@@kenkidder why would you increas your journey time? Just take bus number 4 from Olav Kyrres gate and you will be faster to Fyllingsdalen then Bybanen.
Hi bro i loved so much your channel and it really opened up my mind about transportation around the world...If you don't mind can you please make a video about Malaysia Transportation system...Thank you
Bybanen is great, but it is also the most hotly debated political issue in Bergen over the past decades. It has made and broken several city governments. This could be worth a video of its own since it illustrates the particularly sanguine mentality of Bergeners and their strong emotions about their city.
That sounds an awful lot like Århus, and our Letbanen. Most of its issues have been ironed out, but it's still a target for ridicule and argument, for some reason. I use it regularly, and aside from a recent snow storm, and other occasional issues (often involving cars that go where they shouldn't be), that cause interruptions, I like it a lot, and have experienced few to no problems. Our travel card system has plenty of room for improvement, however (which apparently is on the way).
Sounds like any large infrastructure project pretty much anywhere. People tend to get passionate about anything that might have the slightest effect on their daily lives. But that's humans psyche, right? Fine with anything as long as were not inconvenienced.
The political drama about Bybanen has rather little to do with the actual Bybanen though. It's all about how various parties want the face of the historical city, _Bryggen_ with its wooden house fronts, to look (or rather _not_ to look).
As a dutchman who lives in Bergen, the Bybanen feels like a bicyclepath on steroids. It never has to yield and there's almost always a stop nearby. Even though some bus routes are quicker than the bybanen, the bybanen will get you to the city centre quickly and reliably, and they run so often you don't really need to check the timetable.
Only problem is the main line has become the victim of its own success, it's quite often overcrowded, but them's the grapes in such a sprawling city, I suppose.
funny you should say bergen is sprawling, the light rail leaves bergen itself on both lines. i can walk from sandviken to danmarksplass in less than an hour, and thats bergen sentrum. once you are out of fridalen, through the tunnel or across the bridge you're in banjo country.@@Coffeepanda294
As a fellow Dutch person living in Bergen for over 15 years I can't understand how you can say one positive word about Bergens infra structure. But maybe you haven't been home for 20 years. That might explain it. Bergen infra structure is at the level of the Dutch infra structure back in the 90's at best.
@@Dani-it5syI think the bybanen is fantastic. Bicycle infrastructure on the other hand is garbage, I agree. Road conditions are hit and miss, and traffic congestion is similar to any other big(ish) European city in my opinion. Despite its shortcomings, infrastructure in the Netherlands is top notch and Norway doesn't come anywhere close to that.
As someone from Bergen it is so fun to hear you call Bergen a small city bc even though it absolutely is by international standards, it is the second biggest city in Norway and considered quite big, and therefore it is kind of expected that we have a good system for public transport.
It is a common mistake on this channel to compar cities by population and on global stage only, without factoring in the importance of a city for their country or region or different cultural approaches to transit. In America a city is only considered "big" when it has 1 mio inhabitants. in Europe a couple hundred thousand can be enough. Of course Bergen is no international metropolis but than again I come from a city of 150.000 people and 10 Tram lines.
@@jdu7729"in Europe a couple hundred thousand can be enough" I'd say in the Nordics hitting the 100k mark or being close to breaking it already counts as a "big" town with certain expectations on the services available.
@@highway2heaven91 They're trying, but not like crazy. If Alberta was serious about transit then they create an inter-city passenger link from Edmonton to Calgary and regional rail lines too.
By that I mean, they’ve had a lot of plans over the years but they’ve had to deal with fierce NIMBY opposition and a bunch of rural car-centric Provincial politicians that were vehemently against it so a lot of those plans either never materialized or were implemented against a backdrop of heavy backlash from people who loved their cars. The reason a Calgary-Edmonton intercity line hasn’t been built yet (service ended in 1988) is because there’s staunch opposition to it in Edmonton and a lack of interest in Calgary. Edmonton is opposed to it because such a line would seriously cripple their airport. They already have a hard time getting connections to other cities because Calgary’s larger airport is just 3 hours away and already has many more connections. Many people have either driven to, caught a bus to or connected through Calgary when flying and this has hurt Edmonton’s airport in the past. Adding a rail link (especially HSR) makes this even more difficult for them. The reason they’re doing much better than the US is because unlike many US cities, they have a number of local politicians who are transit advocates themselves and some of them regularly bike or take transit to their workplaces.
Yes - comparing Alberta (or anywhere in NA, pretty much) to Norway is fascinating. Norway keeps their taxes pretty constant and socks the excess into a Trillion dollar investment fund for a rainy day. So there is always money for public services and a constant quality of life. In the west, we either spend like drunken sailors or slash taxes for the rich and big corps especially (to get re-elected) to keep governments living paycheck to paycheck. Leaves us scrambling for $ for anything important. Completely different mentality.
As someone living in Trondheim, I look at this system with great envy. I think any medium sized city should have a good light rail system, it really takes the public transport from being something "nice to have" to being an integral part of the city's transport system, as well as a large part of its identity. By the way, would you like to have a look at Trondheim one day? It only has a single light rail line (Gråkallbanen, the northernmost tram in the world, the only remaining part of the historic Trondheim tramway), but it recently got a quite nice metrobus system with double articulated Van Hool buses. Also, there are plans to one day build a north south light rail line as well as extending Gråkallbanen to the main station.
@@RMTransit Don't worry, anyone who lives in or has lived in Trondheim knows that our system isn't ideal. It's simply a question of finding the money (and political will) to finance it all. Honestly I'm glad that my preferred political party, the greens finally decided to go with the conservatives toppling the long standing labour rule of the city. I'm politically left leaning, but the labour party has been dragging its feet with a lot of environmental measures, preferring half measures over going all the way, so I actually welcome a conservative mayor for a change. Especially since he might make them realize that environmentalist parties *do* have other alternatives then them, and it might be what they need to actually start making changes. Hopefully the switch will be a wakeup call.
