A new inquiry conducted by The Future in Our Hands (Framtiden I våre hender/FIVH) shows Norwegian trains have an average speed of 75 km/h.

Into the sidings

Norway has the slowest speeds in Western Europe when it comes to direct trains, coming 20^th out of 27 countries, behind Russia, Hungary, and Poland. France comes top with 227 km/h, whilst trains in Turkey limp along at the bottom of the rankings at an average speed of 29 km/h.

Changing trains is worse. Whilst France maintains first position with the same superfast average speed, trains in Norway slow to 53 km/h, just two places above super-slow Albania at 30 km/h.

“The train revolution in the rest of Europe hasn’t arrived in Norway yet. We haven’t built a new and coherent rail network for almost 100 years,” says Arild Hermstad, head of FIVH.

He believes politicians will have to dare to make drastic decisions if Norway is to keep its climate commitments.

“We can’t just patch up old routes and focus on essential maintenance like we have done in recent years, but focus on high-speed rail.”

The only new investments recently have been the Airport Express Train (Flytoget) and a few kilometres of track here and there.

Might be getting there

The existing rail network is still in a dreadful state of disrepair, and NSB faces a potentially huge fine for a winter of discontent.

Just over two weeks ago, Labour (Ap) Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg promised more money to the railways, saying he found the state of the railways “unacceptable”.

He wishes to develop intercity routes further, as well as build a high-speed rail network to the same standard as the Flytog with speeds of up to 250 km/h. There’s also growing support for high-speed trains.

But improving the current rail network is more than just about money, according to Jon Haugland – the Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals’ (Tekna) union representative for workers in the National Rail Administration (Jernbaneverket).

“One of the main problems is we have a capacity crisis. We’re pleased politicians allocate money, but it’s of little help if we don’t have people to do the work. We have talented people, but we need many more with the right skills if we are to lift the Norwegian railway up to the level we would like,” he tells Aftenposten.

All change?

Arild Hermstad believes international expertise is the answer to Norway’s ailing railway network.

“Even if we gave used a tremendous amount on maintenance, travel times would only decrease by just 10 percent. We’re then on par with Poland. To improve further, we’ll have to do something about the long-distance routes, the miles of track on the most important stretches, and build completely new ones,” he says.

FIVH’s table: