Oslo, Norway (my home away from home)

DanPatchToget
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Oslo, Norway (my home away from home)

Postby DanPatchToget » February 25th, 2018, 7:43 pm

I love this city so darn much since I visited in 2015. Glad to be returning this summer.

When I studied in Oslo in 2015 I remember when the central city car ban was first being proposed. Even as a transit and bike fan I thought that was pretty crazy, but certainly doable considering their excellent public transit network. Not surprisingly there has been outrage, and now the plan seems to be banning parking in the city center and then gradually banning car traffic. If someone in office proposed a car and/or parking ban in the Twin Cities they would certainly be chased out of town.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017 ... sh-parking

Although they have a large and easily accessible transit network they're always looking at improvements. A few big projects are the Follo Line; a new high speed railway between Oslo and the southern city of Ski which will free up capacity on the existing rail line, a new T-Bane (subway) line to Fornebu, and a new underground station at Majorstuen. Majorstuen is where all the T-Bane routes meet on the western side of Oslo. The current station is in a trench, and while they want to increase capacity for added service I don't really know how the underground Majorstuen station accomplishes that (I think there are plans for upgraded signaling, which would probably be the main component of increasing capacity). There's also been talk of a new station between Majorstuen and Nationalthreatret, in my opinion not necessary but I'll let them decide. The T-Bane (Tunnelbanen) network was six lines when I was there, and shortly after I left it was changed to five lines. Line 5 starts at the western side of Oslo, goes through the city center, makes a loop around the city meeting up with the tracks it was on before, goes through the city center again and then goes east. If that sounds confusing I agree, but when I'm there I'll see if its as complicated as I think it is. If you're ever in Oslo I highly recommend taking Line 1 from the city center to Frognerseteren. It will probably be the most scenic heavy rail trip of your life.

Here's a map of the network-https://www.lifeinnorway.net/changes-to ... s-weekend/

I interned at the transport department of Akershus flykeskommune (Akershus County, the area surrounding Oslo) doing park & ride surveying. A notable experience was going to Nesoddtangen. To there from Oslo you take a ferry from Aker Brygge, and at Nesoddtangen there are regional buses lined up to take people further south. The park & ride there has a fee, however if you have an electric car you're exempt. IIRC about one quarter of the cars there were electric, and just walking around Oslo it was common to see Teslas and other electric vehicles. Government doing what I think is right by rewarding people for buying electric cars, biking, walking, or taking public transit.

alexschief
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Re: Oslo, Norway (my home away from home)

Postby alexschief » February 27th, 2018, 4:42 pm

I studied in Oslo in 2011, and didn't know they were planning on doing the whole Hot Wheels loop-da-loop with the T-Bane map. Of course, that's still how it used to work, but it was conceptualized as two lines with the #4 becoming the #6, . I'm not sure what is gained by combining them into a single numbed route, and then switching up the numbers and end-to-end destinations. The #3 was my line (I lived in UiO housing near Ullevål). Simply from a graphical perspective, the new map lacks a lot of the color of the old one, and it kinda strains to make the point that the UiO stations have double frequency from the #3. I imagine it's might be confusing for inattentive riders at Ullevål or Carl Berners Plass who need to make sure they're taking the right #3 train. Also, looks like the station at Løren is new to me, and the extension to Kolsås was not in place when I lived there.

Oslo is interesting as a laboratory for urban design. Aker Brygge set a model for waterfront development that is trickling over here to the US. It's basically what Capital Wharf in DC aspires to be. I'm a bit less sure about the longevity of the Bjørvika model. The Opera is beyond reproach, of course, and the Munch Museum may prove equally spectacular, although I doubt it. But the urban design and composition of the district has always struck me as problematic. The Barcode is photogenic, but a one-block long district bounded by water and rail tracks isn't going to become a neighborhood all that quick. Concentrating museums to create a cultural district is also something I think is generally a flawed idea. The US cities that have tried it, especially Dallas, have mostly failed in creating vibrant places.

