Why Norway Is Insanely Well Designed Support me on Patreon: / oliverbahl Video by: Oliver Franke Research & Script: Oliver Franke, Emanuele Martinelli Edit & Animations: Oliver Franke
norwegian here. the fact that there are so many airports and flight traffic is exactly what doesen't make norway "incredibly well designed", or "sustainable/green" . The train network doesn't even connect together the second and third largest cities, bergen and trondheim, with a direct route, instead taking a detour all the way down to oslo.
also the Nordland Line, being the longest rail line in Norway, isn't even electrified ... still running diesel trains on such a long line is so ... un-Norwegian tbh
This!!! I live in Trondheim, and I know some people that study here that can't afford to go home up north because flight tickets costs more from here to Andenes than it does from here to Rome. I'm obviously biased, but I think the neglect from the government in terms of funds to improve infrastructure up north is laughable. Don't get me started on the roads up there either!!!
@@maqy01 I guess it would be a flight from Trondheim to Bodø and then over to Andenes ... well, sure it would take quite a bit more time, but I don't know how much more expensive it would be to take the bus from let's say Narvik over to Andenes instead of the plane all the way to Andenes. Can't really complain about the road network to be honest
As a norwegain with great interest in infrastructure, Norway has a massive problem on its hands. Railway, the railway between the two biggest cities (bergen-oslo) is PACKED, its so packed that passenger trains are slower today than in 1975. And no money is being allocated to rail (outside of Oslo the capital) even tho the demand is SUPER high and a lot of people want to use train instead of plane. This is a very annoying situations spesially because we pollute so much with our plane activity.
I agree with you. Outside of the Oslo region rail absolutely sucks. I find it fascinating that busy routes in air traffic such as Bergen - Stavanger and Bergen - Trondheim aren't receiving a new railway line in combination with the E39 project given the drastic reduction in total costs compared to if a future government decided to build railway infrastructure.
@@navsnylter9020 I think high speed rail is a bit too optimistic given the potential cost. However, a similar railway system to what exists between Bergen and Oslo would be a clear improvement. I know plenty of people that have to travel along the western coast for work meetings and they hate the burden of having to travel to the airport, check-in, waiting, and all the other hassle. Compared to just getting on a train and being productive/sleeping. However, knowing the government, making future proof investment choices won't be happening anytime soon.
it's not only rail that is underdeveloped, but bus services as well. i live in a relatively large town (+30 000 inhabitants) down southeast and we should have so much better bus routes than we do now. even the small car-centric village in sweden i originally come from have more bus service than we do here, as buses are mainly focused on school kids over here. i would love to take buses more but i can't get to work and it just isn't economically justifiable when owning and driving a car is so much cheaper. on another note, the absolute best thing about traveling with train in norway is the scenery, hands down the most beautiful country you can travel by train in. ps. elsker brukernavnet ditt forresten!
The reason why we have 4 of the top 10 busiest domestic air routes in the EU is largely due to the fact our rail network is so heavily neglected. Oslo is well-connected by rail, the rest of the country isn’t. The existing railway lines’ service is so slow (and often more expensive than the flight) that they don’t offer a suitable alternative to flying. If we bothered to invest more in rail we could easily reduce the demand for the Oslo-Bergen/Trondheim/Stavanger flights.
Not quite the reason, the real reason is the fact that Norway is quite big, well more correct very long, having a rail line would not be very efficient, it would take to long to travel. Smaller and more compact nations in the Europe makes rail lines more efficient, but Norway is to vast and big for that, It needs a good air line transportation. And that is not bad, Norway have done good making a lot of airports and having a lot of air line traffic from all across Norway and that is good.
@@SoidSnake I think you are misinterpreting my argument. As a Norwegian myself I know well how elongated our country is, hence why I’m only arguing for rail to replace flights in the south where the distances are shorter. It’s close to impossible for rail to rival planes on the 2000km journey from Oslo to Tromsø, but they sure could on the ~500km journeys I referenced in my previous comment.
I also think it's inpart that many Norwegians can afford to fly when they travel. Also, I have lived in Northern Norway where there is no rail connection, and where many places are entirely reliant on Widerøe's small passenger planes to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time.
@@SoidSnake if you look at the most realistic plans for railways in Norway (between major cities) are in the south of Norway, which is only the size of Switzerland (with only 500.000 less inhabitants) which I would agree is a good blueprint for building up “good railway”
@@erikrathesondb8622 but that’s not what providing the whole country would entail; as yes it wouldn’t be something that people would replace long distance travel with, but instead provide for better connectivity with the various regions of northern and western Norway, as no one would use the train to travel from Tromsø to Oslo but maybe Tromsø to Bodø would be better connected with rail instead of Viderøe flying to every small town to connect the regions
it is a myth that Norway supposedly was so poor before it hit oil. It found oil in 1969. Norway by then had comparable GPD per capital to the UK, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Austria. If you go far enough back, everyone was poor.
