The trains will be new, but will the journey be better? This is how the inside of Bergensbanen can be changed.

Is hot food replaced with auto-food? Do the children have less room to play? And will there be room for wheelchairs? We have compared today’s trains with the sketches for the trains of the future.

Norway is initially spending NOK 8 billion on 17 new trains from Switzerland. These will first roll over Bergensbanen in 2026, before coming to more routes in due course.

But do new trains necessarily mean better trains?

If you compare the sketches with pictures from today’s offer, you will find several things that look quite different. And maybe not necessarily better.

We have taken a closer look at the current and future design of:

• The restaurant car
• The play area
• Universal Design
• Seats and legroom

Norske tog tells Aftenposten that there are currently only sketches of the new trains. How they will eventually look on the inside will be decided in the design phase, which they will start now.

With that said: Here are some of the differences we noticed.

Reason for mistrust of new bistro?

In the restaurant car, you are today greeted by staff who prepare both cold and hot food. On the menu you will find everything from pizza to meatballs and Asian noodles.

The sketches for the new trains, however, appear to replace much of the kitchen layout with vending machines:

Does the vending machine kill the hot food?

Probably not, says project manager Sille Svenkerud Førner in Norske tog.

– It is in our requirement specification that there will be both serving and self-service on the trains, she says.

But it is not Norske tog that decides what you can eat on the train. The train companies decide the menu. For Bergensbanen, Vy is head chef. So far they have not been involved.

Bergensbanen is also clearly the country’s most mobile bar. What will happen to it?

If you look closely at the illustration above the new trains, you can see signs that the bar may last: A lone lager is drawn on the nearest table.

However, the catering service on the railway is no stranger to cost-saving changes.

This is what the offer looked like in 1909:

What happens to the children’s playground?

Today, the children play in a separate room. Inside today, there are ladders, a sofa, a slide and pipes you can crawl through. The seating groups for those in the family who prefer a slightly different environment than fiery red plastic are placed at a little distance from the playroom.

In the new sketches, several changes to today’s family pram have been drawn up. A Viking ship-shaped toy stand is shown, with a video screen right at the back.

And it will be easy for parents to look after the little ones: Here, the seating groups are glued to the play area. To the side of the ship, there are two seating areas with what looks like board games as a table top.

Norske tog denies to Aftenposten that there will be less playroom for the little ones.

– It is not planned to use less area for playrooms than today. But the details will be clarified in the design phase, says Førner.

What happens to the leg space and design?

Stadler has delivered trains to Norway before. A whopping 150 of them, in fact. When these arrived, they proved to be too high for several of the platforms at the surrounding train stations. This made it particularly difficult for disabled people in wheelchairs to get on and off the trains.

Norske tog promises that the new trains will be universally designed. Among other things, there will be a low floor throughout the train, four wheelchair spaces, two wheelchair lifts and HC toilets, according to Norske tog.

– It is planned that wheelchair users will be able to move through several carriages of the train, for example to make use of the bistro offer, says Førner.

The Norwegian Handikapforbund and other interest and user organizations will also be involved in the upcoming design process, she says.

– It will be significantly better than today, there is no doubt about that.

And what about the leg space?

Among other things, the new trains promise reclining seats, which make it easier to sleep in the seats. This has also become a new offer on today’s trains. According to Norske tog, no significant changes are planned to the legroom of most seats.

– There could be several different solutions, where sleeping chairs will have significantly better legroom than today, says Førner in Norske Tog.

There will be changes for more than the passengers

It is not only the passengers who will notice the change of train. Today’s train to Bergen is driven by a locomotive that pulls wagons behind it. The mechanical power is at the very front of the train. This will be the end of it. Stadler trains of the future are primarily electric motor vehicles. There, the engine power is distributed between all the wagons in the train set.

There are divided opinions about that among the train drivers. Among other things, the sisters Halldis and Gudrun Folkedal, who run the Twitter account Lokførartvillingane, have written critically about this decision.

– For those of us who drive and sometimes fight our way through the Snowstorm on Hardangervidda, we prefer locomotives, they write.

Leader Rolf Ringdal of the Norwegian Locomotives Association tells Aftenposten that there are many and divided opinions among the opinions on this. Nevertheless, there are no warning lights for the union, he emphasizes.

– It is obvious that there are divided opinions among our members about this. Locomotive and wagons have often provided greater flexibility, as wagons can be switched on and off, including sleeping wagons at certain times of the day, he says.

Ringdal says that the union will be involved in designing the trains in the future. There, they must ensure that the engine power is maintained and that the trains are able to cope with demanding conditions, he says.

Sille Svenkerud Førner in Norske tog says that the new trains must meet strict requirements for traffic in the high mountains and in winter.

– We have confidence that Stadler can deliver solutions that are at least as good as today. Snow and climbs are not a completely unknown phenomenon in Stadler’s home country, Switzerland, either, she says.