateaus, steep fjords and winding valleys, it is a triumph of engineering in a challenging landscape, working alongside nature, while respecting the power of this extreme environment.

Filmed from above, this series showcases some of the most incredible railways on Earth.

We'll gain a unique aerial insight into these remarkable trains and the extraordinary landscapes they pass through... ...revealing the technology that built them and the dedicated people who keep them running.

We'll uncover the culture, the history, and the engineering that makes these truly Epic Train Journeys From Above.

Ranked as the world's most developed country, and one of the top ten wealthiest countries in the world, the Scandinavian nation of Norway also boasts the world's second-longest coastline.

And it's along this coast that the Bergen Railway begins its journey.

Once Norway's capital and a hub for maritime trade, Bergen is the gateway to Western Norway's mountainous landscape, with peaks rising to over 1,800 meters and some of the longest fjords on the planet.

[light, whimsical music] At Bergen Train Station... ...driver Andre Hansen is preparing to set off.

[Andre] It's like a pre-flight check.

Wipers are working, that's important.

Sometimes visibility is horrible, almost next to nothing.

It's just plain white all the way, so we have to, uh, talk to the traffic operators to be able to drive.

Andre's been driving trains for two years, and with parts of the Bergen Line experiencing more than four meters of snow each year, he takes nothing for granted.

If you run into an avalanche or something, even quite small, it can stop the train, and when the train is standing still, if there is a lot of wind it can basically snow in.

So you're stuck, and then you have to get help!

[chuckles] [train system beeping] Off we go.

[exhilarating music] With clearance from traffic control, the EL18 locomotive and its eight passenger carriages set off, departing Bergen on the west coast, on a 496-kilometer journey southeast to the country's capital, Oslo.

From above, this picturesque route has a varied but challenging path ahead.

Often considered the gateway to the fjords, as the train departs Bergen it heads east, weaving alongside Western Norway's stunning fjord landscape, before climbing 950 meters to the scenic Flam Line.

From here, it endures the icy wilderness of the Hardanger Plateau, where temperatures regularly plummet to 12 degrees below zero.

It then descends into the forested Hallingdal Valley, and turning south for the final 160-kilometer stretch to Oslo.

[tranquil music] Bergen is known as the "City of Seven Mountains," surrounded by a natural barrier that has challenged generations of engineers.

It presented a particular problem for the railway, and the original Bergen Line was built winding south around the Ulriken Mountain.

But in 1964, work was finalized on a tunnel that went through it.

Today, a second state-of-the-art tunnel has just been completed through the Ulriken Mountain.

And at Arna, on the eastern side of the mountain, the original tunnel is getting an upgrade, with the goal of making the line a double track.

Engineering geologist and assistant project manager Helge Tjelmeland has been working on the project since 2014.

We have roughly 400 meters of rock above our heads, where we're driving now.

It's three kilometers to the nearest exit.

Tunnelling in Norway is not really that hard compared to tunnelling everywhere else in the world, because we have a very good rock quality.

The rock is mostly self-supporting.

But the standards have changed since the 1960s, so now we have to build something completely different, which is a lot stronger and a lot bigger than what they did 50 years ago.

The height and width of the sections of the Ulriken Tunnel are being doubled, to allow for modern waterproofing and state-of-the-art frost protection.

A plastic lining will be secured to bolts on the tunnel walls and sprayed with a special form of concrete, called shotcrete, to form a hard shell.

But first, each new section of tunnel must be enlarged.

To do this, Helge must work closely with foreman Helge Tillung, employing an extraordinary piece of machinery known as a tunnel jumbo.

This is an Atlas Copco Jumbo tunnel machine.

It's a quite impressive machine, and expensive machinery also.

This one, six, seven, eight million.

The jumbo has two arms on the sides here, with the drill machines.

The twin drills of the tunnel jumbo are capable of boring holes five meters deep into the rock face.

Now we're set up to start drilling, so now the noise will start.

[drilling] To ensure they are positioned accurately, they are guided by a system of lasers.

You can see the laser from far behind in the tunnel.

They're used to navigate the jumbo, to get it exactly in the right place to drill the correct pattern.

There are lots of sensors to control and drill exactly in the place where it's supposed to be.

[drilling continues] They use water to reduce dust when they're drilling, otherwise it would be, uh, a very unhealthy environment in the tunnel.