I travelled to Norway last year, and of all the main cities that I visited (Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø) Trondheim was my favourite. Thriving and lively but not as big and stressful as Oslo, beautiful but not as overcrowded as Bergen, it had a very pleasant feeling overall. Also the city welcomed us with a summer evening storm with a colourful rainbows which was a nice touch :D I didn't have time to fully check its public transport (I only used a couple of buses) but I'd love to go back some day and give it a try. I stayed next to the recently renovated central railway station which certainly looked fantastic though.
Just slightly (or not) relevant - Ellingsrudåsen T-bane st. (Oslo) has a platform level at 165 m (asl), but the exit is at 208 m. Minus the downstairs ramp, the elevator shafts to the exit are some 40 m tall… 🤓
As a Norwegian that moved from a little village in Vestland to Bergen ~8 months ago, I was honestly shocked at just how... good it felt to travel around the city, both as a pedestrian and by taking the public transport. I've kinda taken it for granted now, but you have truly showed me just how lucky we are to have this kind of stuff in Bergen!
It's so walkable! I lived in Bergen almost 10 years ago and would on sunny days walk all the way from Fantoft to the city centre just because it was an actual possibility! Barely had to worry about being hit by cars anywhere on the way. Nothing like this at all down in Kristiansand, everything is structured around cars here and drivers would much rather just mow you down at full speed than even consider slowing down at a pedestrian crossing :')
Biking on the other hand, has mostly gotten really worse after the bybane came. There are streets downtown where you are not allowed to bike anymore after the rails came. So many want it underground to not make it harder to bike next phase.
Great video, Tampere - Finland (a city of similar size) has also built a tram network which has been a massive success and they are planning to extend it even further.
Great video on Bergen! And I was just about to suggest a video on Tampere, too. Tampere isn’t mountainous like Bergen so the geography is less challenging. But the system is very nice and well-planned, and extensions are on the way. The Škoda Transtech Artic trams used are based on the model first used in Helsinki but are standard-gauge (uniquely in Finland) and bi-directional. They have excellent maintainability and a very smooth ride, and you could argue they are, in some ways, the best light rail vehicles in the world. But at any rate, at least very, very nice. The system is also enjoying popularity way above any forecasts, making the city consider potentially lengthening the vehicles by an additional module.
Having a unique jingle for each station is such a nice touch, it makes the trip way more pleasant! It is actually very common in cities in France (Paris T3, Tours, Strasbourg…) which take it even farther. In Nice for example, each stop has a set of jingles (with sound effects like wave sounds for the beach or crowd noises for the central plaza…) and announcement voices (from residents or celebrities from the area the stop is located in - in French, Occitan (the local language), Italian & English) that plays randomly each time. And it changes depending on the time of the day/night, the season or during special occasions like public holidays, and new ones are added each year, so it’s literally different each time! My favorite is Mado la Niçoise (a famous French comedian from the city) making jokes every saturday afternoon. Another example that I love: Brittany has a strong maritime culture and the highest tides in Europe, so naturally, the announcements on the Brest tramway are masculine voices during low tide and feminine voices during high tide! (And of course in French, Breton (the local language) and English) The French really have a knack for design! I think every city should have something similar, it’s a great way to make the residents feel more part of the transit they use by having them as voice announcers!
Some of Tokyo's JR stations also play chimes unique to each of them before various platform announcements are made. 1 of Singapore's rail operators SMRT is now copying this idea for the lines it operates, but some chimes don't precede any announcement, but precede a train's arrival, and are unique only to each line's direction of travel, not to each station. For chimes that precede on-board train annoucements, the chime is different depending on whether the train is reaching an interchange station or a non-interchange station
The cyceling and walking tunnel to Fyllingsdalen is one of the best pedestrian infrastructure projects in Norways history. Previously, getting from Fyllingsdalen to the Minde side of the mountain, would take 40-50 minutes, and crossing a 300m mountain. In reality not practical for most people. Now, you can cycle between the two most populous parts of the city in 10 minutes. It's amazing.
Don't forget Bergen's trolleybuses! It opened in February 1950 as the Bergen Tramway was gradually closed and some of the tram lines were converted to two trolleybus lines, but today, only one trolleybus line remains, and it's the last trolleybus operation in Norway. The fuel shortage during World War II made trolleybuses extremely popular, since Norway had an abundance of cheap electricity, so the trolleybus system was approved by the city council in 1940. Through the 1970s, Bergen Sporvei (who used to operate the trolleybuses) tried to end trolleybus operation, but the city council would not allow that However, in 1995, there was major road works which resulted in the closure of line 5. According to tradition, Bergen was founded in 1070 by King Olav Kyrre and was named Bjørgvin or "the green meadow among the mountains". It served as Norway's capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. In 1299, King Håkon V decided to move from Bergen to Ánslo, now known as Oslo. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad, and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was overtaken by Christiania, another name Oslo was once known as (it was renamed after King Christian IV after he built a new city due to a fire in 1624; renamed to Oslo in 1925).
Bergen shows the way. Bergen has started with IMC trolley buses. Instead of lumbering battery buses that ever so often have to go home to the garage to charge. Bergen’s LRT system shows what can be done.
Why Kristiansand didn't become as big as it supposed to be? Giving how it located in southernmost point of norway where weather can be warmest in norway due it located near sea but Kristiansand ending up only have 155,648 peoples living in it metro area even though judging from city area itself it can be grow into 1 millions population just like oslo it even have miles better geography than bergen which itself quite mountainous and slope city. While Kristiansand have more large and long flat land suitable for build large metropolis.
Probably he meant that separately, as in ‘it’s a small city that also happens to be nordic’ rather than ‘it’s a small city by nordic standards’, though, it’s not very big by nordic standards either, more like mid size.