@@natibot Fishing exports, shipping industry pre ww2 was the biggest in Europe by far. We lost a lot of ships due to german subs and airplanes along with the sailors sadly. Also our coal industry was quite huge, at the turn of the 20th century we had a huge industry for shipping ice blocks to London in particular as refridgerators wasn't a thing yet.
As someone who live in Norway along that route. Would be nice if they also built a railroad at the same time that follows the new roads. It would be such a missed oppurtunity to not do it.
I actually responded to another commenter with exactly this. It would be such a great investment given that routes such as Bergen - Stavanger and Bergen - Trondheim, among the various other air routes in western Norway would all basically become uncompettive compared to quick, and environmentally friendly trains.
Spot on. I'm from Trondheim. Going to Stavanger or Bergen with train is a nightmare. The connection on the coast is so shit it ..... Oslo oslo oslo. Everything for Oslo...
Just try to live in north Norway for a month, and then revisit your video. It cost me more to travel from Kirkenes to Oslo, than from Oslo to New York. To travel to hospital, because of living on other side of fjord, i need more than 2 hours of driving during sommer,and in winter, roads are often closed.
infuriating hearing how my brother that lives in the South can fly to Europe on a tiny budget, while I'm like... "oh nice so my flight starts at 4000kr, with basically a mandatory over night lay over in Oslo, then a sleep over at Tromsø before continuing to Senja. it was faster to fly to Guatemala then it was to fly back from Guatemala .
@@parascitzo9455 Nå er det jo slik at vi er ett land og ikke ulike biter hvor noen får alt etter kjøttvekta og andre lite. Det er neppe økonomisk lønnsomt med hurtigtog til Bergen. Det er vel heller ikke økonomisk lønnsomt med tog nord for Bodø. Men må vi som nasjon velge vil jeg si at vi er langt bedre tjent med å gi hele landet togforbindelse enn å kun knytte sammen noen større byer. Varer er jo viktig å få over på transportmidler med grønn energi. Folk kan langt på vei, når de bor i byer, holde seg mer der og ikke farte unødvendig rundt. Vi må også huske på at tog ikke er veldig nyttig om det kun stopper på endestasjonene eller noen få stasjoner mellom. Men du har rett, de fleste bor ikke nord i Norge, men de fleste har relativt gode tilbud og får rett og slett finne seg i å vente på de våte egoistiske drømmene sine.
@@solenplays5312 til Sør Norge? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pls "Maybe we should start a separatist movement Free Northern Norway" Det er ingen fly fra Oslo etter kl 23 så PST kommer ikke før imorgen 😏
Sounds truly amazing when looked at from the outside and I'm very grateful to be Norwegian, but it's not as magical as you make it sound. As someone else pointed out, flying is so common because the railroad is neglected and expensive. I've travelled lots between Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim. Between Trondheim and Bergen I would never travel by train anyway, because it's via Oslo and takes 16 ish hours, plane takes 50 minutes. Bergen-Oslo or Oslo-Trondheim I would chose train if it wasn't for constantly risking delays, having to change to a bus for half the route and it being expensive. It's less stress than flying, especially with kids and doesn't take much more time if we factor in travel to and from airport and the other time consuming parts of flying. We usually end up driving instead. Drove Trondheim-Bergen and back this summer, 12 hours each way. The electricity we produce is mostly sold to other countries and then we have to buy it back at a higher price.. More and more services are being privatized, both lowering quality and raising costs, making it inaccessible to many people. Poverty is on the raise.
Finally a serious and true comment - I completely agree with everything you wrote - For ppl from the outside it might look like Utopia her but there's problems here too
Privatisation and outsourcing are gimmicks of modern day economics and these are always in favour of the authorities and finally against the interests of ordinary citizens.
Hi. American here. Maybe it sounds so great because of the way our infrastructure is here. (This next part is coming from someone who wants to travel via public transport.) I did the math and Oslo to Trondheim is roughly 305 miles. Similarly, If I wanted to go from my town to visit family about 310 miles away using public transport, this is what I am faced with: Option 1: buy 5 bus tickets. (Not sure how much that's going to be for me.) The next bus leaves tomorrow afternoon. Then it will take about 15 hours to get to my destination. Option 2: Buy 3 bus tickets and a train ticket and it will take me 17 ½ hours with the first bus leaving tomorrow afternoon. (I have taken this train before and it costs about $42 for the train ticket.) This train is only once a day and leaves at 12:35 AM. Our infrastructure is so bad that we are forced to use cars if we want to get anywhere. The drive from the two points is 5 hours. We have no planes that would make this trip any easier.