But it's not the jumbo's brute strength that will demolish the granite of the tunnel walls.

Instead, it's drilling holes for explosive charges.

And while the drilling arms do their work, demolitions expert Sigve Brunborg is getting ready.

I'm priming up the explosives.

See, this here is a detonating cord.

This is the one that, uh, makes the hole, yeah, explode.

It's not the blasting that is the dangerous part of the job, it's working inside the mountain.

You have falling rocks and dangerous equipment.

So, it's much, uh, much more dangerous than the blasting part itself.

My favorite part is probably to ignite the explosives.

That is my favorite part.

With the fuses prepared, Sigve is hoisted up in the tunnel jumbo's basket.

He must now pump explosive into the two dozen holes drilled into the rock face before he can insert his fuses.

It's a quite gooey substance, so it will not leak out of the holes.

This is the stuff we ignite.

You can also put it quite diagonally up, so, um, it goes "boom," as you can say.

[chuckles] With each hole now filled with liquid explosive, a day's worth of drilling will be detonated in a single blast.

I'm going to put on the detonating cord.

You just have to tape it on.

It's detonating all the holes you see around here on the face.

[pensive music] With charges set and the fuses tied up, the team must retreat to a safe distance.

For Helge Tjelmeland, the moment of detonation never loses its power.

It's really, really loud, and your entire body moves as the shockwave passes through you.

So, you just have to experience this.

You cannot really describe it.

But before they can detonate, there's a hold-up.

Andre's train is still in the neighboring tunnel.

We're waiting for the train in the other tunnel to pass, so we can block the traffic and then blast.

[radio beeps] With the train only 30 meters away, the shockwave from the blast could cause panic.

The team must wait.

He's got his signal.

It's go.

[sharp blasts] [rapid blasts] [dramatic music] [explosion] The blast is a success.

But for the team, there are still risks.

We're going in after the blast uh, to hammer it, see if there is any loose stuff.

I wouldn't recommend anybody going in there before it's done.

You can see the size of the rocks coming down now.

For the work to continue safely, any rock damaged or loosened by the blast has to be hammered away.

A fleet of front loaders and dump trucks are brought in to remove the rubble.

[Tjelmeland] Right now we're roughly halfway finished, so within one year they will be running a train in this tunnel again.

With a new station also factored in, this incredible feat of Norwegian engineering is due for completion in 2023, with an estimated total cost of half a billion dollars.

It's only one of the 183 tunnels the Bergen Line passes through on its journey to Oslo.

But as the iconic train route begins to climb, mountains aren't the only natural obstacle that lie in its path.

The first 48 kilometers of its journey take the Bergen Line east, following the magnificent fjord of Veafjorden.

More than a thousand fjords lie along Norway's coast, including several World Heritage Sites.

Created during the last Ice Age, this extraordinary landscape of cliffs and valleys has proved a challenge for generations of railway engineers as well as a vital source of renewable energy.

And the breath-taking views are a major draw for visitors.

[tranquil music] [train clattering on tracks] As it approaches the highest point on its journey, the train comes to the interchange station at Myrdal.

Here, passengers can change to a 20-kilometer branch line that descends nearly 865 meters to the village of Flam below.

Known as the Flamsbana, it runs from Myrdal to the shores of Norway's longest and deepest fjord, the 204-kilometer Sognefjord.

In the summer months, the steep descent and breath-taking views of the Flamsbana attract more than half a million visitors, and have earned it the title of the world's most beautiful railway.

But in early spring, there is a dedicated team who play a vital role in keeping the train on track.

With the spring melt beginning in the mountains, enormous volumes of water are now being released, eroding valley walls, and dislodging loose rock.

Railway worker Asmund Mikkeldvedt has risen before dawn to inspect the line for damage and debris, in his ROBEL track maintenance vehicle.

Along with his usual crew, he's brought his apprentice rail welder Morten Teigen.

We are looking for ice.

Now it's a bit high temperature, it's loosened from the terrain, and it can tip into the train tracks.

If we come across it, we need to clear it.

We started today at four, and the first night is often never too much sleep!

[chuckles] So, uh, it's good to have coffee with it.

Asmund has only three hours to make sure the Flam Line is ready for the day's railway traffic.

Because the train schedule starts so early, we need the time from now to eight.

That's when Flam Railway will begin its ascent to Myrdal.