@@BetalerIkkeSkatt I don’t know what part of my comment made you confused or suggested that I didn’t know Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, but I am aware of that fact, thanks. And I’m not saying it’s not an important place, but it’s still relatively small even in a nordic context, especially when compared to the big four capitals and other places like Göteborg and Malmö.
As a Bergen resident: Yes, it's amazing. :) Our city council sucks ass and barely manage to build and extend it at 5% of the speed they should be, but it's growing and it's just making everything better.
Great that you made it to Bergen. Yes, Bybanen is just fantastic, but still many people are against it, because they love their cars. And you forgot to mention that Bybanen has it's own art-program connected to it, with jingles for stations as part of it. I mention this because I have been responsible for managing the art-program 😂! Greetings from Bergen.
Var der du som lagde den merkelige lyden på Kristiannorg bybanestopp? Lo så mye første gang jeg hørte den, fordi den ikke hadde den typiske koselige melodien som de andre stoppene har
What I also like about the Bybanen is the huge amount of TOD along the line. Before I went to Bergen, I saw a cab ride of Line 1 shortly before its opening in 2010. I thought "Well, that's a nice rural line serving some quiet suburbs." When I first went to Bergen in 2022, I was impressed by all the medium and high-density development along the line, as I could not recognise the line compared to what I previously saw in the video.
There was a lot of tearing down and rebuilding when developers realised people would like to live near transport! (lol, from a resident expat New Yorker)
The philosophy is that they spare the actual green areas around the city by 'densifying' existing areas, especially near public transit hubs and along the high-capacity light rail. It's a nice thought given how ridiculously sprawling and car-centric Bergen already is, not to mention how hilly the areas around the already-populated valleys are.
Oh yea all new baborhoods and even distrikts has appeared becaouse of this line. I spesificly remember a wery rural eria basikly just 2 or 3 farms that was there and now it is fully urbanized. It is a little sad. I liked the nature there. But the new buildings that have been built there now are well built and the eria lokks nice.
This is one of the main motivations of building the Bybane. According to PWC private real estate development along line one has been about 33 Bn NOK (~ 3 Bn USD)
Yep, there is not much to say: It's great. We've been there last year and getting from our AirBnb to the center was no issue at all. Coming from Germany, I am used to light rail - but this one is fast, clean and convenient. Well done Bergen, well done.
I think another great thing about Norway is that when the skies are clear it is all so photogenic. You get beautiful video with vibrant colours and long shadows.
Fun fact: The name Skyss plays on the two words "skyss" and "kyss", meaning "transportation" and "kiss". The younger generation pronounces those two words the same, since they do not discriminate between the "skj"- and "kj/ky"-sounds as people over 40 do.
Thanks Reece for an excellent video. I was particularly struck by the point you made at 9m 20s that the tram stop at the airport is right in front of the terminal building. The public transport serving an airport should always either be directly outside the main terminal entrance, or directly underneath the main entrance. (Zurich and Amsterdam have both bus stations in front of the terminal entrance and main line train stations underneath the entrance!)
At Munich Intl Airport there's a station right underneath the Munich Airport Center, located in between terminals 1 and 2, and serving two commuter rail lines and a regional express train. Outside there's a bus terminal at the northern entrance to terminal 2, with 2 more bus stops at different entrances of terminal 1 and another bus stop at the Munich Airport Center in between.
Its really well conceived and it highlights I think that this is an issue of care and good planning. I don't think putting the light rail in a more awkward location would save all that much money, but it would provide a much worse passenger experience.
@@EnjoyFirefightingits one of the parts i like about BER, a full proper train station equipped not just for regional and s bahn lines, but also IC and even a potential subway expansion
@@cooltwittertag well got to keep in mind, BER was newly built, Munich grew over decades bit by bit, and they had plans to build a Transrapid line, but the plans got canceled; AfaIk they wrote down plans that Munich Intl Airport has to have long distance train service in the future, not sure if they will extend the existing station for that. Anyway they're building the line extending beyond the airport and completing the entire ring across Erding County already.
Bybana often has problems with Electric system ( especially during cold and snowy weather), make alot of squueky noises, crashes into cars and stuff all the time, takes almost an hour from start ( byparken) to end stop ( flesland airport), when bybana is having trouble then there is zero information about what the problem is about . I am norwegian and i have been living in bergen almost 20 years, so what i am saying here is fact. So now you know!
Line 2 is efficient, but I agree that line 1 is slow. For me, living next to the end stop of line 2, it takes the same time as bus to the center. Going to Kronstad, Haukeland or Fløen is extremely fast compared to the alternatives. Unfortunately it seems the majority wants to step back to a slow solution when building line 3...
So thrilled to hear you discussing this. I rode the light rail to the airport and to Troldhaugen, close to the house of the composer Edvard Grieg, when I visited in 2021. It left every few minutes, and it was still constantly packed. The city I grew up in (Colorado Springs) is significantly larger than Bergen, and yet you would be called crazy if you even proposed light rail as an option.
Believe it or not, city council approved a proposal for a streetcar line, but it was cancelled due to changes in federal law regarding minimum setback from mainline rail for safety (after an accident on another line).
@@bearcubdaycare But mainline rail and tram, light rail or street car rail are quite different though. The new minimum setback regulations for mainline rail still apply ?
Great video! When I visited Bergen coming from Gothenburg, Sweden, the Bybane sure felt a lot more modern - smoother, faster, nicer - than the trams back home, although I did miss the frequency and coverage we enjoy here in Gothenburg. I'd still rate it as the best new generation tram system I've used and I hope they keep expanding it!
What’s the frequency of the tram system in Gothenburg? In Bergen it’s 5 mins headway for most of the day on Line 1, and 7-8 mins headway most of the day for Line 2. That means that on 4 of the stops there is a light rail train leaving every other minute, and that’s just for each direction! Would love to try the teams in Gothenburg one day!
