The Furuset Line () is a long line on the
Oslo Metro
The Oslo Metro ( no, Oslo T-bane or or simply ) is the rapid transit system of Oslo, Norway, operated by Sporveien T-banen on contract from the transit authority Ruter. The network consists of five lines that all run through the city centre, w ...
between
Hellerud and
Ellingsrudåsen in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
,
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 the ...
. Running mostly underground, it passes through the southern part of
Groruddalen
The Grorud Valley ( no, Groruddalen)
is a valley and urban area
or suburb
in the northeastern part of Oslo, the capital of Norway. Four of Oslo's boroughs lie within the Grorud Valley; Bjerke to the west, Alna to the south, Grorud to the north ...
, serving neighborhoods in the boroughs of
Alna
Alna is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. It is named after the River Alna, which flows through it.
The borough consists of the following neighborhoods:
* Alnabru
* Ellingsrud
* Furuset
* Haugerud
* Hellerud
* Lindeberg
* Trosterud
* Tve ...
and
Furuset. The line is served by Line 2 of the metro with four or eight trains per hour. The line is owned by
Kollektivtransportproduksjon
Sporveien Oslo AS is a municipally owned public transport operator in Oslo, Norway. It operates the trackage and maintains the stock of the Oslo Metro and Oslo Tramway, as well as owning eight operating subsidiaries. In 2005, its 2,365 employees ...
and operated by
Oslo T-banedrift
Sporveien T-banen AS is a limited company that is responsible for operating Oslo Metro ( no, Oslo T-bane), the rapid transit in Oslo, Norway. The company is owned by Sporveien, which is owned by the city council. Sporveien operates on a contract w ...
on contract with
Ruter
Ruter AS is the public transport authority for Oslo and Akershus counties in Norway. Formally a limited company – 60% of its shares are owned by the Oslo county municipality and 40% by that of Akershus – it is responsible for the administra ...
using
MX3000
MX3000 is an electric train used on Oslo Metro in Oslo, Norway. The multiple units are produced by Siemens Mobility, who started serial delivery in 2007. Seventy-eight three-car units were ordered by Sporveien, and five by Akershus County Mun ...
trains.
The section from Hellerud via
Tveita
Tveita is a neighborhood in the borough of Alna in Oslo, Norway.
The area was built up between 1963 and 1967. It is served by the station Tveita on the Oslo Metro
The Oslo Metro ( no, Oslo T-bane or or simply ) is the rapid transit system of ...
to
Haugerud opened in 1970. The line was extended to
Trosterud in 1974, to
Lindeberg and
Furuset in 1978, and to Ellingsrudåsen in 1981. There are plans to extend the line further east through
Lørenskog
is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. A suburb of Oslo, it is part of the Oslo urban area and the traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lørenskog. Lørenskog was separ ...
to
Akershus University Hospital
Akershus University Hospital ( no, Akershus universitetssykehus, abbreviated Ahus) is a Norwegian public university hospital in the Greater Oslo Region. It is located in the Lørenskog municipality in the region of Viken, northeast of the Norwegian ...
, and to build a branch from Furuset to the
Grorud Line.
Route
![2 Østerås - 2012-05-27 at 14-18-49](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/2_%C3%98ster%C3%A5s_-_2012-05-27_at_14-18-49.jpg)
The Furuset Line branches from the Østensjø Line after Hellerud, and runs north-east through the southern part of Groruddalen, in the boroughs of
Alna
Alna is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. It is named after the River Alna, which flows through it.
The borough consists of the following neighborhoods:
* Alnabru
* Ellingsrud
* Furuset
* Haugerud
* Hellerud
* Lindeberg
* Trosterud
* Tve ...
and
Furuset, which mostly have dense residential housing. Most of the line is underground, with only two stations being on ground level. The line is the fastest of the metro, and most of the line allows speeds of .
