The Lilleaker Line ( no, Lilleakerbanen) is a suburban

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

way from

Skøyen Skøyen is a neighborhood of Oslo, Norway. It is located in the western part of the city, in the borough of Ullern. The district has an increasing share of business activities, a development started in the 80s. Skøyen is the site of Skøyenpar ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

westwards to

Jar A jar is a rigid, cylindrical or slightly conical container, typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic, with a wide mouth or opening that can be closed with a lid, screw cap, lug cap, cork stopper, roll-on cap, crimp-on cap, press-on cap, ...

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

in Norway. It is operated by Line 13 from

Ljabru Ljabru is a hill and neighborhood in the borough of Nordstrand in Oslo, Norway. It is mainly a residential area with detached housing as well as larger blocks. It is served by the Ekeberg Line terminal station Ljabru. It is located south of Nordst ...

to Bekkestua of the

Oslo Tramway The Oslo tram network ( no, Trikken i Oslo, short from ', 'electric') is the tram system in Oslo, Norway. It consists of six lines with 99 stops and has a daily ridership of 132,000. It is operated by , a subsidiary of the municipally-owned who ...

, operated by

Oslo Sporvognsdrift Sporveien Trikken AS, formerly Oslo Sporvognsdrift AS and Oslotrikken AS, is the company that operates the Oslo Tramway in Oslo, Norway. Sporveien Trikken is owned by Sporveien, which is again owned by the city council and has an operating contrac ...

. The line continues on the Oslo Metro west of Jar as part of the

Kolsås Line The Kolsås Line ( no, Kolsåsbanen) is a line of the Oslo Metro. It branches off from the Røa Line at Smestad Station and runs through western Oslo and Bærum to Kolsås Station. It serves the neighborhoods of Ullernåsen, Øraker, Jar, Bek ...

, and as a street tramway on the Oslo tramway system at Skøyen as the

Skøyen Line The Skøyen Line ( no, Skøyenlinjen/''Skøyenlinja'') is a tram, tramway line running from Palace Park, Slottsparken to Skøyen in Oslo, Norway. It is served by line 13 of the Oslo Tramway. It connects the Briskeby Line at Slottsparken to the Lil ...

Route

The Lilleaker Line runs from Skøyen to Jar. The line is a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

light rail line with 750 volt

overhead wire An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

. At Skøyen it connects with the Skøyen Line of the Oslo Tramway and at Jar to the Kolsås Line of the Oslo Metro. Most of the route is dominated by housing. At Skøyen, there is a short walk to

Skøyen Station Skøyen is a neighborhood of Oslo, Norway. It is located in the western part of the city, in the borough of Ullern. The district has an increasing share of business activities, a development started in the 80s. Skøyen is the site of Skøyenpar ...

on the mainline Drammen Line. It serves all west-bound trains of the

Oslo Commuter Rail Oslo Commuter Rail ( no, Lokaltog Østlandet) is a commuter rail centered in Oslo, Norway, connecting the capital to six counties in Eastern Norway. The system is operated by Vy (formerly NSB) and its subsidiary Vy Gjøvikbanen, using Class 69 ...

, some regional trains and the Airport Express Train. The station is also an important bus hub serving several routes. The route continues via Hoff and Abbdediengen and Ullern. Previously a station was located at

Bestum Bestum is a neighbourhood in Ullern in Oslo, Norway. Before the residential area arose, Bestum was mainly an agricultural area. The name origins from the Middle Ages. Bestum was served by a station named "Bestun" and the tram stop Bestum, but bot ...

, but this was closed due to the vicinity to Ullern. The line then passes Furulund and Sollerud before reaching

Lilleaker Lilleaker is a neighbourhood and industrial site in Ullern, Oslo, Norway. It is located east of the river Lysakerelva. The area is named after the Lilleaker farm. Lilleaker served by the Lilleaker station of the Oslo Tramway, the southern part b ...

. The latter serves the northern parts of Lysaker as well as the shopping center

CC Vest CC Vest is a Norwegian shopping centre in Lilleaker, Oslo. It has 78 outlets, and mainly serves western Oslo as well as eastern Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on th ...

Service

The line is owned by

Sporveien Sporveien Oslo AS is a municipally owned public transport operator in Oslo, Norway. It operates the trackage and maintains the stock of the Oslo Metro and Oslo Tramway, as well as owning eight operating subsidiaries. In 2005, its 2,365 employees ...

and operated by

on contract with

Ruter Ruter AS is the public transport authority for Oslo and Akershus counties in Norway. Formally a limited company – 60% of its shares are owned by the Oslo county municipality and 40% by that of Akershus – it is responsible for the administra ...