[light, upbeat music] It's not just the early starts that make Asmund's job more challenging.

It took 20 years to carve the Flam Railway Line from the sheer slopes of the valley walls, with 18 of its 20 tunnels built by hand.

They would never build this today.

It's too narrow, too steep.

It's what they built it with back in the days, pure handcraft.

It's very impressive built.

This unique geography means the Flam Line is at constant risk from the elements.

And with the ice on the mountainsides melting, the team needs to clear the tracks.

But it's not just ice Asmund has to worry about.

This too is water damaged, though.

In the winter, all the water pours into the cracks of the mountain, and it freezes and it, uh, erodes out.

And then it falls down.

This hard igneous rock of the valley walls is no match for the power of water as it freezes and expands.

But the steep cliffs and melting ice of the Flam Valley aren't always a destructive force.

Close to the top of the line lies Reinunga Lake, fed by meltwater from the surrounding mountains.

The waters of the lake plummet some 200 meters into a narrow gorge, before winding their way through the valley.

And the energy released by this falling water does not go to waste.

Completed in 1941, the Kjosfossen Hydroelectric Plant draws water all year round from beneath the frozen lake, generating 3.5 million watts of electricity, and feeding it directly to the overhead lines of the Flamsbana.

An extraordinary example of how Norway's landscape has been harnessed to power the railway.

Back in the valley's 1,000-meter Blomheller Tunnel, Asmund has spotted another sign of the damage caused by the spring melt.

One bit of water hits the exact same place over and over again.

This rail here has been here for 20 years, and after 20 years of one drip constantly dripping, it's bending down.

So, when I put this up here, I can see here a small bend.

It's about 1.2 millimeters.

This is not critical.

But it needs to be changed next year or so.

Asmund and his team are already in the process of replacing a 12-meter length of track damaged by falling water.

With the weld now cool, joins between the new sections must be made smooth to avoid damaging the wheels of passing trains.

And Asmund has given the challenge of grinding them down to his trainee.

We're setting up some lights, and then we're gonna grind the weld.

It's uneven and we have to grind it out.

[motor humming] [sparks crackling] [dramatic music] [turns motor off] Apprentice welder Morten has only two weeks left before he takes his final practical exam.

[sparks crackling] And achieving a smooth finish takes experience, as well as a steady hand.

He's getting there, but it's 90% technique to grinding the rail.

A bit more practice and, uh, is good to his, uh, test.

When I finish the test, I will be welding alone.

Confident that the track is now levelled, Asmund and his team can reboard the ROBEL maintenance truck and head back up the Flam Line.

[Asmund] Time is a valuable thing for us.

We need to get off the tracks before the trains can start rolling, and we need to explain to the services that the rail tracks are OK to be run at.

Keeping the trains at the original schedules, that's when I get a bit happy, you see.

With the line clear, the first Flam passenger line train of the day sets off.

It's the work of people like Asmund and his team that keep the railways of Norway running throughout the seasons, and with 90% punctuality.

Back on the Bergen Line, the train has climbed to a height of 1,220 meters, and is about to enter the most treacherous leg of its journey.

In Western Norway, the iconic Bergen Line train is moving east, through the Hardanger Mountains.

With an average elevation of 500 meters, 32% of Norway lies above the treeline, making it one of Europe's most mountainous nations.

It is here that the Hardanger Plateau begins, an icy wilderness of some 6,500 square meters where the only way in or out is often by train.

Crossing it makes the Bergen Line the highest standard-gauge railway in Northern Europe.

[dramatic music] In 1979, drawn by its bleak landscape, Hollywood came to the Hardanger Plateau to film George Lucas's epic science fiction space opera, The Empire Strikes Back.

And for cafe manager Jennie Klingenberg, the Bergen Line train can sometimes still feel like a movie set.

Once a year, a lot of Stormtroopers come all dressed, and they come to replay, like, scenes up at Finse.

They walk through the whole train in full Stormtrooper outfits, and it's really, really cool.

[dramatic music continues] The original cast and crew stayed at Finse, a remote mountain settlement only accessible by rail.

However, they weren't the first to use this landscape as a substitute for somewhere further afield.

Chris Imray is a consultant surgeon and keen mountaineer, with a deep connection to Finse.

This is the traditional place to come and train for polar expeditions, and it goes back over 100 years.