@@simonnystad6334 Each individual line in Gothenburg runs approximately every 10 minutes (slightly higher during peak hours), but it's rare that you don't have at least 2 lines to choose from, and on the busier parts of the network at least 3 or more, so the combined frequency is very high. And while Bergen's 5 minute headways are pretty good I visited on a weekend so I didn't quite get to enjoy that, which might be why I felt it wasn't enough. Gothenburg has slightly lower frequencies on weekdays too, but the difference is smaller so you don't really notice.
I studied at the University of Bergen, and a cluster of student apartments right adjacent to the light rail stop just made it so very convenient to use to get to the city center and the campus. Overall, I really liked travelling with Bybanen. It was dependable, it looked nice inside, it looked fitting from the outside, and it felt nice. Not too stuffed, and not like T-banen in Oslo which is riddled with advertisements everywhere.
I was living in Bergen when they started to build the Bybaben and I still remember the explosive used to eliminate some little mountains in order to build it. I also took the very first Bybaben trip during the official opening. Inside the train there was Queen Sonja as well. A very nice memory of my 10 years life in Bergen...seeing how the Bybaben was was growing stop after stop.
One word. Gothenburg. 13 tram lines with 207 trams, with around 100M annual trips. Add to that the commuter rail system serving the surrounding municipalities and you can probably add another 50M-100M trips annually.
I’m Norwegian and I have used bybanen in Bergen several times, but I never knew how fantastic it is. By the way, Skyss is a Norwegian word that means transportation of people, (not by air).
I havent used the system in Bergen. But Oslo have absolutley an amazing public transportation system. Tram, metro, buss, trains...all every 5th or 10th minute wherever you are to go. The system reaches ALL suburbs and even further. Many commute from other "cities"/towns. You dont need car if you live in Oslo municipality, Lillestrøm or Bærum. I lived there for 10 years in the outskirts of the municipality.
I live right by Bybanen and take it to work every day. It really is a very nice system. There have been a few hiccups over the last month what with way more snow than we're used to on this side of the country, but they're always fairly quick to sort it out
I just got back to the US after studying for a semester in Bergen. Bybanen was SO convenient to get around the city, especially when paired with the frequent bus service. It's one of the things I miss the most.
@RMTransit But half of our politicians hate anything that could benefit the public good and half of the other half are too dumb to copy good ideas properly.
"especially when paired with the frequent bus service". Thanks, I was going to ask about that. From what I can tell they buses are very good, and carry about four times as many people as the light rail. Some of them are electric trolley. Given the nature of the city (at least from what I can tell from the air) it is not especially compact (like some small cities in Spain). A fair number of people live in relatively low density areas, making buses a great option for serving them. So not only did Bergen build things in order (building great bus service before considering rail) but the two options complement each other really well.
@@rossbleakney3575 Electric trollies in Norway? That's news to me. Granted I lived in Trondheim, not Bergen. Being born in 1987 I've never felt the need to get a drivers license. In Trondheim the busses where more then good enough to manage without a car, and many of them are electric now, charging at certain stops. In Kautokeino I was a kid and lived close enough to the school and everything else I needed to just walk. In a tiny village in Telemark there *was* busses, and I was still a kid, so mum could drive me on the rare occasions I needed that. In Dovre in Oppland I again had everything I needed within either walking distance or I could take a bus. And each time I moved back to Trondheim there was busses getting ever better. My new home (I'm moving out of Trondheim again to a island) is the first time I've ever felt the need for a car, but drivers licenses are expensive her, so I've yet to get around to getting one. And I can still get everything I need with a bike and with buses so far although I'm less then thrilled with the frequency.
The busses are fantastic! Theyre pretty clean and run well out of centrum to the outlying suburbs. Some lines every go several hours outside the city. Plus they kept the bus lines that parallel the rail for redundancy.@@rossbleakney3575
Very impressive. I don't remember having previously seen any videos about Bergen, but your video has shown what a beautiful and clean city it is. The Norwegians seem to have a good attitude to getting things done and doing them well.
I lived near Bergen, and the public transport Bybanen was such an incredible touch of the city. I used it to get quickly to the Bergen Station in no time to switch to the bus back home. I do love watching the environment view when using Bybanen. Even at sunset, it would be incredible to take photos of it!
So I can finally share some stories since I have visited that city before! I stayed in Kronstad in 2018, and my goodness it has changed a lot since then. I never imagined there'd be two lines now...I might wanna go back. I took the entirety of line 1 from Byparken to the airport, a journey which I think is worth mentioning is about 40mins long, but it didn't feel as long, and it certainly didn't feel stressful or risky to allow just 2hrs including those 40mins to get to the departure gate; it's more the reliable kind of 40mins. And cheap, the system could be much more expensive, especially to the airport as cities like Edinburgh or Paris have some airport surcharges. Another thing that could've been nice to add is that some of those micro-tunnels have art displays, screens and lights that animate as a tram passes through. I even talk about that in a presentation in creative coding class. One thing that I think should be worth mentioning about this tram is that there is in fact wi-fi on board. For a system like this, that's pretty rare. Alongside that, I heard that a lot of the system was paid by car drivers with the help of tolls. One way to finance public transport that eventually benefits everyone, even car drivers as that takes a lot of traffic off of the streets. Aarhus in Denmark is very likely taking direct inspiration from Bergen, Odense...Probably even though it is a bit slower and more street-share-y. Still, in Norway, projects are relatively slow. As you said, it was decades in the making, and other cities in Norway have been a similar situation too...More light rail or tram would be more than welcomed in this part of the world, but it is plagued with the Western World speed or project realisation. Stavanger is an example, and I don't know if their projected light rail project will ever be realised, let alone before 2040...