Big spin going on here. Airports are needed in part because the road and rail systems outside of Oslo aren't particularly good. By the same logic you could say canada has an insanely good transport system because so many fly latidudinally across the country.
According to the hitchikers guide to the galaxy: " because of its great design, specifically its fjords. In Chapter 7, the character Slartibartfast reveals that he designed the fjords of Norway as part of a plan to win an award for the planet Earth in the annual "Galactic Best Designed Planet" contest: "Norway? Pah! Just crammed full of fjords, that's all. The glaciers have got it now. And they're welcome to it, I say." Slartibartfast continued: "I'd far rather be happy than right any day. And of course, you know what a triumph the thing was. A perfect design, just perfect. And then, running down the coast of Norway ..."
I don't think I've ever watched a video about my own country that I've related so little to, lol Our transportation infrastructure outside of Oslo is bad, and unless you live in a city you'll need a car to get around. Our rail system is expensive, crowded and too small, and yet all our politicians care about is building new roads
I wouldn't say they only care about building roads. It's important to have a good road network, most comparable countries also have pretty good road network between large cities compared to Norway. For example the highway between Oslo and Stavanger has been in the works for around 60(!!) years, but they can never find funds or agree on where the route should go if they were to build it - luckily they now have. Oslo area has received large amounts of funds for infrastructure compared to other places. Look at the recent Follobannen scandal that cost almost 40 billion NOK, when they cant find 16 billion to build Rogfast which is or at least was very recently the most socio-economically profitable project in the country.
I'm VERY glad you mentioned that Yes we might use 98% renewable energy, But we are huuuge on oil. It's kind of hypocritical of us to expect others to do the same as us, while we make money on other countries inability to go green. This has bothered me for a few years, because we looove to praise our own country up here. I hate it. But we could do worse at the same time. I'm merely trying to hold my country responsible.
@@saurabhmahurkar2473: We first got rich on renewable energy though and we are far past being dependent on oil and gas. Our production of oil and gas is far more environmentally friendly too. But to say that Norway is unsustainable because otherwise oil and gas consumers would just buy it from the Middle-East, seems weird to me. It's like blaming the local grocery store for your overeating.
Keeping supply higher does lower the cost of crude oil, slowing the adaptation of renewable energy. Relatively lower costs of legacy systems take away an incentive to change. Ironically the high profits made in selling oil also helps pay for the costs of being green.
one of the few countries that could do something similar to norway is australia both have remarkably similar starting points but boy did australia fuck it up in comparison
Above the polar circle, nothing is really "well-connected", there's even places without road connection, and the roads go in and out of the fjords instead of crossing them. The railway is nonexistent, and ferries have to stay put because of a slight breeze across the fjord.
I'll call it "Insanely Well Designed" when they merge their train and buss stations. Looking at Hønefoss and Gol here with a 10 and 30 minute hike between the stations respectively...
Sounds rough, I've been to Gol and thought about the same thing. Living in the Sandnes area in Rogaland, most of the bigger cities along the railline have central stations for bus, like Stavanger, Sandnes, Bryne and Egersund, maybe a couple more in between, smaller stations have at least a bus stop next to the train station
Yet, Norway and Norwegians don’t benefit from the oil money; as stated in the video, it’s invested in a national sovereign fund, which is used as a piggy bank; so yeah, money management is a part but that’s not why Norway is what it is today
I've lived in both Oslo and Bergen, and roads in Norway are far from impressive by nordic standards. You only have to travel across the border to Sweden and the quality of roads noticeably increases (potholes, maintenance, plowing, size of lanes, sidewalks etc.). People where I lived were always very unhappy about the state of roads in their area. I think you need more hands on sources for videos like this and not just look at numbers.
I live in Ski, the Follo line was cool until it caught on fire...twice...but now its up and running correctly just a few months behind schedule. Very nice addition to the infrastructure saves a lot of time daily
Norway's amazing and interconnected infrastructure makes driving through Swedish to get from North to South faster and cheaper than driving through Norwegian roads. On top of this, domestic flights are much more expensive than flying internationally.
