Too bad you missed out on the new seats on Sj's new premium class. New recliner seats with excellent comfort on both Trondheim- Bodø and Trondheim- Oslo 😅 Glad you enjoyed your trip north though 😁
@@podr0znik1 Yes I took the night train route in Winter up to Bodo from Trondheim. Train came in about 20-30mins before departure so time to make oneself comfortable onboard. Was operated by same Di4 series. Of course no scenery for most of the trip but cool to see the snow coming down outside, and the quiet platforms at stations on the way during the night. Cosy feeling! There is a bluish light for the last part of the trip so you see a bit of a fjord near Bodo at the end. The good thing about the night train is the arrival was at 9.15am and basically the length of the trip was perfect for the night train (ie enough time to really sleep and not too early arrival) compared to slightly shortish time of the Olso-Bergen night train. The scenery on the fjord near Bodo was also very nice. I am glad I later took a local service during the daylight hours.
Went to Norway several years ago. I have a friend that lives in Bodø. We drove from Trondheim to Bodø. It was during the summer. We didn’t have a true midnight sun, but it got dusky for several hours. Weird thing if you never experienced it.
Nice Trip Report! They used to announce the crossing of the polar circle, did they stop that? Whats also interesting: big parts of the line are fenced in to prevent accidents with Elk and reindeer. There used to be a rifle onboard the locomotives to be able to end the suffering of animals that were hit. but due to more strict gun laws the rifles disappeared
Well I can tell you about announcements. 5-6 minutes is usually the standard for long distance trains across Scandinavia as it allows people the right amount of time to package the stuff they've set up at their seat and be ready by the door in time to disembark. I mean the train won't wait if anyone is too slow to get off in time, thats their problem, not the train company's
@@drdewott9154 - yes, a rough estimation, which is absolutely unnecessarily longer then needed to be. :) Of course, in this case we are talking about a half second that will hurt no-one. But there are cases when more and more information is added this way and the announcements become almost useless in the end. :)
Another wonderful video! Thanks for doing this one. I've wanted to see this for a long time. This makes me want to take this trip. And yes, it does resemble Alaska quite a bit.
I really enjoyed the quality of your video, congratulations. The beauty of the landscapes are simply stunning. It really makes you want to go on a trip to see Norway by train. Congratulations Bernard Babin, railway enthusiast Levis, Quebec, CANADA
The Flirt class 76 is not a DMU, but a bi-modal DEMU. Parts of the rail network north of Trondheim is being electrified now, so they will run more and more electric and diesel only where necessary.
I have never seen anyone do a review on nord, I remember I only went on it once on a really scenic ride across the hills and waterfalls, it was part of a cruise trip from Fred oslen, also I remember the vending and coffee machines on like a 20 min journey 😂 views are somewhat once in a life time 🤩
The catanary will extend even further to storlien Sweden and to Trondheim Airport Because of the electrification project of the nordlandabanen and meråkerbanen to storlien swedeen
Wooewwww ❤ Amazing journey and beautiful train ..... My brother is in Oslo... Greetings from Indian railfan. Keep in touch always... Waiting for hearing from you
Thanks Thibault. Another fine video. have been on most of the Norwegian routes but when they were all NSB (now VY) a few years ago. I went in Winter, and the Winter scenery is of course completely different, and no less stunning, especially for a Kiwi who never sees the snow even in Winter in his home city. Yeah the free coffee was great (on NSB it was called Komfort Class and only 100NOK more than regular class fare), I noticed on the local train services in Bodo there was also a paid hot drink and snack machine. Great for a local service! Don't know whether you saw, as it wasn't mentioned on the video, but there is currently an electrification project from Trondheim to the Swedish border (you may have seen the tracks split off to the Merkanerbahnen just before the bridge over the river to the town of Hell, and Trondheim Airport, and you may have seen some OLE infrastructure after leaving Trondheim) so in the distant future we will see electric locos on at least the southern part of the Nordlandsbahnen. The Swedish line linking to the Merkanerbahnen has already been electrified for some time. It's a nice alternative way to go between Stockholm and Trondheim and v.v. Or it will be when the Norwegian side electrification is done. Also, I noticed when I travelled on the NSB services, and also at normal food outlets like BK in Trondheim etc that there was a surcharge for eating in compared to takeaway. Now that SJ took over the service, was that still in place? I never saw this surcharge anywhere else in Europe, and not in japan, US, India etc on rail trips. Finally at Bodo Station firstly on the top top floor there was a cafe with nice sweet treats, and the left part of the building was a youth hostel, so very convenient for those on a budget. I wonder whether those have survived covid?
We did the Hurtigruten sea return between Bergen and Kirkenes. On the return it was a Beaufort Gale 12. No risk of that. Another fantastic video. The only problem with Norway is the ridiculously expensive prices. 👍🏻🏴
@@yasukiwi Those prices will get worse as Norway is earning billions of U.S. Dollars (currently the strongest currency) as all fossil fuels are sold as huge windfall profits from it’s sale of gas and oil to Europe. Decades ago in 1987 a kitchen knife was cheaper than a sandwich in their Co-op supermarket which is a good place to buy the cheapest food in Scandinavia. Then people were subsided to inhabit the areas north of the Arctic Circle. Unfortunately that area has then had the highest incidence of violent crime and suicide related to alcohol and depression. Norway and Sweden’s political Parties introduced a type of Prohibition intended to bring widespread alcohol abuse under State control. As a consequence alcohol is prohibitively expensive. In Sweden it is solid in the State controlled outlets called Systemboglet in brown paper bags!. Only lager etcetera under 3%? can be purchased in supermarkets. As a result Swedes go on Booze Cruises to Finland or like Norwegians were to be seen drunk and worse for wear. How Sweden circumvents E.U. liquor sales is a mystery to myself. Unfortunately we in Britain inherited that ridiculous Viking habit of overindulgence to the regret and shame of some of us. Of course it might be related to our colder climate as opposed to the warmer wine areas. 👍🏻🏴🇫🇷 👍🏻🏴
@@Backwardlooking Yeah I saw the state liquor outlets in Sweden. I think Estonia is also a popular booze cruise for them too. I've been to Iceland a couple of times too (excellent country) and they also have the same state liquor outlet system as well. For a pretty small capital city, Reykyavik has a bit of a rep for getting rowdy on a Sat nite too with alcohol (although not only fault of Icelanders I heard).
@@yasukiwi Thanks. I omitted to mention that Denmark is a popular spot for especially young men from Norway and Sweden to get blind drunk. As regards their Governments if you treat your population as incapable of behaving sensibly that is the result. And as regards beyond the Arctic Circle Norway especially has a problem with illegal Moonshine stills that were widespread during America’s Prohibition. Organised Crime took-off there and now it is the same in Scandinavia with ruthless Balkan drug gangs.
One train I recommend is the Krösatågen Y2 between Linköping and Kalmar. I have personally never ridden on one, but from images I’ve seen it may be one of the most comfortable DMUs I’ve ever seen!
I took this route a few years ago, although unfortunately I didn't get to see much because it was the night service (albeit during summer, so there was still light). I guess if you return during the winter, that will be the light level you can expect.
Yeah, went there in August, great trip! The train got 2 hours delay so we missed the day's only connecting bus to Narvik, however kudos to SJ Nord, they provided us with a free taxi that raced with us to catch up with the bus all the way at the ferry in Bognes (160 km, halfway to Narvik!!). :)
The B5 coaches are from the late 70s/early 80s. They originally had a traditional open layout like the open three series coaches, and Minden-Deutz bogies. Bombardier rebuilt them ten years ago with bogies similar to the UK Voyager/class222/class172. The interiors were redesigned to be identical to the seven series coaches at the same time. I went on this line in April 2017. The Di4 locos are absolute beasts (and need to be)- here is video I took in April- imagine what it must be like in winter! What a stunning railway! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G_OBIuGXWt8.html
No, there is a station futher north in Narvik, which connects it with the Swedish city Kiruna. It was mostly built for the export of iron ore from Kiruna, which is shipped out from Narvik.
There is a 4-part series of videos taken from the driver's cab on this train--one in winter, summer, fall and spring. Amazing to see the way the terrain changes. Check it out. They are on RU-vid
They’re regional trains. They run Støren - Trondheim - Storlien, a few routes to Røros and Hamar as well as the diverted Trondheim-Oslo train via Røros.
Jeg besøkte byen i somres, ganske modern, fredfull, med mye natur. Jeg nøyt utsikter fra Bratten og Keiservarden. Neste gang skulle det være fint på Kjerringøy, ikke sant?
passenger rail often doesn't run on profit but is partially subsidized from the government and partially also covered with the income made with freight traffic
Do you have plan to go to Asia??, If you, don't forget Indonesia, There is a new (Rebrand) train in Indonesia, The Hype Trip train. It's runs from Jakarta to Jogjakarta. The train is added some new stickers, a board game and new meals, designed for millenials.