I am from Bergen and gotta dissapoint you little bit WiFi has been taken out of the tram cars, possibly because of low user usage and expenses. Mobile coverage even in tunnels is quite good with Telia and Telenor adding repeaters to the tunnnels. The art displays are not maintained, for example the one showing tram passing by, shows often just whiteboard like the LCD board is intitialized, but nothing sent to display Other than that system runs fairy well! We got sadly some issues in the heavy snowstorm (presumebly at the time the footage of the tram system was shot) but it works okay They recenty standardized the display system with Consat Telematics, and Skyss media team is reallly doing good job with their AD's and info about the transportation. Also the new stadler variobahn trams are much quieter than older ones! i think we received 5 new ones for opening of Fyllingsdalen route.
Such a neat system. Weirdly, down south in Denmark every single system being built here has used Bergen as an inspiration and a point of reference but none have been able to compare to Bergen as of yet. Aarhus has some similarities but struggles with relatively low ridership, low frequency, and lack of TOD being built out where the system is the fastest. Though it probably takes the most notes from Bergen, with the greenfield sections of the route also having a parallel bike lane. Though Aarhus also made a peculiar decission out of the German playbook by converting 2 regional railways out of the city to tram-train operation, with proposals to increase frequency on one of them to all day 15 minute service. Not bad for a single tracked branch line. Odense is a pretty succesful urban tram but with much lower speeds and struggles with support due to poor construction quality and excessive noise and vibrations, likely amplified by the fixed bogie trams used there. And both systems even use the same vehicle type as Bergen. Plus major points of interest along Odenses route like a new regional hospital that the line passes through are delayed and as such causing ridership below expectations. Copenhagen meanwhile will match Bergen on speed and frequency but also spend nearly all of its route along a large 4 lane orbital road.
Thanks for the extremely thorough review of the light rail system in Bergen! I’m going on a trip there soon & didn’t want to pay exorbitant fees for cabs/taxis & your video was amazingly helpful to hit 90% of the sites I’m planning to visit in this area. I really appreciate the added value of video, safety, redundancy, public access paths, & the pedestrian tunnel. Thanks for the effort & work you put into this!
I live in Trondheim and this video brings me pain. The transit system here is just not a good example of what Norway can achieve compared to Bergen and Oslo. We had tram lines back in the 80s, they lasted for about three years before the government felt it was too expensive, and then they just snapped them all. Now we have metrobuses that tear up the asphalt and never run on schedule
As someone from and who lives in Bergen, AND love bybanen - your video created a tear in my eye 😅 If I can give it any critique it would be that early on, all the various stops had roofs that didnt disperse water properly. Which, if you know Bergen as I do, that is ridiculous. It rains most of the year!! 😅
After watching this video I called my agent told him to buy me a place in Bergen. I am now the proud owner of a warehouse in New Jersey.... Seriously though, great video!
My city which is a bit further south (Stavanger) was planning on building a light rail system based on the one in Bergen but in the end went for a BRT system which is opening its first phase in 2026
@@akselwilhelmsen3677Google Bussveien, it'll give you some articles. I tried posting a link from the website Passenger Transport (uk site), but RU-vid doesn't like it when you do that 🙄. At 50km it's going to be the longest BRT system in Europe.
0:12 I did not expect this at all! I have been to this train station more times than I can count. It was only a 2 second clip, but it was strange seeing my home town in a random video I found on the internet. xD
We were in Bergen about ten years ago and loved everything about it (and everything else in Norway ).We arrived from Oslo by train, mile for mile, one of the world's most scenic intercity train rides. The light rail had not been open very long. We used it to go to a large grocery about midway on the original line. We were impressed with the operation and we're pleased to see them expanding it. Thanks for your edition of the Bergen transit operation.
BERGEN MENTIONED RAAAAAAAH I used to live right by the Brann Stadion stop for several years. It is definitely the thing I miss the most after moving from Bergen. It just works
As someone who grew up in Bergen with this tram line we always felt it was a bit slow compared to an underground line, but the easy access to the stations went overlooked. Sure, it may be slower, but you stop at more places and it's easy to go on and off. If you need to go to far end stations faster there are always express buses.
What I like about this LRT is how accessible the stops are. I like that most of them are at street level and that I can easily cross the tracks wherever I need to. If I'm at a platform, getting to the platform on the other side is very convenient because of this, and I usually don't need to use any stairs or escalators to access the stops either. Bybanen was probably the one project I had that made me think that LRT should be the default option for this kind of transit. Metros might be more efficient for capacity or speed reasons, but I value the convenience of easily accessible stops more for cities like Bergen.
It's a miracle that one trolley bus line in Bergen somehow survived, it was the only one in Norway that made it through fossil fuel and private car hell. They used to be much more widespread and several Norwegian cities had them up until the mid 60s. Bergen also used to have a tram network up until the mid 60s.
@@olnnn > This thing in Bergen is the only one left in the world! And all of a sudden any call for scrapping it is political suicide, and you might have to flee the country and live in Norway somewhere if you try it.
as a construction worker that actually built a park of Bybanen, it rly isnt as great as you can imagine. in the future say 10 years once they may retire this idea it will cost billions on NOK to just remove the old concrete due to the density of rebar in the slab underneath
At last, Reece has produce a video on how versatile a low floor light rail/tram/streetcar/metro system is, showing how one system can operate in a graded (street operation), non graded (on right of way) through tunnels, over bridge's and underground setting. No fancy names but just a light rail system😉
I was in Norway around the year 2000; I didn't get to Bergen, but really loved Oslo's trams and buses, and did get to ride on the amazing Flåm railway. Even back then Norway's tunnels were impressive - rail and road: one long road tunnel had a lit up expanded picnic space halfway through - with animals wandering about! I also learned a bit of the language: much easier than I'd expected - a lot of English words (e.g. egg) came from the Vikings; the 'en' and 'et' (pron. ayn and ay) on the end of Norwegian words are just the equivalent of English 'the'. Must go back there soon, and I'll definitely visit Bergen! Good video BTW.
