The capital of Norway
is Oslo. It is a beautiful city situated
at the northern tip of the Oslo Fjord. The
harbour front at Aker brygge is a busy meeting place, with restaurants, a busy
ferry terminal and cruise ships all adding to the scene. The tramway has an
urban network, which is a mix of street running, suburban reservations and
light rail on reserved tracks and private rights of way, as you will see on
this programme. Ruter is the
company responsible for the coordination of public transport in Oslo. The tramway is called ‘trikken’ in
Norwegian, which is short for ‘elektrikken’ – ‘the electric’. The first electric trams ran in Oslo in 1894
from the city centre to Majorstuen, which is where the Tramway Museum is situated
in the former tram depot. The tramway
fleet at the time of filming in June 2016 was made up of 72 cars owned by Oslo
Vognselskap AS. There were 40 high
floor Duewag cars, type SL79, of which the first 10 were
assembled in Germany, the remainder being built under licence by Strømmens
Voeksted near Oslo. Numbered
101-140 they are all single ended. The
remainder of the fleet are 32 Firema/Ansaldo
Italian built cars, type SL95, which
are very similar to the T69 trams, formerly operated by Midland Metro in the United Kingdom. They were being built side by side at the
factory and share many similar components.
They are double-ended cars and mostly low-floor. All Oslo trams are painted in a two-tone blue
livery with a few different applications of the colours. We have also included the buses on this programme,
as they will interact with the trams at a number of locations. The city buses are in an all-over red livery
and the regional buses are in an all-over lime green livery all carrying the Ruter fleet names. Most are of Volvo, Scania, MAN and
Mercedes-Benz manufacture with a few exceptions.
Our filming starts in
the city centre where we see the trams operating at various locations such as
Tollbugata, Akersgata, Rådhusgata and Aker brygge. Jernbanetorget is a busy tram stop not far
from the main railway station where we film the action before riding on tram
116 a Duewag/Strømmen SL79 on line 19
to Majorstuen. Here we pay a visit to
the superb Oslo Tramway Museum. We film
the exhibits, which range from the first horse tram to the trams of the 1950s. The museum also features a few Oslo
trolleybuses that finished operating in the city in 1968. From here we join tram 102, a Duewag built SL79 to Olaf Ryes Plass on Line 12.
Here we change to tram 142 an Ansaldo/Firema
SL95 to get a drivers eye view on the long ride to Bekkestua, which is
outside the city. We then see the busy
scene near the bus terminal in the city centre before a ride on tram 129, a Duewag/Strømmen SL79 from the
picturesque terminal at Ljabry to the Nationaltheatret on Line 19, observing
some interesting single line workings from the drivers eye view. To conclude we return to the city streets to
film the trams in action in eleven different locations, and see the buses at
Schweigaads gate. We hope you enjoy your
tour of Oslo!