Construction crews began work Friday on the long-awaited rail line that will connect Oslo’s popular metro service (T-bane) with Fornebu, site of Oslo’s old airport west of the city. The airport shut down in October 1998 and the area has since been redeveloped as a sprawling community of homes, offices, shopping centers and parks.
The actual redevelopment didn’t begin until several years after the airport closed, and improved transport systems were urged before that. Politicians quarreled, however, for years over the scope and costs of rail service to the area. The only public transport linking Oslo with Fornebu and its adjacent residential island of Snarøya have been overcrowded bus service.
It will take another seven years before Fornebubanen is due for completion. The new eight-kilometer-long line is budgeted to cost NOK 17.7 billion.
newsinenglish.no staff
