Considering the constant small improvements this channel makes in presenting the growth of a metro network, an April Fools’ video titled “The Evolution of Metro Liner” would be pretty hilarious
Oslo's network is impressive for such a small city. You can tell that they had a plan to turn the old suburban light railways into a true metro and worked on it for decades.
@@Frahamen what do you mean by that? There are two apps that you can download on your phone to buy tickets with, and they don't even require a login/creation of an account. From my point of view it is one of the easiest cities regarding buying tickets 🤣
@@frency15789 what if you for any reason are not able to use apps. Like if you're old and digitally equipped. Or if you're a foreigner and you're roaming doesn't work. Or any other reason.
It is very cool to see a light rail line being converted to Metro standards, it doesn't happen very often. What is even more interesting is that the Kolsas line still runs trams! It reminds me of the Cleveland RTA, where the Red Line metro shares tracks with the light rail Green and Blue lines.
The central city tunnel is actually a major problem, as it's pretty much filled up now. New signal systems can help a bit, but a fully new tunnel is needed to really prepare for future growth. It's being planned, but lacks funding. Oslo is also currently building a brand new metro line to Fornebu.
@@rowaystarcoNot to mention the various ideas of how to actually achieve a higher throughput. Wonder what they'll go for. It would be a better use of money to simply add a parallell line, that could go through something like Bislett, StHans, Gruner. Some plans like this are indeed floating around, and really hope they go for that. Our metro is good for connecting suburban areas, but still lacks in connecting the various parts of the city itself.
@@ryadi1703 Iya, sekalian jalur KRL aja. Gak apa-apa, video yang London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo juga termasuk kereta komuter. Bahkan lebih baik sekalian tambahkan perkembangan trem jaman dulu, soalnya di video Los Angeles dan İstanbul seperti itu.
@@ryadi1703 Arsip, mah, ada. Tapi pasti dalam bahasa Belanda. Malah saya khawatirnya apa dia bisa paham/mengerti yang mana yang RIT (Rencana Induk Transportasi) yang sesungguhnya, soalnya banyak revisi sehingga banyak versi. Takut dia keliru.
Is there any plan to build shortcut tunnel from Tåsen to Ryen via Jernbanetorget and around Frøen rail junction/Gaustad to Løren via Marcus Thranes Gate?
No. However, there are plans to build a new tunnel from Majorstuen, via Stortinget and Tøyen, to Ensjø. It will also have stops at Bislett and Nybrua/Grünerløkka. Fornebubanen, which is under construction from Fornebu to Majorstuen, will also have an arm towards Blindern.
@@muhammadfariz2839 Well, not exactly the same, but close. The existing tunnel is at full capacity now, so there is need for a second tunnel along the same line. However, it is also necessary to reduce load on some of the stations (Nationaltheatret and Oslo S in particular), so the new tunnel will bypass those along with half of the T-bane lines. The lines through the city center are the most high-trafficked ones, so that is the most logical place to expand service. There isn’t too much traffic on the east-west cross-section within Ring 2 (along Marcus Thranes gate), so there is no need for a T-bane there.
Thank you for the video. I have followed you for a long time and I was so happy to see my home town featured now :) There is also a "Fornebu line" under construction in the west. Fornebu was the former Oslo airport FBU (closed in 1998) now turned business and city development area. Already started and will be finished in 2028. Also a second common tunnel through the city is under development with several new stops under ground. The current common tunnel is built above the common tunnel for the trains as well back in 1980. There is also a good tram network in Oslo consisting of two light rail area segments "Lilleakerbanen" in the west, which was featured in the the video and Ekebergbanen in the east. Sincerely a former tram driver in Oslo, now turned commercial pilot.
It can get very confusing when researching systems like New York City Subway or Oslo Metro where there are different "routes" sharing a "line" and routings keep changing throughout the timeline. In most other rapid transit systems, there is only one "route" using a "line" so the word "route" and "line" are synonymous.
Oslo city itself got only about 600000. But Metro Oslo is big. We have several "small towns" that is part of Oslo because of the Metro. Røa, Ullevål, Stovner, Romsås, Lambertseter etc are all far away from the city center. Also, Norwegians love to do sports such as skiing, walking, running etc.. so the western lines were made for Oslo people who needed to get out in nature. Line 1 goes up to Holmenkollen and Frognerseteren. Then it is the Sognsvannsbanen that opened in 1933. Same! Metro in Oslo started as a train service to the forest, but got converted to Metro as Oslo expanded... but still today Oslo people uses the Metro to get out in the weekends still.
Seeing this constant upgrading of light rail lines to metro lines feels just fine. Although I'm a bit confused on one part. Does this mean that most of those metro lines are on-ground level and not underground?
