Norway Norwegian Air Oslo train travel

Norway Environmentally Friendly Train Travel

Yesterday, I received suggestions on train travel as a better alternative to air travel between Oslo and Bergen, Norway. This led me to spend time on Norway’s train travel website. Norway environmentally-friendly train travel is promoted on the nsb.no Norway rail website.  You can also find fine images of Norway landscapes on NSB Facebook, even if you do not read Norwegian.

Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) to Bergen (BGO) round trip on Norwegian Air has been pricing as low as $80. One checked bag adds another $25. SAS has also had prices near that range. 50 minute flight compared to seven hours on the train.

Oslo S-Bergen train price
Oslo Center to Bergen Center 249 NOK ($40 USD) to 399 NOK ($64) on mini-pris nonrefundable tickets. Regular price is 809 NOK ($130 USD).

The morning train leaves Oslo at 8:05am and takes nearly seven hours to reach Bergen in the afternoon. 12:01 noon departure looks more pleasing to me. All-night on a train with 11:23pm to 6:01am reminds me of some great train travel memories in places like Italy and Canada, but not an experience I want to revisit to save $25 on train fare.

Oslo city center train station to Bergen center by train is as low as 249 NOK ($39.95 USD) with mini-pris advance purchase tickets. The tickets change price based on availability on different dates and times. 249 NOK is the low mini-pris and some departure times rise up to 399 NOK ($64 USD). Regular flexible train ticket prices are 809 NOK ($130 USD).

Other dates still have 249 NOK fares for daytime travel.

Norway train travel website nsb.no is available in Norwegian and English language.

Free Wifi is standard for passengers on NSB trains.

Norway Environmentally Friendly Train Travel

The purpose of this post is to point out the sidebar message underneath the Proceed reservation button for a Norway NSB train ticket reservation.

Oslo S-Bergen train price
Oslo to Bergen train travel is 5.5 times more environmentally friendly than air travel.

NSB in your face about train travel being more environmentally friendly than airplane travel.

Norway is a large country. Oslo to Bergen is 200 miles. Oslo to Tromso is 700 miles to the largest Arctic region city. Trains can only take you from Oslo as far north as 500 miles to Bodo, just above the Arctic Circle. I did not see any 249 NOK mini-pris. The 500 mile trip to Bodo takes 17 hours 13 minutes to 18hr. 41 min. The ticket price is as low as 349 NOK fare ($56 USD). Flights to Bodo are currently as low as $96.

Oslo-Bodo train price
Oslo to Bodo train travel is only 1.8 times more environmentally friendly than air travel.

The environmentally friendly advantages of train travel diminish compared to air travel with a long distance 500-mile train trip.

*****

Ric Garrido of Monterey, California is writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler.

Loyalty Traveler shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. Check out current hotel loyalty program offers across all the major chains in Loyalty Traveler’s monthly hotel promotions guide.

Follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

3 Comments

  • Anders August 9, 2014

    nordlandsbanen, the stretch from Trondheim to Bodø is not electrified so it’s using diesel trains. That accounts for quite a bit of rhe difference.

  • Ric Garrido August 10, 2014

    @Anders – thanks for the clarification. I was tempted to research the reason for the lower environmental friendliness of that train route. Your comment saved me research time that I put to good use in Norway trip planning yesterday.

  • walterj August 10, 2014

    If you taking a train to Bergen, why not do the famous Norway in a nutshell, where the trains, buses and boats are all coordianated to tour the fjords in a time-efficient manner and then carry on to Bergen?
    http://www.norwaynutshell.com/en/explore-the-fjords/

Comments are closed.

BoardingArea