T-bane

The original T-bane connecting the eastern suburbs of Oslo to the centre of the city, was built in 1966. It consisted of four main lines, Grorudbanen, Furusetbanen, Østensjøbanen and Lambertseterbanen.

Later, the easterly lines were connected to the in part much older westerly lines: Holmenkollbanen, Kolsåsbanen, Røabanen and Sognsvansbanen, forming a city-wide metro system. The westerly lines are mostly not really subway, they have an absence of tunnels west of the city centre. Two of the westerly lines, Røabanen and Kolsåsbanen, stick into Bærum.

In July 2003 the westernmost portion of Kolsåsbanen was closed because of budget disagreements between the subway company, Oslo and Bærum. After more than a year of an unpopular replacement bus, the line was fully reopened in November 2004.

As of 2005 construction is taking place on a line which will connect the easterly and westerly lines on a route North of the city centre. In 2004 this caused a tunnel to collapse on Grorudbanen, the system's largest line. This forced a shutdown of this line until December, creating a havoc of overfilled replacement busses.

As of 2005 the lines are

• Line 1: Frognerseteren - Helsfyr (to Bergkrystallen during peak hours). This combines Holmenkollbanen with a part of the joint subway section East of downtown, Bergkrystallen is the end terminus of Lambertseterbanen.

• Line 2: Østerås - Ellingsrudåsen. This combines Røabanen with Furusetbanen.

• Line 3: Sognsvann - Mortensrud. This combines Sognsvannsbanen with Østensjøbanen.

• Line 4: Kolsås - Bergkrystallen. This combines Kolsåsbanen with Lambertseterbanen.

• Line 5: Storo - Vestli. This combines a part of the new northern circle with Grorudbanen.

• 146 cars of types T1-T4. These run only on a third rail system and can therefore not run on Holmenkollbanen or Kolsåsbanen. These cars are old, purchased in the 1960s, and have been recently been proving unreliable causing untimely stoppages in the subway system. They are due to be supplemented by newer cars in 2006. Trains run in trains of 2, 4 or 6 cars, occasionally with 3 or 5 cars, on Lines 2, 3 and 5.

• 49 cars of types T5-T8. These run cars can run both on a third rail and overhead wire system, and can therefore be used on the entire system. However they usually only run on trips on Line 4 (usually with 3-car trains) and on Line 1 (with 2-car trains).

• 12 cars of type T2000. These cars were delivered in 1993. They can run both on third rail and overhead wire. Unfortunately, these cars have not been particularily successful. They now run in 2-car trains on Line 1.
  

  External links

• T-bane map