Several of the "light rail" lines were planned to be part of the future metro network and were built without level crossings. They were operated as extensions to tram lines for the first decades of their existence, but even then more "express" than the rest of the tram network. So the easier upgrades were just switching catenary with 3rd rail, and retrofitting higher/longer platforms in the space reserved for this. The exeptions: * Kolsås line (had level crossings, and small stations, hence the very long period closed for upgrades, to remove all level crossings large sections of the line had to be lowered down in a trench or raised up on bridge sections. Where the line has been trenched, you can several places see there has been built houses or parking lots on top of the line, like a very gradual cut and cover.) * Holmenkollen line (which only got upgraded to "light metro", still has a few level crossings (secured with gates), lots of tight curves, and short platforms, so can only accept 3 car trains (with one set of doors closed), while all other lines accept 6 car trains.) The central section Majorstuen-Helsfyr under the city centre is one long continous tunnel, and there are many tunnel sections on the eastern half of the network. Generally more tunnels for sections built later. When the "light rail" sections were built they were ahead of the the city spreading, so they could build on green field land and secure a corridor. Anything built later probably has to be tunneled. The sections most recently finished, under construction today or being planned are all underground, and this is the main reason for the much higher cost.
T-Bane. Is that the name of the new metro system in Oslo, Norway. The detail and accuracy of your videos is so mesmerising. And the way you bring in all the information about metro systems in major cities across the world is incredible.
Another rearrangement is apparently on the way. I think it will be less intuitive but apparently more efficient, turning the ring line into a pretzel of sorts..
@@neose242 There is a Video from a RU-vidr “TramChris” with the name “Die Entwicklung der Stuttgarter Straßenbahn”, which covers the Development from the Start of the Tram until today. Might be interesting for you :)
@@pieterwatson611 it’s a light rail system with metro elements. It definitely fits this channel. He liked the comment so I don’t think my idea was completely off.
The trains that were used on the west side had metro standards to them even though they were 1 or 2 wagon trains. They were called "trikken" by the locals because some of the trains were in blue color. However, the west started to use the eastern type of transformed metro wagons in the 1980s. Line 1 was known for having these wooden metro trains. You could say that Oslo Metro is one of the first underground networks in the Nordics. Nationaltheateret is underground and Valkyrien is also underground (abandoned.. can be seen when going Nationaltheateret-Majorstuen station today). Another underground station on the west side was Volvat which also closed down because of too short platforms in 1997. Nice video.
Very good as they always are! Since Dublin doesn't have a metro yet, I think it would be a good idea to do the LUAS tram and the DART. then the soon to be built DART Underground and MetroNorth and all the LUAS lines that haven't been built yet!
@@thewipeouter4901 the problem with the luas is that when it eventually was opened, it was very outdated I would like to see one of these videos for Dublin though.
And there is going to be more... A constant challenge for Oslo is to balance the lines on the east and west side of the city, since the demand is generally higher on the east side. Which is why you now have route 4 starting on the east side, going round the ring and back to the east side, and line 5 doing a full circle on the loop. Route 1 is also a big problem, since the Holmenkollen line it can only have half sized trains, and is difficult to mate with a good line on the east side during rush. When the new Fornebu-Majorstuen line (under construction) opens, all lines will have to get new partners to balance demand. If the second tunnel under the city center is built, everything must be rearranged again. And so on until the interlining in the city center is no longer limiting capacity.
Am I the only one who didn't understand anything? 😂 So many times to reorganize the network... Why couldn't they just make a circle as a separate line?
The tunnel under the centre of the city is severly congested. It reached top capacity with 26 trains an hour in the late 1990s and they did some incredibly tweaking to raise the number up over top capacity to now have 32 trains running trough every hour. Part of that tweak is the reason why the circle line is like it is. Oslo is also restrained by topography. The city centre is at the waterfront with fairly steep hills rasing on all sides so there is no more space for sprawl. All the reorganising is because you need to get more out of what you alredy have when you have nowhere new to build.
Felicitaciones a los ingenieros y obreros noruegos estan trabajando a construir los nuevos trenes cada lineas y estaciones en el Metro de Oslo, Noruega
Impressive metro system for a relatively small city, even though I wish every stop was full length as opposed to only the front few cars and also that if I were hopping on any random train from Oslo S to Nationalteatret there wouldn't be a chance that the final stop would be stortinget instead.
Right now, the focus is to extend the metro to Fornebu. But really, having lived in Mortensrud, I think what is needed, is to extend line 3 from Mortensrud to the much isolated Bjørndal suburb. Now this is already a long line, so to make it even better, I'd extend it further, and make a final terminus at one of the trainstations to the west. Kålbotn seems like a natural choice. This has a major advantage of giving travelers from near the end of the line the option to take the line south to reach a train station, rather than going north though all those stations to reach Jernbanetorget. Ok. Maybe that last one is a bit too ambitious. But an extention to Bjørndal is an obvius choice. The people who live there have to commute by bus to Mortensrud, then continue by the metro.
Expansion to Ahus is needed too, as it is the city’s most important and largest hospital, the transport to the hospital and the surroundings (Lørenskog) is very hard with only bus services. Line 2 might as well need 12 double-set trains an hour if they actually build it, as it is the most crowded line in Oslo🤷🏻♂️
MetroLiner, hope you can do an evolution of the Kuala Lumpur Integrated Transit System video. Our city had currently opened a new line and progressing with an extension and a new under-construction line.
