The decision

Until the decision to build the Bergen Railway, the Flåm Valley was a secluded area, where only winding and steep cattle trails connected the farms to the outside world. In 1871 the first known initiative to establishing a railway between Oslo and Bergen was proposed, and the idea also implied sidetracks to Sognefjord and Hardanger fjord. Parliament decided in 1908 the construction of The Flåm Railway, but first granted funds in 1923, after numerous years of discussing different technical solutions. Norwegian State Railway had the idea of Voss-Stalheim-Gudvangen as an alternative sidetrack. Myrdal to Flåm was luckily drafted as a better and cheaper solution, with a shorter alignment and the same good connections to places along Sognefjord and onwards to Bergen. The construction of the Flåm Railway was based on locomotives with a cogwheel up the steepest section to Myrdal, with the rack rail halfway between the running rails, mounted on the same sleepers as the running rails. Track facilities in the Alps were studied, but it was concluded that a pure standard gauge track was best. The Flåm Railway wasn’t originally built for tourists. It was supposed to be a connection to the rest of the country. They envisioned transportation of goods, some passenger traffic and gladly some tourists. This is today turned upside down and transportation of goods are mostly done on trucks.