Bybanen (2)

When travelling through Norway for the past few weeks, I had a chance to visit Bergens recently opened Bybanen, a lightrail line linking the city center with its southern suburbs. The line's current terminus is Nesttun, but extensions as far as Flesland airport have been planned. Ticket selling is completely done on the stations, which means stopping time can be kept to a minimum, making the Bybanen an extremely efficient way to travel. The frequency is about every ten minutes, even on sundays.

203 at Nesttun terminus. Note the temporary platform.

Matching lines on seats and shelters

Clearly a lot of thought has been given to every detail. The 12 Variotrams from Stadler Rail have nice little features like artwork on the ceilings, for every station's announcement a different specially composed tune and matching stylized contour lines, both on the seats and engraved in the glass shelters. A spectacular return of the tram in Bergen!

There's an extensive Wikipedia article about the Bybanen.