Flåmsbana

One of the steepest adhesion railways on Earth: 864 m down to the fjord in 20 km, waterfalls at the window.

No other branch line does this: from the bare mountain junction at Myrdal the track corkscrews down cliff faces, through tunnels hand-bored by navvies, eighteen of its twenty were dug without machines, and past farms clinging to ledges. The train pauses at Kjosfossen so everyone can be lightly soaked by the falls while, in summer, a red-dressed huldra dances among the rocks. Soon after, you are at sea level on the Aurlandsfjord in one of Norway’s most photographed villages.

Stations

1. 0 kmMyrdal
2. 1 kmVatnahalsen
3. 2 kmReinunga
4. 4 kmKjosfossen
5. 9 kmBlomheller
6. 11 kmBerekvam
7. 17 kmHåreina
8. 19 kmLunden
9. 20 kmFlåm

The stations OpenStreetMap lists for this service, in order, with the distance along the line as drawn here. A train may skip some of them.

Along the way

• Myrdal mountain junction
• Kjosfossen falls photo stop
• hairpins of the old navvies’ road
• ledge farms of the Flåm valley
• Aurlandsfjord at sea level

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 18611527 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
• Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 3 m from it
• Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits 0.2 km from the shape of IC 1851
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Flåmsbana?

The Flåmsbana runs 20 km from Myrdal to Flåm.

How long does the Flåmsbana take?

The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 1 h for the 20 km. That is an average of 20 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 40 km/h.

Who runs the Flåmsbana?

Vy and Flåm AS, with El 18-hauled panorama.

How old is the Flåmsbana?

The line has been in service since 1940. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How high does the Flåmsbana climb?

866 m above sea level at its highest point.

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