The Furuset Line branches off from the Østensjø Line after Hellerud Station. The outbound line runs in a culvert under the tracks of the Østensjø Line before joining up with the inbound track. The line continues along the southern side of Tvetenveien and then passes into a tunnel through which it runs under named road and reaches
Tveita Station. After crossing under
Ring 3 the line exits the tunnel and runs along the western side of Tvetenveien to
Haugerud Station. It continues along Tvetenveien, which is crosses over just before it reaches
Trosterud Station. Immediately afterwards the line enters a tunnel, in which
Lindeberg Station is situated. The line exits the tunnel for less than before entering a new tunnel, in which it remains. In this tunnel are the stations
Furuset and
Ellingsrudåsen.
Service
![Linje 2 mellom Lindeberg og Furuset - 2014-04-07 at 04-32-40](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Linje_2_mellom_Lindeberg_og_Furuset_-_2014-04-07_at_04-32-40.jpg)
The Furuset Line is served by line 2 of the metro. This line has a base service of four trains per hour, but is doubled to eight trains per hour on weekdays between 7 and 19 and on Saturdays between 9 and 19. The line runs onwards along the
Østensjø Line and then through the
Common Tunnel
The Common Tunnel ( no, Fellestunnelen), sometimes called the Common Line (), is a long tunnel of the Oslo Metro which runs through the city center of Oslo, Norway. The name derives from the fact that all five lines of the metro use the tunnel, ...
through the city center. West of the city, Line 2 runs on the
Røa Line
The Røa Line ( no, Røabanen) is a rapid transit line of the Oslo Metro, Norway, which runs from Majorstuen in Oslo to Østerås in Bærum. It serves neighborhoods such as Smestad, Hovseter, Huseby and Røa in northwestern Oslo, and Grini, ...
.
Operations are carried out by
Sporveien T-banen
Sporveien T-banen AS is a limited company that is responsible for operating Oslo Metro ( no, Oslo T-bane), the rapid transit in Oslo, Norway. The company is owned by Sporveien, which is owned by the city council. Sporveien operates on a contract w ...
on contract with Ruter, the public transport authority in Oslo and
Akershus.
The infrastructure itself is owned by
Sporveien
Sporveien Oslo AS is a municipally owned public transport operator in Oslo, Norway. It operates the trackage and maintains the stock of the Oslo Metro and Oslo Tramway, as well as owning eight operating subsidiaries. In 2005, its 2,365 employees ...
, a municipal company. Service is provided using
MX3000
MX3000 is an electric train used on Oslo Metro in Oslo, Norway. The multiple units are produced by Siemens Mobility, who started serial delivery in 2007. Seventy-eight three-car units were ordered by Sporveien, and five by Akershus County Mun ...
three- and six-car trains.
In 2002 the stations along the line had an average weekday 10,261 boarding passengers. Travel time from Ellingsrudåsen to Hellerud is 11 minutes, and from Ellingsrudåsen to
Stortinget in the city center is 23 minutes.
History
![Furusetbanen 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Furusetbanen_4.jpg)
In 1948, the municipalities of Oslo and
Aker were merged, and the new municipality started planning an expansion of the suburbs, among other places in Groruddalen.
On 15 September 1949, the Planning Office For the Suburban and Underground Lines was established as a division within the new municipality. The first specific plans were launched in March 1954, and consisted of four branches, including one on the south side of Groruddalen, which would be built to Furuset. The plans originally consisted of terminus in the city center at
Grønlands torg, with a possible extension to Nationaltheatret, where the line would intersect with
Holmenkolbanen
A/S Holmenkolbanen was a company that owned and operated part of the Oslo Tramway and Oslo Metro in Norway from 1898 until 1975 when services were taken over by the majority owner Oslo Sporveier. Holmenkolbanen opened the Holmenkoll Line in 1898, ...
's light rails serving Oslo West. However, it was quickly decided that the terminus would be Jernbanetorget, which served the
Oslo East Station
Oslo Central Station ( no, Oslo sentralstasjon, abbreviated ) is the main railway station in Oslo, and the largest railway station within the entire Norwegian railway system. It connects with Jernbanetorget station. It's the terminus of Dramm ...
.