So, um, Shackleton and Amundsen and Scott all came out here to train and use this as simulation for going to the Antarctic.

When they built the train line through here, it suddenly gave people ready access to these fairly hostile and extreme environments.

For Chris, it's the ideal place to stage an exercise, teaching his students how to practice medicine under the most demanding conditions.

-[woman] What's hurting you?

-[man] My leg.

OK. And for many Norwegians, it offers something else, a chance to practice "friluftsliv," or "outdoor life," a Scandinavian philosophy of connecting with nature, that inspires thousands of people to take the Bergen Line to the wilderness of the Hardanger Plateau.

But the extreme winter weather that draws visitors to the plateau creates many challenges for the team charged with keeping the train line open.

For days, falling snow has been piling up around the tracks at Finse.

These high banks have now created a channel that could trap fresh snowfall and obstruct the next train.

On the eastern side of the Hardanger Plateau, locomotive driver Hakon Eggen and his colleague Lars Hammersboen are getting ready.

The snowbanks need to be cleared before the mountain weather takes a turn.

But first, they have to get to Finse, travelling aboard their Beilhack Rotary Snow Blower, known to the crew as "The Old Lady."

[engine rumbling] Before they reach Finse, the snow blower team have to wait for an oncoming train to pass.

And with the weather starting to turn, they're grateful for some extra protection.

As the crew reach Finse, a Caterpillar snowcat has already started to demolish the snowbanks and push the snow onto the track.

With the snowbanks demolished, Hakon and Lars now fire up their twin 700-horsepower engines.

[engines rumbling] It might be 40 years old, but the Beilhack can still move 10,000 tons of snow an hour, throwing it a distance of over ten meters, more than enough to keep the lines clear.

For Hakon, its simplicity makes it a firm favorite.

With the snow dispersed and the Bergen Line train due at any minute, it's time for Hakon and Lars to clear the line.

The Bergen Line's connection to the Hardanger Plateau offers Norwegians and visitors from around the world a chance to experience the wild beauty of the Scandinavian wilderness.

But as the train continues its journey, there is much more to keeping the line open than clearing the tracks themselves.

With the snowbound hills of Western Norway now behind, it's time for the Bergen Line train to descend once again below the treeline.

Here, it joins the course of the Hallingdal River, a 258-kilometer river system fed by the melting snows of the Hardanger Plateau, and running south all the way to the coast.

For driver Andre, this 160-kilometer stretch of track is a chance to take his 8,000 horsepower EL18 locomotive closer to the line's maximum speed of 160 kilometers an hour.

Everyone drives different, so some are a bit faster, some are new.

But this one is quite fast!

[chuckles] It has to do about where we're driving as well.

The line is quite wobbly!

[giggles] With a length of 18 meters and a weight of more than 80 tons, driving the Bergensbanen locomotive exerts an enormous force on the tracks below, and on the locomotive's eight wheels.

In the Mantena workshop, carriages and locomotives arrive from all over the country for maintenance and refitting.

And for railcar engineer Lars Pedersen, there is one route that takes its toll on the trains more than others.

The Bergensbanen is very steep, so it has a high friction.

Uh, it's a lot of turns, and that takes a lot of wheel damage.

In wintertime, in Bergen, it can be five degrees plus, and when they come up to the top, it can be 20 degrees minus, and snow.

So they have a problem with icing in the brakes and everything, so it's, it's a tough route.

Set across more than 28,000 square meters, the Mantena workshop repairs or replaces 4,000 worn-out wheels a year.

It is the responsibility of mechanic Jean Michel to first separate each wheel from its axle.

The axles and wheels are held together by friction, but an innovation in their design allows Jean Michel to remove them with relatively little force.

[Jean] We have to pump the oil for the wheel to get off, to expand it from the axle.

Then we have to pull.

A tiny groove milled into the inside of each wheel allows pressurized oil to penetrate between the wheel and axle.

You can try to pull off without oil, but it will not work.

It will just damage the axle and then that's it.

So, now I'm going to start pulling.

[dramatic music] [mechanical whirring] [clank] It takes a minimum of force for the wheel to slide off.

Success, yes, that's it.

Then the wheel is going outside to the garbage.

Now that the wheel is removed, the axle is cleaned up to be used again, and sent across the workshop to Lars.

Lars now has the challenge of attaching each brand-new 400-kilogram train wheel to its axle.