. The line is served using a mix of SL79 and SL95 trams, operating at a ten-minute

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system measured in space or time. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise defi ...

. The services terminate at Bekkestua. The line is served by no. 13, that continues from Skøyen along the Skøyen line to the city center and onwards along the

Ekeberg Line The Ekeberg Line ( no, Ekebergbanen) is a long light rail line of the Oslo Tramway which runs from Oslo Hospital tram stop, Oslo Hospital to Ljabru in Oslo, Norway. Operated by lines 13 and 19, it serves the area of Nordstrand, Norway, Nordstr ...

History

In 1912, Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei started working on plans to extend the street tram Skøyen Line towards Bestum or Øraker. The application for the section from Skøyen to Lilleaker was sent in 1913 and

concession Concession may refer to: General * Concession (contract) (sometimes called a concession agreement), a contractual right to carry on a certain kind of business or activity in an area, such as to explore or develop its natural resources or to opera ...

was granted in July 1915. Construction began immediately, trial runs were made on 8 May 1919 and the line opened the following day. In 1917, two proposals were made for a suburban tram line further north. The southern proposal was to build the line as an extension of the Lilleaker Line. The line would go from Lilleaker and extend towards

and Nadderud to Haslum. The northern proposal was for an extension of the Røa Line (at the time called the Smestad Line) via

Røa Røa is a neighbourhood and a former administrative borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. In 2004 the borough of Røa was merged with neighbouring Vinderen to become Vestre Aker borough. Røa is a suburb of Oslo, located approximately 7 kilometer ...

Hosle Hosle is a district in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Its population (as of 2007) is 5,713.Fleskum to Kolsås. The latter was essentially a combination of the current Røa and Kolsås Line. The two proposals caused local debate with people in western Bærum in general supporting the northern line and people in eastern Bærum supporting the southern line. An agreement was quickly reached with

Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei A/S Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei or KES, nicknamed the Blue Tramway ( no, Blåtrikken), was a company which operated part of the Oslo Tramway between 1894 and 1924. It built a network of four lines in Western Oslo, the Briskeby Line and the Frogn ...

(KES), that owned the Lilleaker Line. In 1921, the municipal council voted in favor of the southern line after rejecting a proposal to negotiate trackage rights with

Holmenkolbanen A/S Holmenkolbanen was a company that owned and operated part of the Oslo Tramway and Oslo Metro in Norway from 1898 until 1975 when services were taken over by the majority owner Oslo Sporveier. Holmenkolbanen opened the Holmenkoll Line in 1898, ...

. The main argument for the southern alternative was that the municipality would not have to pay any of the investment costs for the section of the line that would be localed within

Aker Aker may refer to: Places * Aker, Norway, a geographic area in Oslo and a former municipality in Norway * Vestre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Nordre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Aker Br ...

In 1924, KES' operations in Oslo were

expropriated Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

and became Oslo Sporveier. However, the Lilleaker Line was kept outside the expropriation. The expansion to Bærum was financed in part by the cash from the sale and in part from free land from the municipality.

Concession Concession may refer to: General * Concession (contract) (sometimes called a concession agreement), a contractual right to carry on a certain kind of business or activity in an area, such as to explore or develop its natural resources or to opera ...

from Lilleaker to Bekkestua was granted in 1922, and on 28 December the municipality voted to extend the line from Bekkestua to Haslum. The line to Bekkestua opened on 1 July 1924 and the extension to Hslum on 4 November. KES rebranded itself and became

Bærumsbanen A/S Bærumsbanen was a tram company that operated the Lillaker-, Kolsås and Østensjø Line of the Oslo Tramway, Norway, from 1924 to 1971 when the company became part of Oslo Sporveier. History In 1924 the two street tram operators in Oslo, Kr ...

. The company bought twelve Class A trams with twelve trailers from Zypen & Charlier of Germany. After running along the Bærum Line to

, the trams continued along the Oslo Sporveier-owned Skøyen Line to Athenæum in the center of Oslo. The stations had a small building where there was a kiosk, telephone, ticket sale and freight handling. Kolsåsbanen 8

The Bærum Line was extended to Kolsås on 1 January 1930. In 1924, one of the conditions for the concession was that the line was to be connected to the

Common Tunnel The Common Tunnel ( no, Fellestunnelen), sometimes called the Common Line (), is a long tunnel of the Oslo Metro which runs through the city center of Oslo, Norway. The name derives from the fact that all five lines of the metro use the tunnel, ...

