The Bergen trolleybus system serves the city of

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. It is the only

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

system still in operation in Norway and one of two trolleybus systems in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

. It opened on February 24, 1950,Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia''. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. . as the

Bergen Tramway Bergen Tramway (''Trikken i Bergen'') was a tram in Bergen, Norway. It was in operation from 1897 to 1965. The first three lines were opened on 29 June 1897. Starting in 1950, tramway lines were gradually replaced with bus and Trolleybuses in Be ...

was gradually closed and some of the tram lines were converted to trolleybus. It was built and operated by Bergen Sporvei, and is now operated by its successor,

Tide Buss Tide ASA is a public transport company in Vestland, Norway which resulted from the merger of Gaia Trafikk and Hardanger Sunnhordlandske Dampskipsselskap (HSD). The company provides the public transit network in the city of Bergen, and most of t ...

. As of 2007, it had six trolleybuses and two

dual-mode bus A dual-mode bus is a bus that can run independently on power from two different sources, typically electricity from overhead lines like a trolleybus or from batteries like a hybrid bus, alternated with conventional fossil fuel (generally diesel ...

es.

History

The first trolleybus network in Norway, in

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken (county), Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and village ...

, opened in 1909. Planning for a trolleybus system began in

in 1928, and in 1937 Bergen Sporvei, the company operating Bergen's tramway, began studying trolleybus systems around Europe. On July 7, 1940 the city council decided to build two trolleybus lines: Line 5, Mulen - city centre -

Møhlenpris Møhlenpris (formerly Vestre Sydnes) is a neighbourhood in the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. It is next to the Puddefjorden in the borough of Bergenhus. The neighbourhood is named after Jørgen Thor Møhlen, who was a shipowner, slav ...

, and line 7,

Nordnes Nordnes is a peninsula and neighbourhood in the city centre of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. Vågen, Bergen, Vågen, Byfjorden (Hordaland), Byfjorden, and Puddefjorden surround the peninsula. The Akvariet i Bergen, Bergen Aquarium is locat ...

- city centre - Fjøsangerveien. In 1942 Bergen Sporvei started converting some of its

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

buses to trolleybuses, but in 1944 the German occupation forces took the completed bus and moved it to

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, and the company stopped rebuilding. The fuel shortage during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

made trolleybuses extremely popular, since Norway had an abundance of cheap

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

. After the war the construction of the 4.1-km line 5 started, and in 1950 it replaced tram line 3. By that time, five gasoline buses had been converted, giving a

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system measured in space or time. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise defi ...

of 10 minutes. A year later, three more buses were bought from

Strømmens Værksted Strømmens Værksted A/S was an industrial company based in Skedsmo, Norway, specialising in the production of rolling stock. Founded in 1873, it remains as a part of Bombardier Transportation. The plant is located just off Hovedbanen west of ...

and the headway was reduced to 7.5 minutes. The line was popular, and traffic increased. In 1954 the conversion of tram line 2 to trolleybus started, and in 1957 the 6.5-km line 2 opened with 18 new buses. The ridership reached its peak in 1959 with more than ten million passengers per year on the two routes. In 1960 the sale of cars in Norway was

deregulated Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

, resulting in fewer

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

riders. Through the 1970s Bergen Sporvei tried to end trolleybus operation, but the city council would not allow that. However, in 1995 there was major road works resulting in the closure of line 5. As of 2007 line 5 was still closed, leaving line 2 the only trolleybus line in Norway. Plans related to the new

Bergen Light Rail Bergen Light Rail ( no, Bybanen) is a light rail system in Bergen, Norway. The first stage of the project was a twenty-station stretch between the city center and Lagunen Storsenter, where the first 15 stations comprising a stretch opened in ...

system involve expanding the trolleybus line from Møhlenpris to Oasen and from Mulen to Paradis. In 2019, ten trolleybusses were ordered for NOK 80 million, each with 55 kWh battery. The line is to be extended to

Laksevåg Laksevåg is a borough of the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. The borough is located in the western part of the municipality. Historically, the area was called ''Laxevaag'', and it was a separate municipality until 1972 when it was m ...

References

External links

{{Urban public transport in Norway Bus transport in Vestland Transport in Bergen