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Oslo agreement:
An agreement has been reached between AS Oslo Sporveier and the neighbour county of Akershus
over the compensation funds and operation of the cross-border Kolsås metro
line in which the
line will be worked by trams extending from the present terminus Jar to
Kolsås, thus reverting to the situation prior to 1942 when trams were
substituted by 3,2 metre wide rolling stock (there has been some mixed
operation ever since 1942). The metro line will at first be curtailed at
Bekkestua but may in the future be diverted over a new branch to Lysaker and
link with a proposed automated transit system (possible monorail) to
Fornebu. Regretably the agreement came too late to prevent the
Bekkestua-Kolsås metro section from being abandoned and substituted by
buses, effective from 1. July. Trams won't be running on the section before
1. January 2004, allegedly to avoid breaking a contract with the bus
operator. It is also being reported that the same section will be closed for
reconstruction during two years, starting in the summer of 2005.
The new metro branch from Ullevål Stadion to Storo is due to open on 20.
August. This forms the first section of the new circle line that will be
completed in 2006. The construction of the next and final stage,
Storo-Sinsen-Carl Berners plass, has recently been started.
AS Oslo Sporveier has placed an order of 99 new metro cars (33 three-car
set) with Siemens. They will be based on the new Vienna type V/v prototype,
but with all sections powered.
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1 July 2003
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