Freight traffic between Oslo and Bergen, Norway’s two biggest cities, now takes place on rail 60% of the time. Rail demand on the route is high and outpaces the road.
As a result, Norway’s rail freight companies CargoNet and OnRail are expanding their services on the line. CargoNet is planning to run longer trains, whereas OnRail will introduce a third pair. That will allow for two evening trains in both directions and a daytime train, the Norwegian Jernbanedirektoratet cites CEO Henning Aandal.
Currently, there is a total of 12 freight trains that run on the Oslo-Bergen route daily.
“In general, we experience that our customers want to move more of their volume from road to rail. Deliveries on the Bergen Line have also been stable since spring 2025, without closures and disruptions that stop the flow of transport on the railway, says Commercial Director Carl Fredrik Karlsen at CargoNet. “The start of the year has been good, and our volumes on the Bergen Line in the first two months are 20 percent higher than last year.”
Functioning infrastructure
The topic of closures and disruptions is a delicate one in Norway. It is a major obstacle to the modal shift. In the absence of major infrastructural improvements, Norwegian rail freight companies would go out of business, OnRail’s CEO had claimed earlier. When things do work, results like the 60% modal share are attainable.
Part of the Oslo-Bergen success story also has to do with Norway’s geography. “We see that the Bergen Line, together with the Ofot Line, is the section that is most resistant to competition from road traffic”, commented OnRail CEO Henning Aandal. “This is due to the fact that the Bergen Line crosses the high mountains between east and west. This of course presents challenges for both road and rail, but in general the rail is more robust than the roads on this section.” Moreover, rail also provides faster transit than road transportation.