of the Holenkollen Line. Oslo Municipality demanded that the company either turn its trams at Skøyen or allow the municipality to purchase the company cheap. On 1 October 1934, Bærumsbanen was bought by Oslo Sporveier and made a subsidiary. The two companies had a common executive management, but retained separate operations. At the same time, Aker Municipality's tram company

Akersbanerne A/S Akersbanerne was a municipal owned company that operated tramways in the former Municipality of Aker in current Oslo, Norway. The company was established in 1917, and opened the suburban Østensjø Line tramway in 1926; it took over the maj ...

was left operating a single line east of the city center. In 1936, it was decided that Bærumsbanen would take over operation of this line, by operating the trams from the Kolsås Line through the city center to connect to the

Østensjø Line The Østensjø Line ( no, Østensjøbanen) is a line on the Oslo Metro which runs from Brynseng to Mortensrud. It further shares track with the Lambertseter Line along the section from Tøyen to Brynseng. The line runs through the primary re ...

. Operations started on 4 January 1937, and the line was marketed as the Østensjø–Bærum Line. Although Bærumsbanen took over Akersbanerne's three Class A trams, up to three units from Ekebergbanen were also leased. Oslo-oslo-sporveier-sl-9-751727

From 1937 to 1939, Oslo Sporveier received 46 Class B trams (the ''Gullfisk''), of which half were transferred to Bærumsbanen and set to supplement the Class A. In 1939, construction of a connection from Jar to Sørbyhaugen on the Røa Line was started. When it opened on 15 June 1942, the section from Sørbyhaugen to Kolsås was designated the Kolsås Line, and the section from Jar to Skøyen was designated as the Lilleaker Line. A balloon loop was built at Jar, and the Lilleaker Line trams that served the Lilleaker Line could start turning there. This allowed for transfer between the two lines. In 1944, the ownership of rolling stock and all but two employees in Bærumsbanen were transferred to Oslo Sporveier. However, the ownership of the tracks and the formal operation rights remained with Bærumsbanen. At the end of the war in 1945, the line was in need of a major overhaul, in particular the overhead wires. Lack of materials and money caused the extraordinary maintenance to take four years. Limitations of freight were imposed in 1946, and were terminated the following year. At the same time, the Kolsås Line services were internally numbered 9, but it was first many years later that the number appeared on the destination signs and schedules. Until 1951, the line had had constant fares since 1939; a 27% fare increase in 1951 was not sufficient to cover the 170% cost increase in the same period. The following year, Oslo Sporveier's ''Gullfisk'' were transferred to Bærumsbanen and designated Class E. Lillebakerbanen 13

The Østensjø Line was closed to be converted to the metro standard on 18 June 1967, and from that day Line 9 only went from Jar to

Oslo Central Station Oslo Central Station ( no, Oslo sentralstasjon, abbreviated ) is the main railway station in Oslo, and the largest railway station within the entire Norwegian railway system. It connects with Jernbanetorget station. It's the terminus of Dramme ...

. From 1 July 1970, the conductors were gradually removed on the Class B and E trams. In 1971, Bærumsbanen was liquidated and ownership and all aspects of operation of the line was transferred to Oslo Sporveier. The Lilleaker Line was connected to the

from 29 September 1974. Class B and E were used during regular operation, but supplemented with SM53 trams during rush hour. The section of the Skøyen Line from Skøyen to

Thune Thunes Mekaniske Værksted A/S, Thune for short, was a Norwegian manufacturing company that among other things built locomotives. The production facilities were last located at Skøyen. History Thune traced its roots to a workshop founded by Ande ...

was moved on 17 November 1981, and upgraded to light rail. This caused Skøyen Station to be moved a few blocks from the

Norwegian State Railways Vygruppen, branded as Vy, is a government-owned railway company which operates most passenger train services and many bus services in Norway. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport. Its sub-brands include Vy Buss coach se ...

. From 1982, the articulated SL79 trams were taken into use. Regular services during the 1980s and 1990s terminated at Jar, but night services operated all the way to Kolsås. In February 2009, the part of the line west of Lilleaker was closed due to upgrades on the Kolsås Line. A balloon loop was constructed at Lilleaker to allow all trams to turn there. During construction, only the bi-directional SL95 trams could operate on the Skøyen–Lilleaker section. During the high-frequency (10-minute) schedule, Skøyen–Lilleaker is served by a shuttle tram with a transfer at Skøyen. During the low-frequency (20 minute) schedule, SL95 trams operate the entire Line 13 without any transfers needed. The curtailing of the line temporarily closed eliminated Øraker Station, despite local protests. The tram company indicated that reopening of the station might be possible if funds are available.

References

{{Railways in Norway Oslo Tramway lines Railway lines opened in 1919 Light rail in Norway 1919 establishments in Norway