Bergen 2: Electric Boogaloo

July 25, 2010 5:39 PM

Remember "Bergen to Oslo from your armchair"? Last year, Norwegian broadcaster NRK made a 7.5 hour documentary following the train from Bergen to Oslo, for every minute. Here's the sequel: a 27 minute documentary following the new light rail train in Bergen, minute by minute through 9,8 kilometers.

According to NRK, (in English here, via Google Translate) more than 400000 viewers saw this documentary, beating the Norwegian ratings for several World Cup broadcasts.

The video is distributed with a CC license, and NRK has posted a link to the official torrent.

(Spoiler: the train almost hits a car at 9:40.)

Bonus link: "Electric Boogie", a recent commercial for Norwegian public utility Statnett, who's delivering parts of the electricity used by the trains.

posted by iviken (22 comments total)

This is one of the few sequels in modern memory which didn't try to outdo the original in scale or number of explosions.
posted by hippybear at 6:08 PM on July 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Works great when overdubbed with GYBE's "Storm"
posted by griphus at 6:26 PM on July 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

ah, i love this stuff. i wish there was more, it makes for great second-monitor filler.
posted by Mach5 at 7:04 PM on July 25, 2010

Gah, still with the station announcements.

I'm not sure what's more annoying, the bong from last time or the announcer voice this time!
posted by madajb at 7:23 PM on July 25, 2010

I was hoping for the complete works of the Trans-Siberian railway.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:34 PM on July 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

As a citizen of Toronto, where we've been agonizing over electrifying a single rail line for years if not decades, I find the simplicity of this system breathtaking. It leaves me both hopeful and very, very depressed.

I'm forwarding these videos to our Mayor, all our sitting Councillors, every candidate for October's municipal elections, and the entire governing board of our regional transit provider Metrolinx, who just decided to spend another four million dollars of everyone's money to "study" the issue of electrification further. This is study number twelve, for those counting.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 7:58 PM on July 25, 2010

Between this and the San Francisco thing a while back, I am convinced that everything should be filmed from the front of a train.

It's somewhat alarming that the tracks are right beside the roads and buildings like that. Seems kinda deathtrappy. (e.g. 9:43) That thing has Lyle Lanley written all over it.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:07 PM on July 25, 2010

And by golly, this put Bergen on the map.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 8:25 PM on July 25, 2010

Nobody seems to be using this train line. I don't think I saw a single passenger. Or was this just a trial run?
Also, I know it has this great music scene and therefore probably has some interesting bits, but this video makes Bergen look like the most boring place on earth. I could easily have been convinced this was all a very well put-together cardboard model.
posted by Flashman at 8:37 PM on July 25, 2010

this video makes Bergen look like the most boring place on earth

Not if you've ever taken the 80 bus to Lower Sackville, it doesn't.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:42 PM on July 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

What a terrible-sounding euphemism.
posted by griphus at 8:52 PM on July 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

reminds me of this Google project
posted by Bwithh at 9:15 PM on July 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

I love this. Just need an OpenTTD developer to implement double-tracking so I can make this happen

this video makes Bergen look like the most boring place on earth

Any municipality that implements a functioning, efficient light rail system somewhere near budget probably is.

And by golly, this put Bergen on the map.

I sometimes wonder what the real political effect of that Simpsons episode was. I'm far less likely to support a monorail system than I otherwise would have been.
posted by doublehappy at 11:26 PM on July 25, 2010

Awesome. I bet the conductor has nightmares about baby carriages. He had to do a full stop, was she drunk or suicidal?

I'd love to see this with a Mumbai commuter train.
posted by stbalbach at 11:27 PM on July 25, 2010

I love this. Just need an OpenTTD developer to implement double-tracking so I can make this happen

Cancel that, it already exists! I know nobody cares.

Seriously, though, we saw like six cars and maybe ten pedestrians. Where are the people?
posted by doublehappy at 11:31 PM on July 25, 2010

I bet the conductor has nightmares about baby carriages. He had to do a full stop, was she drunk or suicidal?