I did this trip in August, reverse direction. Weather just slightly variable, but the landscape is really hard to beat, enjoyable with every weather. Norway is expensive, but only for tourists. And maybe even for Swedes 😁 In case you like to check out my content, you'll find something about your channel. Gonna edit that footage I made this summer, so hard to summarise ten hours of journey, all the time a beautiful sight. When you get out you think "is it already over?".
This is the only way I would see northern Norway - not by train - but by your video. Way too cold for this Floridian. I'm not even planning to see southern Norway.
Did you know that NSB is short for a political party related to the Nazi's (Dutch)? So for me it is really weird to see those letters used as an abbreviation.
10:04 reason for that is that since this is a long distance train it doesn't stop so much, so they tell in advance that train is coming so you can get ready (especially in winter it can be helpful if you need to get on your winter jacket and so on) - i like that feature since i used long distance train for a while (i lived close to a station on Sørlandsbanen until recently). But really nice video, this is the only train that i haven't taken yet!
For armchair travelers like myself, your videos are a godsend. Thanks for sharing your trips with us. I live in the midwest of the US and I love "feeling" like I am seeing the world!
I'm in the UK and some of these clips have a feel of being right on my doorstep, certainly giving me thoughts about future travel plans...plenty of inspiration!
Me too, I live in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales Australia, the beautiful scenery reminded me of Canada. Love the train, it looked very modern, clean and comfortable. 🇦🇺
I have done the Arctic Express from Stockholm all the way to Narvik during winter. Beautiful, I spent most of the time looking out of the windows, all my train journeys are like that.
Thanks for filming northern Norway. I had no idea what to expect but your video shows how beautiful the landscape really is. (Also, wow, the toilet with that wall mural deserves a 5 star rating.)
8:13: The landscape changed because you climbed above 'treeline'. Once you go above a certain elevation (depending on the local climate and latitude), no trees will grow there. You could see this on the mountains you passed earlier; the further north you go, the lower the treeline on the mountains gets.
That's right. Even between Tromso and Narvik there were plenty of trees depending on the elevation. I think the artic circle line area on the video is on a plateau?
@@yasukiwi The railway (and the road E6) crosses the arctic circle on a mountain, called Saltfjellet, but it's not a very steep mountain, at least not where the rail line and road is
Trondheim S is currently undergoing a massive redesign, the old ugly station will be basically torn down and entirely replaced with something bigger and better. Also, gotta apologize for the poor quality of trains up here! Norway massively lacks behind the European mainland when it comes to railways, but we are working on the problem🥲
The quality of what was seen in this clip suggests you aren't getting much wrong at the moment, but there is of course always room for improvement...offer the best and constantly strive to make it better, that is always the approach to take.
@@Northstander slow speeds, loads of single track and the long haul carriages are getting outdated. They are replacing the long haul trains in a few years though. Quite excited for the new trains that will probably be announced this or next year.
Deployed there in 88 operation Northern Star I think.(it was a long time ago)It was the friendliest and warmest city I’ve ever been to. I will forever be grateful how well we were treated. VMFA 251(I was a Navy Corpsman assigned to the Marines) was my unit. Had a very expensive beer at a place called Bonaparte I think. Again we were treated so well it has kept Norway 🇳🇴 in my heart for over 35 years. Hope to return one more time. Thanks for posting.
Ah the wonderful sound og GM two-stroke engines! The Norwegian locomotives are quite similar to the now retired Danish class ME locomotives except for the exterior design
Hi, there. Thanks for the awesome content you put up for us. We see plenty of your trips through Europe and the US/Canada. How about some new adventure rail trips on some of the less trodden railroads? South Africa to Dar Es Salaam, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ethiopia to Djibouti, South East Asia, China, India, etc. They might not be as fancy as those European ones, but I think would make for some memorable adventure railing for you and your viewers. The world is bigger than just Europe and North America, brother. Give us more.
As I understand it you are traveling North to Bodo. At 16:50 a train going in the opposite direction, South, is also going to Bodo. Does that train know of a shortcut? LOL
I did this trip around 1981, I drove from Oslo to Bodo, stopping off at a few places en route. (Then on to Sweden back via Mo-I-Rana). The sceneary is eye opening, as we crossed the Artic Circle everythign (except the road) was covered in deep snow. Thrilling trip, midnight sun with no night darkness, would love to do it again, by train would be great option.
