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Oslo - Anything interesting?

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route101

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Got a free Saturday in Oslo. Is there anything interesting transportation wise?
 
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The Pelican

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The best thing is the unusual "Mountain railway metro", to Holmenkollen (the end stop is called Frogneseteren). Get on a metro train line 1 in the central core and ride up a former interurban tram line, since converted to a third rail metro line, which climbs up through some attractive mountains to a ski resort!

The Oslo tram system in general is fairly interesting. There used to be a line shared by tram and metro trains, but it stopped operating a few years ago.
 

GTM

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Do Viking Boats count?
Ooh speaking of boats, the battery electric ferries (which are a bus for fare purposes) are very zippy! Very enjoyable on a hot July day going in and out of the islands with summer houses on, but I don't know if they'll have the same schedule at this time of year.

And, of course, there is a public transport museum if it's too wet!
 

M28361M

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Not scenic, but also interesting, is the "Ringen" T-bane line 5, which starts in the outskirts of the city and then does a circuit around the city centre, calling at ten stations twice, before continuing to the terminus. For the fastest journey from end to end you actually need to change from line 5 to another line 5 train to miss out the second loop.

oslo-ringen-line.png
(map shows Line 5 in green, calling at Carl Berners plass and stations to Ullevål stadion, then Nydalen, Storo, Sinsen, then Carl Berners plass to Ullevål again before continuing out of the city centre)
 

Porty

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Do Viking Boats count?
Unfortunately the museum is closed for major refurb.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

The best thing is the unusual "Mountain railway metro", to Holmenkollen (the end stop is called Frogneseteren). Get on a metro train line 1 in the central core and ride up a former interurban tram line, since converted to a third rail metro line, which climbs up through some attractive mountains to a ski resort!

The Oslo tram system in general is fairly interesting. There used to be a line shared by tram and metro trains, but it stopped operating a few years ago.
If you're reasonably fit it's worth the uphill walk from the end of
The best thing is the unusual "Mountain railway metro", to Holmenkollen (the end stop is called Frogneseteren). Get on a metro train line 1 in the central core and ride up a former interurban tram line, since converted to a third rail metro line, which climbs up through some attractive mountains to a ski resort!

The Oslo tram system in general is fairly interesting. There used to be a line shared by tram and metro trains, but it stopped operating a few years ago.
You need to be reasonably fit as it's quite an uphill walk but if you get off at Holmenkollen you can walk to the ski jump and ski museum. It's pretty impressive. Admission is included in an Oslo card (which also includes all public transport including the boat over to Museum Island) and lots of other museums. The new National Gallery on the waterfront is very good. For free, I'd go on the roof of the Opera House and to Vigeland Park.
 
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The Pelican

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Not scenic, but also interesting, is the "Ringen" T-bane line 5, which starts in the outskirts of the city and then does a circuit around the city centre, calling at ten stations twice, before continuing to the terminus. For the fastest journey from end to end you actually need to change from line 5 to another line 5 train to miss out the second loop.

View attachment 201162
(map shows Line 5 in green, calling at Carl Berners plass and stations to Ullevål stadion, then Nydalen, Storo, Sinsen, then Carl Berners plass to Ullevål again before continuing out of the city centre)
Interesting to imagine the District or Metropolitan lines doing this- Wimbledon/Richmond/ Ealing Broadway or Hammersmith/Met Line destinations towards Barking/Upminster via a whole loop of the circle line!
 

Gloster

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If you want a heavy-rail trip try Spikkestad. You can walk past the station and soon are out on the old trackbed, which was the mainline to Skien and Stavanger until 1973.
 

jupiter

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Take a quick round trip on one of the ferries to the islands and back. Sorted.
 

AndrewE

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I don't know how long it takes, but my son went with his family to a toboggan-hire place by a metro station, got back on the train with the toboggans to the start of a free public run and then sledged back down to the hire station. They had a great time, but were dressed for skiing!
 

Mike395

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I don't know how long it takes, but my son went with his family to a toboggan-hire place by a metro station, got back on the train with the toboggans to the start of a free public run and then sledged back down to the hire station. They had a great time, but were dressed for skiing!
This starts at Frogneseteren - great fun and highly recommended (although check snow levels; the run usually closes for the season in March/April)
 

Ian99

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Not scenic, but also interesting, is the "Ringen" T-bane line 5, which starts in the outskirts of the city and then does a circuit around the city centre, calling at ten stations twice, before continuing to the terminus. For the fastest journey from end to end you actually need to change from line 5 to another line 5 train to miss out the second loop.

View attachment 201162
(map shows Line 5 in green, calling at Carl Berners plass and stations to Ullevål stadion, then Nydalen, Storo, Sinsen, then Carl Berners plass to Ullevål again before continuing out of the city centre)
Does anyone have any thoughts on the thinking behind such a layout?
 

AndrewE

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Does anyone have any thoughts on the thinking behind such a layout?
without it it looks as though there would be no service between Carl Berners plass (3 o-clock) and the station at 1 o-clock, and there is little point going back out to terminate at the station you started from?
 

Gloster

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I am not going to search through thirty years’ worth of the Norwegian Railway Club’s journal På Sporet, but I do remember the Ringline was a long-planned and much desired tidying up of the network. There was considerable satisfaction when it was completed.
 

The Pelican

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Does anyone have any thoughts on the thinking behind such a layout?
When TfL stopped running London's Circle line as a continuous circle, they said it was because it was harder to make up time on a service with no reversals, because shortening reversal time at stations is an easy way to recover time. I presume this might be similar- the Oslo metro seems to send an incredible number of branches through a single core, so anything that can improve reliability is probably particularly useful. Lots of modern new build circle lines (Grand Paris Express Line 15, Singapore's when completed, Tokyo's O-Edo line) operate as a linear line which has one interchange with itself.
 

route101

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This starts at Frogneseteren - great fun and highly recommended (although check snow levels; the run usually closes for the season in March/April)
I was up there a few days ago, still snow up there and people with skis.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

The ringen did confuse me at first as I thought it was a ring around the City Centre. Its just the bottom part that runs through the City Centre.

I did manage to get out on the ferries and stop at a few of the Islands, service ran every 30 mins and included with zone 1 day ticket.

The only ticket inspection I encountered was on the VY train out to the airport.

Took a few tram lines and some lines change number at the terminus and run back on a different route.
 
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