Construction of the Furuset Line, from Hellerud to Tveita, started in the mid-1950s. Landwork and electrical equipment was contracted to developers, while the
trackage
A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...
was done by the Planning Office. The original plans called for the use of 600 to 650
volt
The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827).
Defin ...
(V)
direct current
Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or eve ...
(DC) fed via a
pantograph
A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...
, to allow comparability with the western light rail. This was later changed to 750 V DC via a
third rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...
.
This was chosen to allow a higher diameter, and thus a higher
ampere, and easier maintenance. The system also took into use
cab signaling
Cab signaling is a railway safety system that communicates track status and condition information to the cab, crew compartment or driver's compartment of a locomotive, railcar or multiple unit. The information is continually updated giving an e ...
and
moving block
In railway signalling, a moving block is a signalling block system where the blocks are defined in real time by computers as safe zones around each train. This requires both knowledge of the exact location and speed of all trains at any given ti ...
s, which were cutting edge technology at the time, and had only been implemented on the
Stockholm Metro in Europe by then. While the permitted
headway on the common sections was set to 90 seconds, it was set to 120 seconds on the Grorud Line.
The original plans called for a depot on each of the lines, including the Grorud Line, but this was later changed to a central depot at
Ryen.
![Furusetbanen 6](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Furusetbanen_6.jpg)
The first part of the line, from Hellerud to Haugerud, was opened on 18 November 1970, four years after the first part of the metro. The line was further extended to Trosterud on 15 December 1974, to Furuset on 19 February 1978, and finally to Ellingsrudåsen on 8 November 1981.
The line took into use
T1000 electric multiple units which could be up to six cars long.
The cost of the Furuset ended at 48 million
Norwegian krone.
Originally the service terminated at Jernbanetorget in the city center. On 9 January 1977, the city center service was extended to Sentrum. However, this station was closed from 20 March 1983 to 7 March 1987, and reopened as Stortinget.
From 20 November 1995, the trains on the Grorud Line continued all the way through the Common Tunnel to and continued along the Røa Line. In June 2010, the headway on the line was reduced from 15 to 7.5 minutes, with half the departures terminating at Stortinget. The reason was that the Røa Line was having its power supply upgraded, and Line 2 would only be able to run with three-car trains. From 6 November 2010, Line 1's eastern service was moved from the Lambertseter Line to the Furuset Line, thus giving eight services per hour along the latter. This was possible because of the upgrade of the Holmenkollen Line to metro standard. The Line 1 services replaced the extra services on Line 2.
Future
![Haugerud t-bane 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Haugerud_t-bane_01.jpg)
The Furuset Line has been proposed extended towards
Lørenskog
is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. A suburb of Oslo, it is part of the Oslo urban area and the traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lørenskog. Lørenskog was separ ...
and Akershus University Hospital (Ahus), a distance of . It could potentially also be extended further to
Lillestrøm
Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger be ...
, where it would terminate at
Lillestrøm Station
Lillestrøm Station ( no, Lillestrøm stasjon) is a railway station serving the town of Lillestrøm in Skedsmo, Norway. Located on the Gardermoen Line and the Trunk Line as well as being the western terminus of the Kongsvinger Line, it is the ma ...
, the main
transport hub
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...
for
Nedre Romerike Nedre Romerike is the lower (southern) part of the Romerike traditional district in Akershus, Norway. It consists of the municipalities Fet, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen, Skedsmo, Sørum and Aurskog-Høland. It make up the area served by N ...
. The cost of the first extension is estimated at NOK 2.5 billion, and NOK 1.9 billion for the latter. Financing for the extension from Ellingsrudåsen to Ahus has been secured in
Oslo Package 3
Oslo Package 3 is a political agreement and plan for investments of in Oslo and Akershus, Norway. It involves financing for road and public transport infrastructure, as well as operating subsidies to public transport in the period 2008–27. It wi ...
. Travel time from Ellingsrudåsen to Ahus would be six minutes, and four minutes from Ahus to Lillestrøm.