It would be awesome cover the modern light-rail systems in Zurich (Glattalbahn and the recently completed Limmattalbahn)! They are also built somewhat like the system in Bergen, with the Glattalbahn connecting to Zurich airport and running along very carefully planned right-of-way. As a resident of Zurich who uses this services daily, I feel like they deserve a lot more praise than they are given credit for!
Not to be a downer here, but we're also talking of a light rail system that more than doubled traveltime between said airport and city center(by bus), killed and diminished a LOT of heavily used bus lines and just the 1st construction level had a cost big enough to fund free buses for ~30 years along the same route. You speak of inbuilt resiliance within the system which to be frank is the least we could expect when they substitute all other options. If Bybanen stops there simply is no public transport to the southern side of the city.
There's alsways some room for improvements, however Bergen did very well on setting up a new light rail system at all and having extended the network in the past few years, with future extension with a 3rd line up north already planned - some major projects right there, but definetly worth it. I also like how it's not a discussion of lightrail OR bus OR car traffic, but finding a solution how to effectively combine all of them I wouldn't dare to call the bus station in downtown Bergen nice, but it sure is effective. The bus terminal is on the lowest level of the city's largest parking garage, with one of the two tram lines going right through and having a stop as well, only one stop from Bergen station. 6:25 apart from roads like that, there are also sections where the light rail runs parallel to some of the largest and busiest roads. At one point the double tracked light rail, a 6 lane road, sidewalk and bike lanes all squeeze in a street canyon less than 40 m wide. The light rail line splits from that road, goes down the nice single lane one-way road you've shown, while the large, then 4 lane wide road goes somewhat parallel 400 m further west Little correctionn to 7:20 1. both lines serve the train station, but only line 1 serves the bus terminal, while line 2 splits right in front of the bus terminal and heads east, with the next stop being far down the track 2. (watching the video I recognized that you mentioned this later on) apart form the mostly short tunnels, there's also the more than 1.2 km long tunnel underneath the hospital, with a station within the tunnel. Another tunnel of 3 km in length is situated further down the line, but without a station in the tunnel
@@martinottesen1053 thank you for correctin me. Kind of was wondering when they added that? I've walked along the line maybe half a year or year before they opened it and at that time there wasn't a stop right there. I looked it up on streetview and it definetly looks different with the stop now. Makes sense to have a stop in close proximity of the bus terminal of course. Regarding that I have to stand correct concerning my previous "correction"
I'm not a fan of Bybanen at all. The lines and stops it takes are poorly located and often impractical to get to. Since they started opening bybanen, they have also gotten rid of buslines that was covering areas that bybanen would not cover. Lastly, taking it from the city centre to the airport takes an hour, that's three times longer than taking the bus would take.
Custom jingles for each station is a very nice feat I've never even thought about! This should be a thing in other parts of the world, too! Similar like the Mexican Metro with its unique symbols/pictograms for each station (originally introduced because many people couldn't read back then). Regardless if you can read or not, it is so more convenient, when you know you need to exit the metro where the coyote is :D . You establish a visual connection with "your" metro station, so...having also an audio connection would be genius! You can close your eyes and rest until you hear "your" jingle!
Frankly, Bergen's public transport systems are some of the best I've seen in Scandinavia. The only issue is the fact that bus schedules are treated more like suggestions on some days. I can't count the amount of times a bus arrived 5 minutes early, 8 minutes late or simply didn't arrive at all.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that ‘the bybanen’ is redundant because the -en at the end of byban acts as ‘the’. If it were an ‘a’ it would be ‘en byban’
In Norwegian, yes, but in English, we don't recognise the -en ending as an article, while Bybanen is the marketing name, not Byban, which i have not seen anywhere, tbh.
Yes the system works well. One time the tram crashed at Oasen, and off course my mom was on the tram that day, and she stayed at the hospital for days. But it's usually a very safe way to travel.
Thanks for this video RM transit! As a long time viewer I was pretty stoked when you made a video on public transit in the city i live in which is Oslo. But making a video on the city I am from, Bergen?! Now that is awesome! Bybanen has been a huge success in Bergen and the first line replaced on the the busiest buss corridors in Europe at the time. Because of the fjords and mountains Bergen (and Norway) traffic is funnelled though narrow corridors. The Bybanen has through all stages been built below budget and finished before any deadlines. Even though Bergen is the 10th largest city in the Nordics its airport Flesland is the 5th busiest, and Norway actually has 5 of the 10 most busy flight routes in Europe.
Thanks, Reece, what a great presentation! I agree that when such infrastructure is (finally) built here in 🇳🇴, it works well. Eh, until it may not, as more recent projects have been subject to. But well, that’s “the economy” as a very global and interdependent complex, across most ‘rich’ countries. Also, locally - there have been SO many council cat fights over Bybanen, and they’re still at it (further extensions). “Bybanen, the movie” would be a thriller…! Alas, that’s true for every kind of infrastructure nationally since the rail craze of the 1880’s…😂 Ok, I’m ruining the party - This was just great work! 👍
Ah this makes so much sense! The Tampere tram is really similar with the new bikepaths and even the art pieces you mentioned. There are also plans to connect the tramline to the Tampere-Pirkkala airport. Thanks for this video, I learned a lot!
