The Ulriken Tunnel ( no, Ulrikstunnelen) is a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

on the

Bergen Line The Bergen Line or the Bergen Railway ( no, Bergensbanen or nn, Bergensbana), is a long scenic standard gauge railway line between Bergen and Hønefoss, Norway. The name is often applied for the entire route from Bergen via Drammen to Osl ...

between Bergen Station and Arna Station in

Bergen Municipality 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 o ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the cit ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

Original (old) tunnel

The existing long tunnel runs under the northern part of the mountain

Ulriken Ulriken (or the older, ''Ålreken'') is the highest of the Seven Mountains, Bergen, Seven Mountains ( no, De syv fjell) that surround the city of Bergen, Norway. It has a height of above sea level. Ulriken has an aerial tramway, Ulriksbanen, that ...

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

. Before the tunnel was opened in 1964, the Bergen Line ran via

Nesttun Nesttun is an urban settlement in the borough of Fana in the municipality of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. It is located approximately south of the city centre. It was the centre of the old Fana municipality, which merged with Bergen in 1972 ...

. This stretch is now a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

, the

Old Voss Line , logo = , logo_width = , logo_alt = , image_name =Type 18 locomotive n. 255 at Garnes.jpg , image_width = , image_alt = , caption = Type 18 locomotive no. 255 at ...

. The tunnel has single track and is electrified.

New tunnel

The

Norwegian National Rail Administration The Norwegian National Rail Administration ( no, Jernbaneverket) was a government agency responsible for owning, maintaining, operating and developing the Norwegian railway network, including the track, stations, classification yards, traffic ma ...

has plans for building a second tunnel through the mountain. Work on boring the tunnel began in January 2016 and it is the first in Norway to use a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can be designed to bore thro ...

. On August 29, 2017 infrastructure manager

Bane Nor Bane NOR SF, formerly Jernbaneinfrastrukturforetaket (English: ''Railway Infrastructure Company''), is the Norwegian government agency responsible for owning, maintaining, operating and developing the Norwegian railway network, including the tra ...

and contractors

Strabag STRABAG SE is an Austrian construction company based in Spittal an der Drau, Austria, with its headquarters in Vienna. It is the largest construction company in Austria and one of the largest construction companies in Europe. The company is act ...

and

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...

successfully completed the boring of the new tunnel. The next step is to blow 16 crossings from the new to the old tunnel, and to make the tunnel ready for use by railway traffic. Completion of the new double-track tunnel was expected in 2020, and it opened in December of that year.

References

Railway tunnels in Vestland Tunnels on the Bergen Line 1964 establishments in Norway Tunnels completed in 1964 {{Norway-tunnel-stub