SJ believes in 45% growth on the Dovre Rail

SJ believes in 45% passenger growth on the Dovre Rail

The transport company SJ Norway expects 45% passenger growth on the Dovre Rail line (Dovrebanen) by 2030, writes Trønder-Avisa. SJ Norway is a subsidiary of Swedish Statens Järnvegar.

There were 839,000 travellers on the Dovre Rail in 2018, according to figures from Statistics Norway (SSB). SJ writes in the tender documents, that it forecasts that the passenger volume will increase by almost 50% in 10 years, to more than 1.2 million travellers yearly.

“SJ sees a huge potential on the stretch,” Managing Director of SJ Norway, Bendek Maarmann-Moe, tells Trønder-Avisa .

“There are few cities in Europe where so many travels between every day as Oslo and Trondheim. Planes handle a lot of that traffic at present. SJ wants to move much of that to rail,” Maartmann-Moe elaborates.

SJ plans with several measures

The train company plans several measures to make the Dovre Rail line more attractive to the public, such as double train sets on Fridays and Sundays. They also plan to the double departures from three to six a day, in both directions, from 2022.

The Dovre Rail is the only train stretch in ‘traffic package north’ where the Swedish state-owned company is expecting to make a profit – if the passenger volume increases as budgeted, according to Trønder-Avisa.

SJ Norway will take over the operation of a total of seven rail lines. This in addition to the operation of the train service on the Dovre, Røros, Rauma, Nordland, Trønder and Meråker rail lines in June 2020. The contract period is until 2030.

SJ won the tenders in competition with Vy (NSB). The Norwegian State-owned company lost all tenders, despite reducing their bid to one-third of its current operating cost.

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