DanPatchToget
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Re: Oslo, Norway (my home away from home)

Postby DanPatchToget » March 9th, 2018, 9:44 pm

Were you at the Sogn student village? That's where I lived, not too far of a walk to Ullevål but going from the T-Bane station that involved going up hill for most of the trip. If I remember right lines 3, 4, and 6 went through Ullevål, but that was before I was there. Line 3 from the center of Oslo to Mortensrud was being rebuilt, so you had to take a bus. I only used it once, but it seemed to work well as a temporary replacement.

Were you there before, during, or after the attacks on July 22? I went to the site of where the car bombing was, and there were still windows boarded up.

DanPatchToget
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Re: Oslo, Norway (my home away from home)

Postby DanPatchToget » November 25th, 2023, 4:59 pm

Since I visited Oslo last December and May I figured I’d post on changes I saw.

The pedestrian/bike bridge across the Ring 3 motorway between Ullevål Stadium and the Sogn Student Village is complete. Much better than the old and narrow bridge where bikers and walkers had to share space. A little west of there is a huge construction project, which will be a research campus for University of Oslo.

New trams have been delivered, and by 2025 will completely replace all of the old trams. I’ll miss the old ones, but the new ones are great with much more room that really helps during rush hour.

The Follo Line, a new railway for regional, intercity, and freight trains between Oslo and the southern city of Ski (pronounced she) and points further south, was completed shortly after I left Oslo last December. However, there were issues with the tunnel that required trains to use the old route again. That lasted a few months, but when I went back in May trains were using the tunnel again. The old route is still used by local trains.

West of Oslo in the city of Drammen a railway tunnel is under construction to improve speed and capacity on the railway between Drammen and cities to the south as well as Torp Airport (Oslo’s secondary airport). Seeing the construction of the tunnel reminded me a lot of the tunnel construction in Kenwood for the Southwest Light Rail with lots of digging and huge
construction equipment right next to people’s homes. I wonder how long that project has been in planning and how much NIMBYism that received.

The railway to Lillehammer is also getting improvements to increase capacity and reduce travel time, notably a new bridge across Vorma River in the town of Minnesund.

The trendy Bar Code District near Oslo Central Station has lots of new(er) buildings, but more are still being built. Also in that area is the recently completed Deichmann Library and Edvard Munch Museum. I believe the old Munch Museum is now a community center.

A new T-Bane (Metro) route is under construction, which will begin at Majorstuen Station and go west to the area of Fornebu. Until 1998 this was Oslo’s international airport, and since then it’s been slowly but surely redeveloped. Completion is estimated to be in 2029. Majorstuen is where all five T-Bane routes meet going towards central Oslo, and it can be quite a bottleneck, so I’m not sure how this new route will fit in with all that. I read Majorstuen Station will be completely rebuilt, but apparently that’s a separate project that will be done after the new T-Bane route is completed.

Bob Stinson's Ghost
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Re: Oslo, Norway (my home away from home)

Postby Bob Stinson's Ghost » November 25th, 2023, 6:56 pm

I just looked at the map and noticed that the Oslo airport (unlike ours) is a sensible distance away from the city.

DanPatchToget
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Re: Oslo, Norway (my home away from home)

Postby DanPatchToget » December 1st, 2023, 3:29 pm

I just looked at the map and noticed that the Oslo airport (unlike ours) is a sensible distance away from the city.
That it is! But there's frequent and high-speed train service between Oslo and Gardermoen Airport as the airport has a station on the railway from Oslo to Lillehammer and Trondheim. Flytoget (Airport Express Train) runs every 10 minutes in both directions throughout the day, and it takes around 20 minutes between Oslo Central Station and the airport station. In addition there's regional trains that take slightly longer, but are also slightly cheaper than Flytoget. Flybussen is also an option, which can be convenient if there's a Flybussen stop at your origin/destination instead of having to take local transit to/from the nearest regional rail station. My parents used Flybussen since their hotel in Oslo had a stop right outside the entrance, while I've always taken the train to/from the airport.


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