One thing some of the Variobahn units in Bergen were actually meant for Croydon, Stadler Germany had spare capacity and sent the vehicles originally meant for Bergen to London and built some new ones for Bergen
Thank you for making this awesome video about the Bybanen light rail in my hometown of Bergen! When I moved out of my childhood home to find a place of my own back in 2016, one of my main criteria's was that it had to be located near one of the Bybanen stops. And I ended up moving to an apartment near the Wergeland stop, making Bybanen more accessible to me than ever and in just 13 minutes, I can take a ride with it to the city center, and then there's an 18 minute ride to Nesttun, where I used to take Bybanen from earlier when I lived with my parents. I've been a huge Bybanen fan since they opened back in 2010 and it's always exciting when new extensions and routes are opened, such as the newest one between the city center and Fyllingsdalen, making the latter area more accessible to those of us without a car than ever before. I'm definitely excited for the planned future extension to the north towards Åsane, which would make that area more easily accessible as well so finger crossed these plans will materialize in the near future! :)
300,000 actually is quite a large city in Europe and especially in low density Scandinavia. In Norway Bergen is the second largest city. Norway also is very rich because of its oil reserves and its state fund. So funding public transport is not a big deal. Norway will even build a tunnel for cruise ships through a mountain. That's how rich they are.
Don't forget that the difficult terrain pushes people closer together, the city of Bergen has a density of over 550/km², with most people living in valleys.
I lived in Bergen for 3 years and absolutely loved Bybanen. Some people in Bergen actually hate it, and claims that its way too expensive, and that its slow. In my opinion its only people who never use Bybanen that hold such views of it. Its really reliable, its not affected by heavy traffic, it is quite frequent, and for the most part pretty fast. The only thing i dont like about it is that it serves as a fairly slow airport transportation. It takes aobut 50 minutes to the city center, which is a bit over double the time it takes to drive the same distance. You can use the airport express bus service, but it is operated by a different company, and is horribly expensive. Then again, its not really a big city, so i dont think they prioritize a fast transit to and from the airport. Great video!
Down in Germany, Munich Intl Airport is situated far outside the city. You can drive, take the taxi, bus or commuter train. Both commuter rail lines take bit less than 1 hour to get into downtown Munich - pretty long for being a city of 1.5 million. Another aspect I don't really like about it: those are regular commuter trains, primarily for people commuting in and out of the city. There are no luggage racks or anything alike for passengers coming from or heading to the airport. Not very convenient, BUT I guess it's still better to have that, instead of having nothing at all
Ive taken Bybanen 7 times, 6 time for exam at uni at once because it was best option for a foreign student I was with, but a major detore for me. And I can not say one nice thing about Bybanen. I Remember how exited I was when it was announced around 2003, we were going to become a big city. I love trains and I love good transit like London Underground, But no. Bybanen is such a mess. its so loud, crowded and forced success . It slow because as a rail with right of way uses over 10 min longer then the buses did to Nesttun, and they had longer route and light crossing to cross. There is a reason its hated. it does not solve our transport issues and makes sure the city is more and more reliable on getting around by Car. Thats not fun fro those who cant afford a car. Also its stuffed because they killed the best bus lines so they can brag about numbers. YAY
@@AlexLR89 loud? Where the hell is it loud? Might be a bit slower than a bus, but obviously has far greater capacity where you'd have to run at least 2 if not 3 busses instead ... I grew up in a city half the population of Bergen and the entire local public transport is carried out by busses - it's a mess. It really is. At a small part of the hub at Central Station you're able to spot more than 60 busses within 17 minutes - and that's not during rush hour but just midday normal public transport. Some normal bus stops will be served by more than 20 (!) different bus lines. It's just poor ...
@@EnjoyFirefighting But Bybanen made a mess of Transit Bergen, It went from Cross city bus service to local area- terminal change for city tp terminal then change to get to another local area. They took away the easy bus route to make sure Bybanen numbers could show it as a success, cause now everyone near the line has to take it, even if it means the longest route, meanwhile taking a bus across the city has become a nightmare. Bybanen is not a system to look at with gleee. IT makes living hard for noe reason. there is a reason Skyss is very hated in this city. I say Bergen should look to Rennes or Copenhagen and use our tunnel knowledge to make a great metro system that can make travelling fast and under rainy day or a icy, snowy winter weather a very joyful experience.Insted we got a wet mess.
@@AlexLR89 actually, that's a good thing. Sure it might be annoying if you could just have kept seated in a bus the entire run, but it really IS a good thing. That's also sth I greatly see happening all across my state's capital city of 1.5 million inhabitants. If I didn't know that you live in Bergen one could get the impression that you'd be German: complaining alot about a system which might have a few flaws, but which actually is pretty damn good and where many other cities would be happy to have sth alike. Copenhagen? Priotizing car traffic right in the downtown area? Oh what a great example one should NOT follow.
as a guy from Bergen, i have not had anything bad happend with the light rails, works smoothly, chill, and takes a little bit more time than some of the busses to Fyllingsdalen. I also think that you nailed saying "Bergen" instead of other people just completely messing it up. But glad you like the LRT here.
Fun fact: When the local fotball team has its home games (HEIA BRANN!) , Skyss puts in extra departures from the Kronstad interchange. They have more frequent departures on 1 and 2, and on the interchange path aswell.
I remember walking the tracks before it was finished, back in my university days. It was convenient as there were no traffic there, and seeing as it was a project that spanned years, quite peaceful for a long time. I don't often use it, as I'm in walking distance to the city center (many people are), but what truely makes this tram amazing, is all the street art you get to see while you ride it. Bergen being the street art capital of Scandinavia (especially when you leave the city center and branch out to search for them).