Who would have thought that going through Sweden is a better way of getting to a different place in Norway than actually just going through Norway; says a lot about how it’s to travel north to south in Norway
@@oddmahttesara773 Inland route is not too bad actually. E6 route that is. Sweden is still better though. But flatter landscape and easier landscaping due to ground soil makes it less of a challenge though.
@@oddmahttesara773 On top of that, our government wants us to move to those places... With few jobs, dwindling populations and amenities, and no additional incentives, while making it difficult for the inhabitants to travel outside the districts, due to poor roads and expensive transportation. They're delusional if they think it's a tempting proposition. The scenery doesn't weigh up for all the negatives, for most people.
I really enjoyed the video but I think that its very important to make the difference between energy supply and electricity supply clear.Because yes the electricity generation in Norway ist basiclly completly renewable,but the total Energy supply is actually 52 % oil and gas (International Energy Agency-Energy Policy Review 2022).
Rogfast is not even close to Bergen. It starts in Stavanger (technically in Randaberg but it's counted as the same city according to the Norwegian bureau of statistics) and goes across Boknafjorden in Rogaland fylke. The current longest undersea road tunnel is already in Stavanger and is a part of this same project, connecting the area called Ryfylke with Jæren. Also it's not scheduled to open by 2026 anymore, new approximation is 2031. They started to build it in 2018 but after spending a couple of billion NOK they figured it would be too expensive and used almost 4 years to decide if they should continue or not, luckily they decided to go ahead with the project.
Randaberg is Stavanger North, Sandnes is Stavanger South; don't believe them if they tell you otherwise, Randaberg is just like Belgium, it doesn't exist.
"The Norwegians have mastered the craft..." "roads in Norway are equally impressive..." "norway is so well designed and efficient because its peculiarities are integrated into one cohesive and organic system" "...is done with great attention to sustainability and environment protection" "Norway is the top producer of electricity per capita in the world" Really? I'm no scientist, it just...doesn't seem that way.
@@Dayvit78 The later migrations were of people who actually had money. To put it more in perspective, since we didn't have a lot of farmland, a lot of the earlier migrations were poorer people wanting to work their way out of poverty. But there's a reason we were taught that 1850 was the start of modern history when I went to High School in Norway: Industrialization happened there. Due to various reasons (cold war with Sweden, no farmland and people needing work being two), the economic opportunities offered by industrialization were seized with both hands immediately. So after the 1850s came around, there were still people moving to the US but now there were far fewer poorer, and far more people who wanted to move to a country with more opportunities. These were often skilled craftsmen, hence why Mark Twain famously said that the "Irish and Dutch don't amount to much, but give me a Scandinavian". In other word, Norway stopped being poor because of industrialization, not because of oil. By the time of the 1960s, we were already a well established industrialized nation with a pretty good GDP, and emigration was no longer because of poverty.
@@HrHaakon people forget per capita. Norway having a relatively low population, poor people leaving the country for fortune, the numbers are very misleading
To put into perspective how long norway is, I am from Arendal, and if i wanted to drove to my relatives in the northern town of hammerfest, it would take longer then for me to drive to rome! Norway is pretty god damn long 😅
Not only is the distance from Lindesnes to Nordkapp the same as from lindesnes to rome, it's actually a 5 hour drive shorter to get to rome! Even considering the Alps and Skagerrak
This is what happen when a country is well managed and uses the profit of its natural resources to improve the standard of living for of its population instead of making a few people/company very rich. Wish more countries were like this instead of being so corrupt and dysfunctional.
@@BernardVisagieThere are a lot of small countries in terms of population size rich in natural resources that are not doing this well. Places in Central Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia whose wealth from natural resources have not been wisely used nor equally distributed at all. It just sucks that some people are born in those places while others are born in places like Norway due to pure luck.
Stop hyping countries that supports tiny population with all the giant countries that supports 100s of millions of people. When a country with 5 million people has so much resources which can afford 47 billion for an underwater highway they can plan better. Why don't all these genius countries share their ideas, step up and try solve other poor countries problems instead of bragging
As other have pointed out, it's a bit of a spin with the transport infrastructure. Rail is well-connected in an around the Oslo area, and is also arguably the only city where you can commute by rail from more than one point. In Bergen you can commute from Arna (still in the same municipality). In Trondheim you can technically commute from either Melhus or Hommelvik/Stjørdal, but the trains go max. once per hour, so bus is more viable. Oslo is also the only city with a metro, and the only one with a proper tram network. Bergen recently got its second light rail line, so that's a bit of a contender. The tram in Trondheim is still operating but is still a ghost of its former self. For intercity transport (between the major cities), rail works if you're going to or from Oslo, but is inconvenient otherwise. Rail from e.g. Bergen to Trondheim will take you 15h (via Oslo), and is often as expensive, if not more, than flying direct, which takes 1h. For the same leg, bus doesn't even seem to be an option anymore. So for any distance that is more than 6-7 hours, flying is likely the best (consumer) option. Norway does produce an outstanding amount of its electricity greenly, and is one of the countries that have very much adapted EVs, we could still do much better with rail infrastructure as a much greener alternative than flying. And outside the major cities, Norway is heavily car-dependent.
And the government is trying to reduce the number of cars, but makes no distinction between people that have other alternatives and those that don't. So any policy in that area harms people that live outside of major cities a lot.
The ferry crossings between Bergen and Stavanger were among the highlights of my recent road trip to Norway 😢 but I imagine for people who live there they must be quite a pain…
on the contrary, of all my friends and family I know only one person who prefers the tunnel, and he works in the state run road company 🤣 Those tunnels are dreadful to drive in, and the ferry is a much welcomed break from the drive! Fresh air and a nice view. The tunnels are first and foremost driven by commercial transport gain I believe
1:25 The flat areas isn't do much to the south where that green area is as in the east where you marked Oslo and then it goes northwards towards Trondheim for quite some distance as well as eastwards towards Sweden.
I have lived in both the far north, and the east of Norway as well as some places in between. In the north air travel might get you somewhere in a matter of hours instead of a matter of days, that's how much of a difference travel method can make there. In the east everywhere is well connected by electrified rail to the rail hub of Oslo making travel a breeze. In both locations you might be surprised by the number of electric cars and charging stations you will run across.
@@oddmahttesara773 There's also roads (with busses going between population centers) and boats. It takes a long time. As for rail. I would personally be ecstatic if we could get rail up here, although, I am afraid it's not realistic anytime in the near future due to the huge distances and low population.
@@Jo-Heike Not only the low population, but also elevation from the mountains and fjords. Trains are really bad at inclines. Norway is (as our number of dialects prove) not ideal for travel across land. But another big issue is the extreme focus on Oslo, seems everyone lives or works there when it comes to public transport.
@@Jo-Heike realistic? What don’t you think is realistic? The fact that we have low population and long distance is also a problem for busses, put we still have them (even for a loss) because transportation is (like healthcare) a service and not a commercial product; and also trains are first and foremost for freight, having passenger service is just a byproduct of using rails to the fullest
@@Rurix48 do you think Norway is the only country with challenging geography? Look at how Switzerland with their valleys and mountains are connected and how the average sized town of Switzerland (50000-100000) are connected
@@benjii_boi No we fucking dont. Norway has built almoast no rail lines since the end of the second world war, and the infrastructure that does exist has not been well maintianed. Trains often get canceled and replaced with busses beacuse the rail infrastructure is falling apart. Norway also has no high speed lines unless you count Flytoget, wich according to most definitions is not high speed. Norway needs more rail and it does definatly not need more roads.
@@benjii_boi No no it doesn't, it doesn't even have proper rail infrastructure that is heavily neglected let alone high speed rail, that road infrastructure is not needed, investing back in rail is what is Needs.
The secret of the renewable energy lies in the mountainous regions. high altitude water reserves store incredibly much potential energy. Countries like Nepal, Bhutan or Paraguay do the same with electricity
However, Norway have an advantage over countries by the Himalayas. Since Norwegian mountains are much older, the sedimentary deposits in the water are far less. The same high quality turbines have a far longer life-span in Norway than for instance in Pakistan.
Yeah no, not really. I live in northern Norway, Lofoten and Leknes specifically and I am bound to take a plane if I really want to travel the country. I am dependent on my car to get around, and even then it is pretty expensive considering gas, and the fare to take the ferry and tolls. There are rarely busses going here, up to max 3-4 a day per destination. Want to get to bodø from Leknes? A 20 minute flight will be about 60-70 dollars for a youth ticket. Trains are also horrible here in the north. The thought of taking a train to for example Oslo has never struck me. It essentially costs the same, or even more, than a standard plane ticket, and takes 18 hours or more by train.
Error; Norway, Sweden and Denmark were not united in 1814. 1814 was the year when Norway was transferred from the Danish-Norwegian Union to Sweden, to form the Swedish-Norwegian Union. The three countries were only united in the periods of the 13th and 15th century through the Kalmar Union and a series of personal unions.
