FLAM RAILWAY

 

Tuesday 13^th July 2010

The Flam Railway is pushed as a major Norwegian tourist attraction. Any tour programme seems to include it in the itinerary. It is incorporated in the Norway In A Nutshell tour programme.

So what makes it special? Well really it is the steepness of the track as it goes down hill from over 800 metres to sea level. In the 20 kilometres there are plenty of tunnels and bridges to travel though and over. The main attractions are that it links into the Oslo to Bergen train route and you have the opportunity to sail on the world's longest fjord.

So it has the potential to be pretty impressive but does it meet expectations?

I set out on the 10:25 am train from Bergen to Myrdal in a half empty carriage. The route we followed was the same one I had come into Bergen on but this time the timing was different as was the sunlight. Well sunlight didn't really break through that much as it was a dull grey day with low cloud around the mountain tops.

When we reached Myrdal about three hours later, there was low cloud around everywhere and some even swirled around the station platform. The timing of the downward train to Flam is such that my train just misses one departure and there is about an hour to wait before the next trip down. There didn't seem to be that many waiting but during the hour a couple more train stopped and crowds tumbled out including several tour groups.

Finally the train from Flam came up to our level and pulled into the station. Along the station were painted markers indicating where each carriage door would be. I did not stand near the tour groups and anyhow I had read the notice in the station about there being no reserved or allocated seating just pick one and enjoy the trip.

However, the reality was that carriages had reserved notices on their doors for groups coming up and immediately going back down again. Still I went into one of these carriages as did others. Of course these happy groupies had taken all the good seats and I had to find one that was left. At least it was a window seat. Unfortunately my window was to prove to provide good views of the rock face but not the of the valley which could be seen from the opposite side with all the taken seats.

I was rather annoyed about this as it meant that the tour groupies had had the good view up and down.

We did stop at one spectacular water fall and were able to get out onto a viewing platform. Up on the rocks a couple of dancers ( who may have actually been woman or else just guys in drag) danced to some music piped over a PA system on the rocks. I have no idea what the significance was and it was not explained on the train. If it was then it didn't come across clearly enough in the carriage I was in. As a result it seemed rather pointless although the falls were worth looking at.

Other than that the trip was really a bit of a let down and did not meet the expectations I had for it.

From time to time I did manage to see a view across the carriage but it was through other passengers' heads. I do not think that it was worth the cost.

Yes it is true that we went through tunnels were the trained looped around inside, yes there were bridges and narrow track space against the rock walls. And yes we did see some spectacular water falls and yes again we did follow a river down to the fjord.

But – I had already done all of this coming and returning on the Andalsnes rail trip. And the train had better viewing opportunities. So the reality was that the Flam Railway was not significantly better, more exciting or different to the Andalsnes trip. So my recommendation will be for people to do the Andalsnes trip. There is also a bit more to see in the town at the bottom than in Flam

In Flam there were two cruise boats in port – well one was moored with a lighter service. The main reason for coming was to sail up the fjord and do the rail trip. In fact my impression was that the railway is there to provide an attraction for cruise boat companies. They certainly dominated the service on the day I was there.

Rather than return up the railway as was my original plan because I could return to Bergen on my EuroRail pass, I decided to pay extra and take the express ferry service instead.

The ferry would take over five hours to get back to Bergen but its arrival time was not much later than when I would have got back on the train.

So the ferry service was mostly along the Sognefjord and then out along the coast, travelling between the low lying skerries which dot the coastal waters to Bergen.

Flam is at the head of a small branch fjord, the Aurlandfjord which quite quickly joins into the Sognefjord. This is the world's longest fjord or so I was told, but I have been reading and the suggestion is that it is the longest in Norway and the second longest in the world. It runs for 205 kms and is flanked for most of its distance by tall mountains with their step sides dropping straight down into the sea. They can drop 1000 metres of more.

I read that the fjord reaches a maximum depth of 1,308 m below sea level and that the greatest depths are found some way inland. So I guess that means some mountain cliff faces can be dropping over 2000 metres. Near its mouth, the bottom rises abruptly to about 100 m below sea level. This is still more than enough for any sized cruise ship to entre. The average width of the main branch of the Sognefjord is about 4.5 km.

Some of the mountain tops were cloud or mist covered and with the dull lighting, this gave the fjord quite a degree of mystery. There was quite a blue-grey colour about the landscape as well.

There were tributorary fjords joining up as we traveled along, some having quite wide entrances.

Spaced along the fjord were settlements of various sizes, but mostly small. Some were built on the slightest bits of flat land along the water's edge or where a small valley came down. At some of these places the ferry pulled in and dropped off or collected passengers. Mostly the number was small although at one settlement around 25 to 30 were waiting to board.

There were other ferry boats sailing around but these could all take on vehicles. Our ferry was passengers only.

So it was very interesting watching the cliffs and waterfalls pass by and each settlement had its own character as well. I did wonder what people did who actually lived her. What was the economic basis for being there? Some settlements had a road in and or out, so I assume that there was some road connection with areas away from the fjord.

So the pattern of sailing and calling in continued out into the skerries area. As we got closer to Bergen we past in the distance a big oil refinery based on the North Sea field, In fact at this point there was pretty straight forward sailing out into the North Sea.

Also as we got closer to Berg the population became denser with more housing spread along the coast line. In fact we sailed under three bridges of various sizes before we reached Bergen. Some of the passages we sailed along were quite narrow and the ferry slowed down.

Many of the settlements were very attractive and I sort of envied people living there. I thought that it would be an interesting experience to have the chance to live along the coast, often in tiny coves and perhaps the only home there. There were also some very attractive and large homes sighted, often with great views, especially when they were built higher up the hillside. On the other hand, looking at paintings of old Norway, some of these homes could well be centuries old, unchanged for decades.

Finally we sailed into the Bergen harbour and birthed across the water from the line of wooden houses. It was 8:45 pm. The ferry home was a good decision as there was always a space to take a photo of the view from somewhere on deck. I would happily do the ferry again, but I would be cautious about repeating the rail journey.