The woman with the baby carriage got spooked and accidentally turned the carriage the wrong direction. You'd think keeping control of a stroller is easy but I've seen lots of moms get startled and to the wrong thing, like turn into an approaching train on a platform (like in the video) or inexplicably fall down and tip the stroller over backwards after noticing a fast approaching car while jaywalking. very scary to witness.
posted by mexican at 12:59 AM on July 26, 2010

Nobody seems to be using this train line. I don't think I saw a single passenger. Or was this just a trial run?

The line was opened for passengers June 22 2010. The video was broadcast June 23 2010, and probably made during a trial run, early in the morning.

Here's a link to a video of the last ride with the old tram line in Bergen (December 31 1965), and a video from the official opening of the new line this year.

I'm not sure what's more annoying, the bong from last time or the announcer voice this time!

8x FFWD remix (total time: 3:36) without the announcements. Music by Yello.

More videos from Bybanen, including from the first ride.

It's somewhat alarming that the tracks are right beside the roads and buildings like that. Seems kinda deathtrappy. (e.g. 9:43)

Trams have been used in mixed traffic for decades. Here's a video from the tram i Oslo, Norway. Example: at 1:26 a bendy bus is driving on the tram rails. But from 1:53, the tram is on a track separated from other traffic.

I'm forwarding these videos to our Mayor, all our sitting Councillors, every candidate for October's municipal elections, and the entire governing board of our regional transit provider Metrolinx, who just decided to spend another four million dollars of everyone's money to "study" the issue of electrification further. This is study number twelve, for those counting.

More information about the line and future expansion here. You may know this already, but several European cities such as Montpellier, Strasbourg and Paris have new and successful tram/light rail lines. These are nice places to visit... as part of the studies.

"Bergen's trams were delivered on budget at a cost of 2.2 billion kroner (£226m], considerably less than Edinburgh's trams. However, at 10km long, it's almost half the length of our own proposed line – provided it ever makes it past York Place."

Coming soon from NRK: "Bergen 3": Flåmsbanen. They will also make a 10-minute 3D version of this scenic train ride.
posted by iviken at 1:11 AM on July 26, 2010

Cancel that, it already exists! I know nobody cares.

posted by doublehappy at 3:31 PM on July 26 [+] [!]

I do.
posted by gc at 3:49 AM on July 26, 2010

It's somewhat alarming that the tracks are right beside the roads and buildings like that. Seems kinda deathtrappy.

The track goes right next to my kids' school, and it scares the crap out of me. Even while it was being built, I'd make them carefully look both ways when crossing the tracks.

On the flip side, my kids got to ride it before it was open to the public.

(As a total aside, I have been reading Metafilter daily for nearly ten years, and finally signed up to comment on this post.)
posted by grajohnt at 4:12 AM on July 26, 2010 [3 favorites]

Great stuff. I was in Norway visiting my girlfriend when this was broadcast and we were lucky enought to turn on the television for the second half.

Coming soon from NRK: "Bergen 3": Flåmsbanen. They will also make a 10-minute 3D version of this scenic train ride.

Excellent! Can't wait to see that, particularly as when I was there we got off the train early and walked most of the way down. I'd actually like to see what the rest of the train journey was like!
posted by knapah at 6:02 AM on July 26, 2010

I love this, and wish there were front camera rail videos from everywhere. Like, a huge archive of them, available for viewing at any time. Every Amtrak route, every light rail system, heck, even the entire Trans-siberian rail experience. All simple front camera videos.

I would *heart* that immensely.
posted by hippybear at 11:24 AM on July 26, 2010

I also love how that optical illusion you get on real trains when they stop (where you feel like you're moving backward) translates to video. I mean, there's no reason why it wouldn't, but it's cool. Although now I'm wondering why you don't get it in a car.
posted by doublehappy at 3:03 PM on July 26, 2010