People in Greater Oslo woke up on Wednesday to find it snowing sideways. This in turn creates major challenges in the capital.
Oslo Airport is closed to aviation.
– The planes that are in the immediate area and on their way will be allowed to land, but it is closed to departures from now on. Eventually we will also close for landing.
This Norwegian flight from Bodø had to turn around when Gardermoen had to close due to the storm on Wednesday.
Photo: Screenshot
Avinor’s communications manager, Cathrine Framholt, tells NRK at 1pm.
The airport will remain closed until 15:30 because it is snowing so heavily that the planes cannot see the ground lights.
– No capitulation
All train traffic in Eastern Norway has been suspended until further notice.
There are major delays and several settings on the subway.
All buses in Oslo and Bærum have been canceled until further notice.
– Now we have a lot of delays and a number of canceled departures due to driving conditions, says Cathrine Myhren-Haugen, press officer at Ruter.
The driving conditions on Ruter’s routes in the capital area do not make it safe to have buses in traffic, says press officer Cathrine Myhren-Haugen.
Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / NRK
Is this a capitulation?
– This is not capitulation, but the driving conditions are so difficult that it is not advisable to have buses in traffic, replies Myhren-Haugen.
Ruter encouraged all passengers already in the morning hours to calculate their time.
Had to close taxi app
Over the course of the day, the snowy weather will lie.
– Road after road is now being opened in quick succession. The buses should be able to start as soon as Ruter feels that accessibility is good enough.
This is what Joakim Hjertum of the City Environment Agency told NRK on Wednesday afternoon.
Ruter talks about the problems the snowy weather creates for public transport in the capital.
For the time being, Oslo Taxi has closed for orders in the app due to the high demand.
– We have a lot of orders, and try to cover as many as we can, but the public will probably have to be patient, says communications manager Thor Erik Skarpen.
The cycling season is long when public transport is slow, and taxis are hard to come by.
Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / NRK
Jolanta Tømmerås was going from Oslo to Eidsvoll, but the train was cancelled. When she asked one of Vy’s employees at Oslo S, she got the answer:
– If you want to get to Eidsvoll, you have to take a helicopter.
Jolanta Tømmerås finally reached her destination, after much back and forth.
Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / NRK
After queuing for over an hour, she was nevertheless one of the lucky ones to get hold of a taxi.
For those who get hold of a taxi, the travel guarantee applies, reports Ruter.
All buses in Bærum are temporarily cancelled. Here the buses are at the depot when they should actually be on the roads.
Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / NRK
Passengers were evacuated from a subway at Helsfyr station. Some had to wait over an hour before being evacuated.
Photo: Martin Roalso
Several buses have become stuck, due to the weather and poor driving conditions.
Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / NRK
Large amounts of snow in Greater Oslo have made it difficult for buses to drive. This has led to many adjustments and major delays.
Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / NRK
There are many settings in train traffic on Wednesday.
Photo: Astri Husø / no
There are also major traffic problems in Vestfold, Østfold and Buskerud.
The subway is in trouble
Subway line 1 between Majorstua and Frognerseteren is now completely canceled for the day between Majorstua and Frognerseteren.
Line 5 between Ullevål Stadium and Sognsvann will also be closed for the rest of the day.
This is what the press guard in Sporveien, Jan Rustad, told NRK at the time.
– It will be a headache to have to traffic these sections, says Rustad.
Line 4 is closed between Helsfyr and Bergkrystallen, and line 3 is canceled between Helsfyr and Mortensrud.
Peter Neil Bennett is one of many who stand at Helsfyr subway station, and cannot get rid of the stain.
– This is not suitable at all. It is simply amateurish and poorly planned because it has been announced for days, he says to NRK
A subway has been running between Brynseng and Helsfyr since Wednesday morning.
The subway was packed, but the passengers have been evacuated back to Brynseng from the train without electricity.
Ali Zuhair Abdullah is one of those who were evacuated.
Ali Zuhair Abdullah managed to be evacuated and snowed in on his public transport journey in Oslo on Wednesday.
Photo: private
– It was very hot and bad air. There were many who felt locked in the tunnel, he says.
He says that many were stressed by the evacuation, and that the passengers received poor information about what happened.
Passengers were evacuated from a subway at Helsfyr station on Wednesday morning.
Photo: Ali Zuhair Abdullah / Ali Zuhair Abdullah
Sporveien also has problems with the track switches at the junction Majorstuen Metro station.
– It is this snow. We have everything we have of alternating heating. With this amount of snow, we won’t be able to immediately take everything, says Jan Rustad, press officer at Sporveien.
At many subway stations, such as here at Tåsen, the legs move faster than the track on Wednesday morning.
Photo: Andreas Sundby / NRK
The trains don’t run on rails – neither does the boat
The snowy weather also poses problems for train traffic.
There have been, and are expected, delays and adjustments.
Faults on track switches and snow plugs that clog tracks make it difficult to run trains today.
Bane Nor has called in extra crews who can help shovel snow.
– There are trains between Ski and Rakkestad, between Eidsvoll and Lillehammer, between Grefsen and Gjøvik and between Oslo S and Halden, says Bane Nor’s press officer, Mari Rjaanes, to NRK at 2.40pm.
At noon, Bane Nor announced that it is closed to train traffic in the whole of Eastern Norway until further notice due to the weather conditions.
– We have reassigned people and asked people who have time off to report to work. Now there are 15 men out in the tracks at the station at Lillestrøm and costing their lives too hard. It blows before you can almost get the snow away, says Rjaanes.
The gathering of hopeful train passengers on Oslo S gets bigger throughout the afternoon, but many do not have a train to catch.
Photo: Hallgeir Braastad / NRK
– It is a very demanding situation, says Vy’s communications manager, Åge-Christoffer Lundeby.
The passengers who cannot get there as of now are left to fend for themselves, and must find alternative ways to get where they are going.
– We do not use alternative transport, as there are very difficult driving conditions on the roads. The trains stop at the nearest station and we keep them open like greenhouses, he says.
Vy has already asked travelers to consider whether it is necessary to travel by train in Eastern Norway today.
In the Oslofjord, ice causes line B11 to be suspended between Nesoddtangen and Lysaker brygge. The first departure will be at 15.09 from Fornebu.
2024-01-17 12:57:20
#Complete #chaos #public #transport #Oslo