The same goes for the south regions. I tried to tell a group of people from the North that i lived close to Oslo, but a couple of hours away. They just said it was Oslo but just a little to the west. Lol. Norway thinks everything is Oslo and not Oslo, or Oslo a little to the left.
Norwegian here, the railway system in Norway is not very good if you are not around Oslo. If u live in The north (above Bodø) u dont have any railway. And dont get me started on the healthcare situation up there
Just going to comment that, the fact that the flight traffic is so high is because of our train network being so neglected. I lived in Oslo and didn’t think about how good the trains were but after moving to trondheim I can see that it’s seriously lacking with connected train routes in Norway.
Seriously, only real place you can use the trains is within oslo and surrounding areas, and even then it can be a pain if its not a big town. getting anywhere else requires either driving or flying, why bother with a 6hr incrdibly expensvie train when you can fly form oslo to bergen in 50 minutes for cheap.
Norwegian here. This praise is not deserved. In fact our infrastructure is really bad. Trains are a tragedy the last 30 years, roads take way too long to get built. The only thing we can truly be proud of is our drilling and tunnel techniques and qualifications, alongside bridge construction -we are undoubtably among the best in the world at that.
Probably not very high at all on human rights either as your gvt. has never followed the Constitution, but rather seems to do whatever they want, viewing the citizens as nothing but peasants. 'Der totale kontroll' seems to live on in that police state. Only made possible by a dumbed-down and sleeping population.
Oh man, roads taking too long to build is such an issue; the damn projects are decades out of date when they are finally built. Not a problem all the time, but you can definitely tell that things should have been made differently even if it's not a huge problem that time.
Norway has embraced a development model that takes into account 3 types of sustainable development, economic, social, and environmental. The model is known as Campbells triangle and is taught to all planning students. All plans made by the Norwegian administrative system should work through this lense. And Norway has a legal framework to support this.
Just clarifying the passage at 8:35 about the shift between Denmark/Norway/Sweden 1814 Norway became independent from Denmark, had her own constitution and was forced into a union with Sweden. The union between Norway and Sweden was a union between two independent states, each of which had its own national assembly and its own constitution. The union consisted in the states having a common king and a joint foreign policy; all foreign policy issues were dealt with in Stockholm, leaving Norway with an uneven position, not having its own consular service with Norwegian consulates abroad. This was considered by the Norwegians to be a clear indication of the country’s subordinate position in the union. 1905 Norway passed a resolution unilaterally dissolving the union with Sweden. (With a few bumps in the road)
Comparing number of airports to the UK makes no sense - the UK is more compact with a far higher population density. To an American, driving coast to coast east-west or north-south doesn't even take that long. Driving is far more practical in such a small place that can be reasonable connected.
going from Land's End to Thurso takes 14 hrs to drive 1,300 km; From the southern to northern tip of Norway is takes 30 hrs to drive 2,400 km via Sweden
I was an electrician at the part of the new E39 road between Kristiansand and Mandal, the road is nice if you look past the fact that you have to pay tolls to drive on it😅 and you can drive at 110km/h there too
Yes!! Because Norwegian actually hate wind turbines and would never agree to this kind of thing destroying the view; just look at how ugly these things are!!!
Don’t, you’ll just recognize that Norway only sounds good on paper and looks good on pictures, but if you live here you’ll realize that most of the impressive thing we have or do are only because of geopolitics; like, yes we got most of our electricity from renewables, but to bad we don’t use it ourselves (it’s sold to the EU market) and the things said in this video, yes are true, but only if you only look at the numbers and forget that the infrastructure is unevenly distributed between the regions of Norway
Norway has half the population of Portugal and should have a good public transport network , and there should be an investigation into why railways were not developed and who profiteers from it not being developed
Interesting video. I’d love to know more about the way they are funding it all. It still baffles me how a country can be considered ‘greener’ just because they sell their fossil fuels abroad. The fuel still gets burnt so I don’t really see how it benefits the world as a whole
The infrastructure is funded like in many countries, through the tax system. Norway uses mostly hydro and wind to produce electricity so it exports it's fossil fuels. You are right it isn't green to export fossil fuels, but neither is the export profile of any other country in the world at the moment. The real positive this video is driving at I believe is the way the Norwegian administrative system is able to get alot more for the resources it puts in to projects because of smart Design and planning.
One correction at the end: Norway did not have one of Europes lowest GDP per capita before they found oil. They were basically right in the middle of western countries. Not as rich as UK or Sweden, but far wealthier than for example Finland, Spain, Portugal etc. It is a common myth that Norway supposedly was super poor before they found oil. But it is just a myth.
