The Norwegian Railway Directorate, Jernbanedirektoratet, and Bane NOR, the infrastructure manager, signed, at the end of December, an agreement on the operation and maintenance of the railway infrastructure for a period of 4 years.
Under the agreement, the value of infrastructure projects for this year is NOK 7.25 billion (EUR 752 million) and, based on the calculations for the next years, the agreement has a total value of NOK 30 billion (EUR 3 billion).
“This is a positive and important result of the railway reform. Now we expect Bane NOR to get more rail for the money,” Elisabeth Enger, the director of Norwegian Railway Directorate.
“We will stop to wait for the state budget to be approved by the Storting [the Parliament] and then to identify the investments for operations and maintenance in the coming year. This enable us to elaborate better plans and to be able entering into longer-term agreements with the contractors. More predictability brings lower prices,” CEO of Bane NOR, Gorm Frimannslund, said.
In 2017, under the Railway Reform, the National Rail Administration was reincorporated as the state-owned company Bane NOR, being responsible for the planning, development, administration, operation and maintenance of the railway network, traffic management and administration and development of railway property. At the beginning of 2017, the Railway Directorate was established to manage and coordinate the sector. The part of the National Rail Administration’s operations that previously worked on the development of future railway services, the national transport plan and overall strategies was transferred to the Directorate. Furthermore, the Railway Directorate is responsible for the implementation of tenders for service packages.
Photo: Øystein Grue
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