The rationale for the extension is the newly constructed hospital, which will have 5,000 workers and serve as the local hospital for Groruddalen. In addition, the
Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups ...
and
Norway Post are both establishing workplaces for a combined 3,300 people in the areas of
Visperud and around
Lørenskog Station
Lørenskog is a railway station on the Trunk Line in Lørenskog, Norway. The station itself lies just outside Oslo's city limit, but when it comes to fares, it is included in the price paid for an Oslo-ticket. It is served by the Oslo Commuter Rai ...
. Visperud has also been proposed as a location for a
park and ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...
for between 500 and 2,000 cars, as it is located on
National Road 159 and
European Route E6.
Akershus County Municipality has proposed building stations at Visperud,
Lørenskog sentrum, Ahus and Lillestrøm. In addition, depending on the choice of route, there could be a station at
Kurland. Almost all the line from Ellingsrudåsen to Lillestrøm would run in a tunnel, including all the stations. The exception is about section midway between Lørenskog sentrum and Ahus, and the last towards Lillestrøm, including a bridge over
Nitelva
Nitelva is a river that rises at Grua and flows to Harestuvatnet in the southern part of Lunner municipality in Oppland. The river then flows southwards and ends at Øyeren. The river has at this point run for around and has dropped around . ...
, although the station in Lillestrøm would be indoors. An alternative is to extend the Furuset Line to Visperud, and then build a light rail from
Lørenskog Station
Lørenskog is a railway station on the Trunk Line in Lørenskog, Norway. The station itself lies just outside Oslo's city limit, but when it comes to fares, it is included in the price paid for an Oslo-ticket. It is served by the Oslo Commuter Rai ...
via Visperud to Ahus.
![Lindeberg t-bane 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Lindeberg_t-bane_02.jpg)
Another alternative is to extend the line to Visperud, Lørenskog Station and then to
Stovner Station of the Grorud Line of the metro. Part of the rationale is to serve the new suburb of
Skårerødgården, which is planned with 1,200 new houses.
It would also allow transfer between the metro and the
Oslo Commuter Rail
Oslo Commuter Rail ( no, Lokaltog Østlandet) is a commuter rail centered in Oslo, Norway, connecting the capital to six counties in Eastern Norway. The system is operated by Vy (formerly NSB) and its subsidiary Vy Gjøvikbanen, using Class 69 ...
. The line would run entirely underground. At Lørenskog Station, the metro station is proposed placed under the railway station. The route would possibly have a station serving Øvre Stovner, between Lørenskog Station and Stovner.
Travel time from Ellingsrudåsen to Lørenskog Station would be three minutes, with another three minutes from Lørenskog Station to Stovner.
The cost of building the from Ellingsrudåsen to Stovner is estimated at NOK 2.4 billion. The current plans, which have not been passed recommend construction in three phases: first from Ellingsrudåsen to Ahus, second from Visperud to Stovner, and third from Ahus to Lillestrøm.
Independent of the northern extension, is a branch from the Furuset Line to a point on the Grorud Line. The plan is to build a new line from
Økern on the Grorud Line via
Breivoll, where there would be an interchange with the Oslo Commuter Rail on the Trunk Line, to Trosterud. Such a cross connection will allow both interconnection between the lower levels of the Grorud Line and the Furuset Line, and at the same time give access from the Furuset Line to the
Ring Line, which serves
Nordre Aker
Nordre Aker (Northern Aker) is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway.
History
This area became part of the city of Oslo in 1948. Before that it was a part of Aker municipality in the former Akershus county.
Demographics and housing
With a popula ...
. In addition to this, the plans call for a parallel line to the Furuset Line to run through the lower parts of Grurudalen, between the Furuset Line and the Trunk Line. This line could either connect to the Furuset Line at Furuset, or run across the valley, via
Grorud Station
Grorud Station ( no, Grorud stasjon) is a railway station on the Trunk Line located in the Grorud borough of Oslo, Norway. Situated from Oslo Central Station, it consists of three tracks with a side platforms and an island platform.
Grorud is ...
on the Trunk Line, and connect to the Grorud Line at
Rommen.
References
Bibliography
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{{Railways in Norway
Oslo Metro lines
Railway lines opened in 1970
1970 establishments in Norway