Oh so you traveled on a section of the Meraker Line too. I traveled on the entire Meraker line from Trondheim to Storlien, Sweden onboard a Class 93 DMU over the summer and thought Hell station was quite a funny name! ;D The views along the fjord was stunning!
They are electrifying the Meraker line at moment so I think unfortunately there are not train services available but in the near future there will be electric trains through to Sweden which is a nice alternative to normal routes Oslo-Stockholm or Narvik-Boden in the North.
The Stockholm-Luleå night train can also go even further north to Narvik in Norway. This is one of if not THE northernest train line in the world and is operated by Norwegian VY. This will definitely be the northernest train you’ve ever taken!
Yeah and great scenery leaving Narvik and then along the top of the fjord! Pity this line is not connected to the Norwegian system at Bodo. There were plans to go further than Bodo and the work was started but never got far. Maybe one day!
So basically in most of Scandinavia there is not too big a difference between first and other classes. It’s mostly to do with the available service rather than seating.
If I can only do one rail journey, this is it. So many talk about the Oslo-Bergen rail trip, but this is the one that I'd want to do when I visit Norway one day. It's just such beautiful scenery. Reminds me of the U.S. Northwest. Elsewhere on RU-vid, the entire trip is shown, and it's quite an amazing watch.
I did Oslo-Bergen and back (one in day, one overnight), Oslo-Trondheim in day, and then this same Nordlands Line but on the night train not the day (hey in NZ we don''t have any night trains so...) I did the trips in early january so I got the winter scenery. I would say both Oslo-Bergen and Oslo-Trondheim scenery is slightly better than this one (my subjective view of course) mostly because the other two include the fantastic mountain plateaus. But really any of them are great! Also there is the Narvik (further up the coast) over to Swedish west coast and down to Stockholm service too but that is disconnected with the rest of Norwegian rail system ie Bodo is the end of the line, and onwards to Narvik is by bus or rental car (maybe domestic flight).
Nordlandsbanen is one of the 2 railways linies I have't been on yet, the other is Rörosbanen. In Fauske you can take a bus to Narvik then take the Iron railway (Malmbanan) back south on the Swedish side. Btw you should take a trip on the Inlandsbanan (if you haven't done it yet) some summer.
Great video! But again, as in so many modern trains, and despite being otherwise a comfortable and well designed train: Seats without window access (even in the 1. class). I find this outrageous, particulary if one considers the epic views! At least they could have used the windowless space for luggage storage or something like that.
Very nice video, however the idea of taking the route in the winter would basically mean a night trip: there are very few hours of daylight in the winter that far north, so not much of the scenery to see.
I am so looking forward to taking this train. You probably know that there are cabview videos produced by VY of the whole 10+ hour trip, four of them, one for each of the seasons. I've watched those videos repeatedly so it's nice to have a sense of what the interior of the train etc is like. Thank you!
Hell is a nice place to visit.. They have a genuine Gods expedition there. :D Norwegian trainlines are just amazingly beautiful to travel on. And reasonably priced as well.
Can you consider to please invest in a slightly less noisy suitcase? I would even skip the suitcase and go for a light backpack... then you will not need to have these noisy sounds "hijacking" every start of your video. ;-). Just a suggestion.
Why announcements 5 to 6 minutes before arrival? Rather more useful than "next stop Storrebro East" (please add accent as appropriate) or whatever just as you're coming to a stop, if you've got luggage to get together
18:07 I think the scenery change has more to do with the altitude than with latitude. I remember crossing the Arctic circle in Norway on a bus many years ago. The bus stopped near the visitor/tourist center and the area around it looked just the way I imagined the Arctic before coming there - no trees, only some shrubs, rocks and patches of snow (it was late June). But going further north the road descends and you can see trees and grass again. I even saw lawns around homes in Alta and people enjoying sunny weather in their gardens (it was around +20C). But north of Alta pines and spruce disappear and only short birches can be seen. Some 50 kilometers south of Nordkapp begins typical tundra if I remember correctly. Of course a railway line doesn't change altitude as quickly as a road does.
It can get disgustingly hot in Nortern Norway. If you ever wonder which sucks the most, -35 or +35, the North will give you both and expect you to ask for more! :D
