Impossible, says Bane Nor. V says no problem.

Ban Nor says it is not possible to test Folopan with a normal number of departures. We have enough trains, says Vai.

– Not possible.

When Follobanen had to close nine days after opening, Bane Nor’s development director said the 36.8 billion extension was not tested with normal train load before opening.

Pan Nor believes it is not possible to test the area with the same train traffic in full operation. Executive director Stine Antrum said in an interview with Aftenposten.

Aftenposten asked why this is not possible.

Bane won’t answer that.

We have also asked how valuable such tests of reduced capacity really are. That is, if they want to find bugs when they’re not testing in normal traffic.

Bane won’t answer that either.

Regarding these and many other questions, Ban Nor’s communications consultant Hilde Marie Bratton writes in an email, Aftenposten asks that “it is right to ask relevant and good questions.”

They are yet to respond because that would “lead to speculation about the reasons”.

Train available

To confirm Ban Nor’s report on the test run, Aftenposten checked with Vy. Ban Nor hires to run trains for test runs.

Vy says it’s “impossible” for Bane.

– There’s no order we can’t deliver, says Age-Christopher Lundeby, Communications Manager at Wie.

In normal operation, the Folopan line has a maximum of six departures per hour in each direction.

No test runs were made with more than one departure per hour. This is shown in documents to which Aftenposten was given access.

The test run started 11 days before the opening

Lundeby says providing enough trains to test with similar traffic to the Vy timetable is unproblematic. According to the communications manager, you need to plan ahead. He thinks they can deliver such an order with a two-week deadline.

A two-month deadline would have been unproblematic.

The contract for the test drive was dated two months before the actual operation. The first test run was done on November 30, 11 days before the opening of the track.

Not sure why Ban Nor didn’t order more trains for the test run. Lundeby says it costs money to order a test drive, but won’t speculate as to why a normal function test wasn’t ordered.

This new information was provided by Bane Nor. They have not yet responded to Aftenposten’s inquiry.

Transport Minister

To NRK on Monday morning, Transport Minister Jan-Iver Nygaard (Ap) reiterated Ban Nor’s argument.

– It is not possible to achieve full scale testing in Norway. That means you have to get trains from other operations to do that,” the minister said.

He further noted that whether a test with normal activity should be conducted is a “theoretical consideration”. This is exactly the opposite of what Vy Aftenposten is told. So they are responsible for testing the route.

Optenposten has asked the transport minister to explain the basis on which he made his comments. He did not respond to this, but he wrote in an email that there is a difference between a test and an active operation.

– No matter how much you test, unexpected conditions and problems can occur when the new is put into normal operation, writes Nygård.

He expects the tests to be part of the report he ordered. The minister has called an emergency meeting on Tuesday about Folobanan.

– No objection

The Norwegian Railway Authority is responsible for issuing permits when new railway lines are opened in Norway.

They had no objection to Ban Nor’s trial.

The Norwegian Railway Authority says that they check whether the application contains the necessary documents. They say it is not the Railway Authority’s role to recalculate the technical specifications of Ban Nor.

According to Ban Nor, the reason for the closure of the section was a fault in the return current system. Aftenposten asked Bane several questions about this.

They don’t want to answer these with the same reasoning as the test.