It must be tight enough to stay on, but easy to remove when the time comes.

First, he uses an automated lathing machine to trim tiny amounts of steel from the inside of the wheel.

[mechanical whirring] The stuff flying out there is the small chips from the milling, which are very hot.

So, you have to have protection.

[soft clattering] The accuracy of this process is crucial.

A fraction of a millimeter off could jeopardize the next stage of the process.

Now Lars must make use of the physical properties of steel.

In this case, how it reacts to heat.

[pensive music] We put in the oven and then we heat it up in like, six to eight hours, so it reaches 225 degrees.

Then the hole in the wheel has become bigger, it fits the axle, and when it cools down, it's going to get shrunk.

By heating the metal wheel, Lars causes it to expand, just enough to fit onto the waiting axle.

Timing is everything.

From the moment the oven door is opened, the wheel begins to cool, and as it cools, it shrinks.

It takes concentration and a cool head to get the wheel in place.

We're measuring the distance between the wheels.

[metallic tapping] That's perfect.

[exhales sharply] You have to practice a lot, so...

I have been doing it for 12 years now, so...

I have proper skills.

The completed wheel will now have to cool off entirely.

Here you can see how hot it is.

As the metal of the wheel shrinks, it locks tightly onto the axle.

To get completely cold, it's going to take around six hours.

But now, if you try to move this wheel... [metallic clanging] ...it's not moving anything.

It's just completely stuck, and it's now less than one minute.

I think it's a good day's work, and you do a job and do it right, and you can go home with a good feeling, that the day is good, then I'm happy.

The wheels on each of the Bergen Line's B7 carriages are checked for faults every 18,000 kilometers.

But as the Bergen Railway enters the historic heartland of Norway's timber industry, not even the most rigorous safety standards can protect it from every danger in its path.

[dramatic music] [train horn blaring] [tranquil music] As the Bergen Line moves south through the Hallingdal Valley, it enters the forests that cover more than a third of Norway's land mass.

Today, Norway boasts the fifth-highest level of forest cover in Europe, while still managing to export three quarters of a billion dollars' worth of timber each year.

For forester Knut Melum, it's an industry with a vital connection to the railway.

[Knut] The railway has always been important for the timber industry.

Most of these volumes on that railway today go by train, either to Sweden or to Norwegian pulp industry, so the railway is an important factor to the industry.

Norwegians have used the railway to move timber for nearly 200 years, with 19th century sawmill owners investing in stretches of track, and timber accounting for 70% of the cargo on many lines.

And despite a history of intense harvesting, today forest cover is expanding, growing by 10% between 1990 and 2010.

By clearing down the forests, we are gaining a very, very high regrowth rate.

After a harvesting like this, we are planting several trees for each tree we cut down, so the forest resource is continuously increasing.

This stand is approximately ten years old.

You can see the effect of how fast the plants are growing.

It feels beautiful, because this is a young forest growing up and on its way to becoming bigger.

This cycle of felling and replanting trees also encourages wildlife to the region.

Right here, we can see some moose tracks.

It has been coming off the track and going this direction.

It's a big animal.

It's definitely the biggest mammal that we have.

Here we can see some moose poo, so it's definitely an attractive area for the moose to stay.

With so much fresh forage available, Norway's moose population is growing.

It's the largest of the 90 species of mammal that call Norway home.

More than 12% of the country is now protected, giving animals like mountain reindeer, brown bear and Eurasian lynx a chance at recovery after centuries of hunting.

Even the wolf, once extinct in Norway, has begun to return from neighboring Sweden.

But many of these species must still share the landscape with domestic animals, with people and with fast-moving trains.

[train horn blaring] Collisions with wildlife now cost Norway's rail network more than $150 million a year.

And they're on the rise.

Wildlife biologist Andreas Seiler is working with Norway's state railroad company, Bane NOR, to find a solution to the problem.

[Andreas] I love animals.

Since I was a small boy, I wanted to become a wildlife biologist, so there was never a doubt about that.

Andreas has come to Bjorneparken, an animal park in the Hallingdal Valley, to meet with Hanne Sveaass, a conservationist with first-hand knowledge of how local wildlife interacts with trains.

I don't think they have the relationship that a train can be dangerous.

-No, exactly.

-Because they don't see that.

For the animal, the railroad is just a strip of gravel, a nice track through the forest.

They hear the train passing, but the vehicles are never chasing after the animals, so why should they be afraid?

Because they know they don't do any harm.

Until they hit the animal, and then it's too late, and they cannot really learn from that.

[snorts] Fencing off the railway would be too expensive.

But Andreas and his team have been experimenting with a system that could warn an animal of approaching danger.

It's practically a dashcam, but with the option to set up a sound signal so we can, when we detect wildlife in front of the train, we can play a sound that would alert wildlife close to the train.

No one knows how a wild animal might respond to a device like this, so Andreas and his team are on their way to find out.

If they succeed, it could change how wildlife and railway interact forever.

The Bergen Line train is now moving south, alongside the mighty Hallingdal River.

The level valley floor is the ideal place to run the railway line, but it creates a problem for local animals crossing the valley or heading to the river for water.

Wildlife biologist Andreas Seiler and his team have come to a spot on the Bergen Line to test the experimental unit they've built.

They're hoping it will allow trains and wildlife to share the landscape safely.

So, shall we mount it here?

They've brought with them a prototype, a more advanced version of their dashcam system.

This is the speaker, the motion sensor.

We have the camera, the, um, computer that is recording the responses of the animals.

Once triggered, the system broadcasts a warning sound and records the animal's reaction for the team to study.

So, if we activate the unit now, so we just pass by and make some movement.

[train horn blares] Now we hear the train horn.

This is something we want to test and see if animals respond to that.

We can test it again, and the next will be the human voice.

The idea with the human voice is that we actually can inform people as well, who activate the unit.

Andreas and his team want to know which sound gets the best response from the local wildlife, and they're leaving no stone unturned.

We've tried the human voice, dog barking, the barking of roe deer.

We have tried artificial sounds, like a grey noise.

Uh, we have tried doorbells and other things, and compared these novel sounds and the more scary sounds to natural sounds, as a control sound.

If the team can find a sound that works, units like this could be installed across the entire rail network.

Analyzing the first batch of recordings has given Andreas reason to be optimistic.

And we will hear the dog barking.

[dog barking on recording] He's getting curious, but he's not leaving the site.

So dog barking would not have the effect that we want to accomplish.

Here we have the human voice in the middle of the day.

-He's curious.

-He's curious.

He's looking around.

He has obviously detected the unit.

[man speaking on recording] -[woman laughing] -And he's running away.

-Yeah.

-[woman chuckles] It seems that for Norway's wild animals, one sound stands out as the ultimate threat.

In our regions where wildlife and human coexist in the same landscape, it's, um, it's actually the human who is the top predator.

And if the team's work is a success, then the fear the human voice instils in these animals may one day help to protect them.

[tranquil music] As it moves south on the final few kilometers of its seven-hour journey, the Bergensbanen leaves the forests behind and enters a more industrial landscape.

The community of Honefoss, once home to Norway's largest paper mill... ...and Drammen, a historic port town and home to Norway's longest railway bridge.

With the tracks now filling with commuter trains, it's only a short distance to the capital.

Aboard the Bergen Line, cafe manager Jennie is closing up shop.

Starting a little to clean up now.

Everything has to be done when we're in Oslo, so that we can go home!

[laughs] We're on time, everything is going great, so now it's just the last few minutes into Oslo, and then we're done!

Founded by the Vikings in the 11th century, and home of the Nobel Peace Prize, Norway's capital is a hub for rail travel with trains arriving from as far north as the Arctic Circle, and connecting through Sweden to the rest of the continent.

But for the crew, there's one line that holds a special place in their hearts.

It is one of the most beautiful train trips in the entire world, definitely, and you get to see everything Norway has to offer on the way.

[exhilarating music] Now it's going home and then straight up, back again tomorrow, back to Bergen.

Norway's Bergensbanen is a triumph of innovation in a challenging landscape.

From its state-of-the-art tunnelling to its historic hand-built railway tracks, it is a monument to the generations of engineers and staff who have kept it running.

It has harnessed Norway's mountains and fjords to create renewable energy, while working to protect its wildlife, and provided a lifeline for industry, at the same time as connecting the country's most remote and beautiful places to the whole world.

It is this unique Norwegian culture of working alongside the forces of nature, while respecting the power of this extreme environment, that has kept it thriving for more than a century, making the Bergen Line one of the greatest Epic Train Journeys From Above.