Bybanen in Bergen is more like a subway system that runs above ground in the city center than just a Tram system. This will become even more true with the planned extension of the system to Åsane as the line will mostly run through tunnels and also have one more underground station at the Sandvik Church... Even though the local rail system and bus sytem in Bergen is excellent, the regional and long distance rail system is not that good, outside of the route Bergen-Arna which has trains every 20 minutes (and will propably get a more metro like frequency when the line becomes double-tracked). The Bergen-Oslo line has four trains a day, and takes 6-8 hours to complete, compare that to the Gothenburg-Stockholm line in Sweden, which is around the same length as the Bergen-Oslo line, that have atleast an hourly train and a travel time of 3 hours. The main reason the Bergen-Oslo line still runs is mainly due to it being popular among tourists, while a lot of buisness travelers uses domestic air lines instead... Norway needs a good high-speed intercity rail system between their major cities (Especially Bergen-Trondheim, a route that don't even have a direct bus on it). And yes Norway has a lot of mountains but Japan managed to build high speed rail through a lot of mountains, so why can't Norway... But as it looks like today, the Norwegian politicians mainly wants to focus on high-speed lines in the Oslo region and high-speed lines between Oslo and Sweden over high-speed lines to Bergen and Trondheim (and especially Bergen-Trondheim)...
Which I kind of get, sure, Bergen is the second city of Norway, but it's only roughly 300K population, with very few cities along the way that would really merit a much higher frequency and much faster trains... Göteborg is almost as big as Oslo, let alone Bergen, and with Trolhättan, the Sarpsborg-Fredrikstad twins and even Moss, you have some stops with potential. It's not like they haven't done anything, either, and aren't planning ever more towards Bergen. Plenty of new tunnels and galleries have been constructed in the more windswept areas, Ringeriksbanen should be able to shave off a considerable chunk of travel time as well...
it's named city train / light rail, but from the technical aspect it's more a tram, using actual trams as rolling stock. A dozen short tunnels, some handfull of long tunnels and 2 underground stops don't make it a subway tbh. "And yes Norway has a lot of mountains but Japan managed to build high speed rail through a lot of mountains, so why can't Norway..." well just look at the country. Sure Norway is wealthy, and they're not afraid of investing money ... but come on. The entire country has a population which equals only two thirds of the population of New York City or Tokyo. That should be enough of an answer to why not ...
The west coast of Norway has even worse terrain than Japan and a single digit percentage of the population. Comparing the feasability of a Bergen - Trondheim train connection with Japan is about as dishonest as an opponent of the line comparing it with a Nuuk - Sisimiut connection. It would be like building a trainline between Wakayama and Joetsu while avoiding all the plains and not stopping in any significant city.
@@EnjoyFirefighting exactly. There's definitely some room for improvement with Intercity trains in Norway, but you can't expect miracles, given the circumstances. And combined with your pretty good long-distance buses, you have something usable. But the urban transit is often top-notch, not just Oslo (and the rest of Akershus), but as this video shows also Bergen, and Stavanger is pretty good, too. I wouldn't mind living along the line to Voss, for instance, regular trains and buses into town, about 1.5 hours, with trains early and late, which will increase after the opening of the second pipe to Arna. There's a lot worse to be.
Im super impressed at the amount of insight you have into our little city's public transport, this must have cost massive research, including traveling to Bergen. I am not exaggerating when I say you know more about Bybanen than many people in the city, including the currently sitting, Bybanen-hating city administration.
I studied in Bergen for two years almost a decade ago now and I still miss Bybanen. It was just so practical! For the first few months I spent my free days just stopping at a stop I hadn't gone off at yet and looked around for a couple hours Always found it so funny when the locals and other city-slickers were PISSED if it was just two or three minutes late! Tapping their feet, checking the time, looking around restlessly etc. lol. Back home it was a 50/50 gamble whether or not the bus would show up at all or you'd have to wait 30-60 minutes for the next one. Five minutes delay was nothing!
Bergen is such a wonderful city! One of my favorite places I have traveled to. It's also amazing to see LRT executed in such a thoughtful way...especially since I live in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, where we already use LRT to connect our airport, business districts, and some suburbs alongside greenways in a similar (but less exceptional) way. This gives me hope for the future!
The citizens of Bergen really should watch your video!😊 I lived for 7 years in Bergen, and my experience is that there are so many locals that have a big dislike for bybanen (and pedestrians/cyclist). They prioritize their cars and are kind of weird with their attitude. They used to be called «trikkebyen», tram-city, and I always though bybanen was pretty neat! It’s sad to see how hostile some locals could be towards bybanen - I suspect they don’t really dislike bybanen, they just dislike change. Of all the people I’ve spoken with in Bergen, about bybanen, they all agree it is convenient, and efficient for the people it services. But still some people could be pretty stubborn and complain about it even so. I learnt pretty quickly to not talk about bybanen with locals though, because the discussion could get pretty heated😅
I have always wanted to move to Norway-Bergen specifically. But, that ship has unfortunately sailed for me. Everything you described about Bergen's transit system is yet another reason why I would love to move there.
You specifically mentioned that there's a wide variety of different trackage on the Bybanen (grass, ballasted, etc). That's one thing that I also think the currently under construction orbital light rail line in Copenhagen does very, very well. It has both ballasted track, ballastless track, grass track, and a little bit of trackage shared with buses. When it runs through residential areas, it uses grass track to make it nicer for the residents. Where it runs along a big wide ring-road without buildings, it uses ballasted track to make construction and maintenance cheaper.
I'm from Bodø and had a 7 hour wait for a connected flight in Bergen and using Bybanen to get around was an amazing experience. This is how public transport should be everywhere.
Critical missing information! Power line point boges. Station displays commonly get damaged by water end the station rufing was end is still incorrectly assembled. LRT station was lenkent to accommodate a 7 segment LRT. LRT was not correct spec out for water or snowy conditions. LCD at a recent retrofit not fleet wide yet. Staison deplays comently get damaged by water end the staison rufing was end is still incorrectly assembled. Heating at LRT station comenly doesn't work at all! The route is a compromise to stuber home owner not willing to sell Right of way is not applied do to incompetent drivers. Kokstad yard not Bergen Yard, and agen Flesland not Bergen airport. quisling.