The landscapes in this vid are breathtaking. Spent a couple of months traveling to the far north, over to Kirkenes, and all points in between, and it is even more beautiful in person when surrounded by it all. Lots and lots of tunnels, some very cool ones, good roads but watch your speed, I found out the hard way.
So what does Slartibartfast think of this? I mean he took FOREVER working on all the fiddledebits, in fact I think he even one an award for Norway's original design. You really need to get his take on this project.
I think that it's nice that he made the fjords deep enough that if you dump a body into it and weigh it down it will NEVER be found, but it does make infrastructure more expensive than it would be otherwise.
Norwegian here. This video seems a lot more optimistic than I feel things are going. We are very car dependent, and only the biggest cities has really started doing actions to be less car focused. Train has not been prioriticed. Also we have a lot of eggs in the oil and gas sector basket, eating up heads and hands from other industries. Things are good here, but we are usually quite self critical with our society. So this super optimistic video feels kind of wierd. Maybe it is a culture thing 🤷♂️
Oh yes thank you fellow citizen of the kingdom! But try to say this a fellow Norwegian and they think you’re crazy for thinking that Norway should be less car centric; what you think that every little town and village just be connected to the rest of the country with reliable frequent collective transportation?!? Are you mad?!? Such a task is not possible with our geography!!! It drives me crazy, thinking that that’s how my fellow Norwegian think
The fact that you started the video with talking about the Rogfast ans then marking it wrongly on the map makes me take everything with a grain of salt that comes out of this channel.
For anyone wanting to visit Norway, you should come to my hometown of Kristiansand for Palmesus (a festival). And get a glimpse of what summer is like in Norway. Then, you can travel upwards to the north and see northern Norway to see that part of it also (which is probably what most people want to see anyway, because their own country cant offer that climate)
I think Slartybartfast would be happy with what we have done with his creation :) We get see his wonderful Fjords from the air, which is the best way to see his handiwork :)
Which source told you that Norway was amongst the poorest countries in GDP per capita before the discovery of oil? Numbers tell a completely different story, Norway was among one of the richest countries in the 1960s even looking back to the start of 1900 Norway was above average in GDP per capita. Even though oil took Norway to another level, it was one of the biggest shipping industries (3rd biggest already in 1870). Fishing and wood exportation also made sure the country had a decent economy well before the discovery of oil in 1969. We did indeed lay behind a lot of the western nations during this period, but to say it was one of the poorest countries in Europe is quite misleading.
Thanks for a very interesting and flattering look at our country. Things are not quite as good as they could be transport-wise, though. Two cases: there is no motorway between Oslo and Bergen or Kristiansand and Stavanger. Although we have railways connecting the main cities and towns, travel by rail is not always that efficient. Stavanger - Oslo is a 7.5-hour journey, as opposed to a 40-minute flight. The concept of the oil fund dates back to the 1960s but it did not become a reality until 1990 when the government petroleum fund was mandated by law. The first financial deposit was not made until 1996. It is now one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, (if not the largest), in the world.
Do you have a source? Because I have not heard or seen anything of investment into salmon; all of that salmon are just fished up by giant foreign ships, almost nothing is left for the Norwegian who lives by the fish
But still the point still stands, little Norway has number that can be compared with Spain and Italy (countries with massive populations compared to Norway) and Spains flights are to the islands that can’t be connected by land, compared to Norway which can connect the biggest cities with something else than planes but doesn’t
While Norway is better designed than a lot of countries, having to rely on car and air infrastructure instead of a good train network is nothing to be proud of.
even in the far north you don't really depend on having a car or having an airport nearby; You can count on a spread-out public transportation network based on buses throughout the countryside as well
@@lpdude2005 We have a "good" railway system in the east. Along the western coast, where roughly 20% of people and 60% of exports originate from, there is little to no rail infrastructure, except for the rail lines leading to Oslo. Even those are terribly underfunded running slower than they did in the 70's and at max capacity. Rather government's have for decades prioritised the shortening of minutes of people's commutes in Oslo, rather than investing in safe, clean, and efficient infrastructure in the rest of the country.
@@SoidSnake Because having a solid railway system is much better for the environment and usually for consumer's pockets. Furthermore, when your options of visiting your family five hours away is only car or plane. It quickly becomes a hassle rather than a relaxing trip.
If your economy is at risk of haveing to much exposiure to one single sector of industrie or finance,, the ony thing to do is to diversify. Its common sence.