Holmenkollen line should have been converted to a part of the tramway network since it can never become proper metro. There's a great need for an additional city tunnel, and they should build the long planned Homansbyen station.
Love this video! Where did you get all the data? Would love to see something like this for the trams in oslo, or just where to get more info on their history. I have bits and pieces here and there, but nothing as complete as this video would have been
No, well... there is a closed ghost station, and there are some potential plans for a new station. When the line was constructed, there was a plan for a station somewhere in the Homansbyen area. But during construction there was a tunnel collapse at Valkyrie plass, and they decided to save some money by putting the station there instead. However Valkyrie plass is really too close to Majorstuen, had too low ridership and was operationally limiting the number of trains and so was closed in 1985. It's today frequently used as a filming location. There are calls to open a station at Homansbyen, but doing so would have to close all traffic Majorstuen-Nationaltheatret, which is a no go. However there are plans to create a second tunnel under the city center to alleviate the crazy interlining on the network, and get higher frequency on the branch lines. Depending on how this second tunnel is built, it might be possible to close down this part of the old tunnel for a period for upgrades, and maybe make a station at Homanbyen.
@@GormHornbori Thank you for the detailed response! It does seem like a seriously big missed opportunity, but without that second tunnel I can understand how it isn't really possible.
It made it a lot easier for the city to actually embark on a full feature Metro. The cost of actually building everything underground would have been prohibitively expensive for the relatively small city financially so they where smart and tried to use what the had and planned ahead for future expansion so that it was possible to extend stations and widening tracks to accommodate wide metro trains
Mostly due to upgrades to metro standard rails, third rail electricity and so on. For a long time they used overheard wires (more like trams) for the routes. Here's a picture of one of the old trains that had a hybrid third rail and pantograph system upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Holmenkollbanen_at_Vindern.jpg When Oslo switched to brand new Siemens/Porsche design metro trains, they dropped the pantograph system as well.
* A new line to Fornebu-Majorstuen has just started construction (and has just secured funding for increased cost estimates). * A second tunnel under the city centre (Majorstuen-Bislett-Stortinget-Grünerløkka-Tøyen-Ensjø/Brynseng) is being planned. It's badly needed, because the common tunnel limit the frequency of trains on all the branches. This will be very expensive. This will also cause a complete network reorganization. * An extension of the Furuset line to a new big hospital Ahus is something a lot of people are talking about. Long term plans indicate that this line could be extended to Lillestrøm and beyond. (But it's not decided if this should be metro or light rail.) * An extension of the Kolsås line to a big new housing development at Rykkin is also mentioned alot. Long term plans suggest a line Rykkin-Kolsås-Sandvika (either metro, or light rail). * Long term plans also show a line/interconnect across Groruddalen, (Økern-Lindeberg), which would for example allow a route from the Furuset line to Løren and over the Ring line. This is depending on the development in the Alna area.
Here with the line going to Stovner or the line going to Ellingsrudåsen, there is a golden chance to extend the line(s) to Lillestrøm, connecting the two cities better together.
The Lilleaker Line never closed, it just wasn't upgraded to metro standards/didn't become part of the metro network. Today, trams from Ljabru (not too far from Bergkrystallen) run all the way up to Bekkestua, using the Lilleaker line and even part of Kolsåsbanen/the metro.
Lilleaker line is still running, as part of the tram network. It's a bit of an oddity because the trams actually continue on the metro tracks from Jar to Bekkestua. Another example is the Ekeberg line, which in 1917 was built to (what we today call) light rail standards (like the later Østensjø line), and same loading gauge as the Holmenkollen line, and was planned to be connected to the metro network, but while the Østensjø did become part of the metro, the Ekeberg line has remained part of the tram network. (That said many of the plans for connecting the Ekeberg line (especially in the period 1950 to 1990) was also plans for closing the extensive tram network, which most people today are glad did not happen.) And another example is the Holmenkollen line. Before upgrading this line in 2010, it was planned to disconnect it from the metro network and connect it to the tram network at Majorstuen. Because of protests, nostalgia because this is the original line of what today is the metro, and because of wanting capacity to events at Holmenkollen. it was instead it it was decided to upgrade it to a special "light metro" standard. So while all other lines use 6 car trains, the Holmenkollen line can only use 3 car trains, with some doors locked because the platforms are only long enough for 2 cars. (With the exception of special trains to Holmenkollen station, which can be full size.) Also a new line Fornebu-Majorstuen is under construction, it will follow the coast along the main railway line at the section Lysaker-Skøyen, with one more stop at Vækerø compared to the local trains (there is a train every 2 minutes on this section, and you can use the same ticket). You can't look at the T-bane in isolation without comparing where there are frequent commuter trains and tram lines.
@@pieterwatson611 are you serious?? I never said it’s a metro! But it’s certainly not a fast tram either. Don’t be stupid. A Stadtbahn is a Light rail system, there is a difference.