Because the mindset of Norwegian are: get the most out of it before it comes back to haunt us, like the whole idea is to have something after it’s depleted, so that we don’t need to worry about the day that there’s no more oil
@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 ikr, that app has been so helpful that people will probably more likely get COVID from using the app! I was pinged once and asked to do the COVID test after seeing someone who had COVID and I did the test and was negative and I hadn't even seen anyone!
I live in the Stavanger area and in my opinion the rail network in this area is superb. Very well kept trains that travel at 100+ km/h, making almost zero sound, very comfortable suspension in the cabins, you barely feel movement when you're sitting down, it's always on time and it's quick, clean. That said, I like to get on a plane and fly to Oslo in 30 minutes lol.
Impressive! It's interesting how he's trying to pronounce the place names with the local dialects of each place. He doesn't *quite* succeed, but you can clearly hear that he's doing so rather than just using the Oslo dialect. And I for one really appreciate that effort. :-) 3:26 He even got the letter "Ø" right! Where is he from? He has to be nordic. End of the video edit: Ah, he's Danish, that explains things. :-) Still well done. ^^ Most Danes would just go with the Oslo dialect and left it at that. Going that extra mile is definitely appreciated. ^^
Explains how close he got Kristiansand, but with a touch of danish in it. What surprises me more then is how he has such a good english, so unlike other danish people speaking english. When you know he's danish you can hear it in his accent, but the touches of danish in his speek are so much less pronounced than most others
This video tells very little about Norway's infrastructure design. However, the things mentioned aren't genius or incredibly efficient: underground rail, large number of airports are exactly show of inefficient design.
Yes thank you fellow citizen of the kingdom!! Please preach this message that I’ve tried to say to people for a long time!! I dislike the fact that airports are the main mode of transport for so many people
11 of the 47 airports in Norway are in Finnmark, a 48 618 km² (18 771 square miles) region with a population of 75 863, a wild coastline crammed with fjords and islands and a huge highland plateau inland. There really isn't any other option than planes for fast travelling in such conditions. It's a similar story, although not quite as extreme, along much of the coastline further south.
@@tessjuel Often times solution to a problem simply requires more project planning than governments are willing to care for (or don't think can be justified for the extended time) and the cheapest short term option is agreed upon. In such cases the condition for _efficiency_ still isn't met; the solution chosen might be the a great decision for the time being, but ultimately inefficienct design is unsustinable when the actual time of infrasteucture's usage is considered.
you are clearly missunderstanding the geography we are dealing with here. planes are by FAR the best transportation method up in the unpopulated north. cost much much less, is much much faster, is much much better for the environment. building a giant road noone is using is not eficcient
Norway has invested $47 billion to turn the E39 road into an engineering masterpiece, building the world's longest and deepest underwater road tunnel in the process. Norway's diverse terrain has made it a great challenge to develop a sustainable and efficient transportation system, and it has done so by diversification through four pillars: roads, railways, ferries, and airports. The Norwegians have mastered the craft of exploiting the peculiar terrain of each region, and all of this is done with great attention to sustainability and environmental protection. As a result, Norway is ranked as one of the greenest countries in the world, with almost 98% of its energy coming from renewable sources. In my opinion, Norway's approach to infrastructure development is truly impressive, given the harsh terrain they have to contend with, and their commitment to sustainability is admirable. Their transport system is well designed, and the distribution of railways, roads, ferries, and airports has been done in a genius way that serves the population effectively.
But the money from oil is not put into the government budget but rather a foreign wealth fund. The money used for infrastructure is generated through taxes, and tolls.
This quality of design in Norway is achieved to a great extent by its devolved administrative system. It turns out the more democracy the better. I am biased though as a Norwegian planning and administration student 😸
As a Norwegian, I had to laugh at your claim. The rail road between Oslo and Bergen was begun building around 1900, and is not finnished. Is is possible to travel all the way, but by utilysing differnt other rails. Now they are deperately trying to finish double rail inside the city limit of Bergen, almost finished 2 km. In the current vote camaign, the prime minister prominister promisted an amount similar to 30 mill euro to help build the railwai towards Oslo that is most prone to stone slides
Norway well connected? 💀. Only Oslo, not the rest of the country… And you say the rail mainly connect the South, why? Beacuse they are only in the South… Also Follobanen have been a disaster. While air travel is not anywhere near affordable.
You must lack general logic. The railway in Norway is actually very good and the speed will improve. The people live in the south - therefore. The Folloban has a problem - but it is solved quite quickly. Why are you talking down something that actually works considering all the countries you can compare it to. There are no people living in the north and Norway is as long as Oslo to Gibraltar or three times longer than Germany. It is difficult to build a railway for that stretch, especially because no people live there.
