Polar orbit (Norway)

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Trondheim – Kirkenes / Vadsø
Polar orbit near Elvkroken (section Trondheim-Fauske)
Route length:	1215 km
Section Fauske – Narvik
Legend Ofotbanen by Bjørnfjell Narvik 68.44 °  N , 17.41 °  E Railway ferry 130 Drag 68.04 °  N , 16.08 °  O 123 Troll polar eye tunnel 110 Tømmerneset 67.9 °  N , 15.86 °  E Hellarvik Tunnel (2000 m) 100 Sandnes 91 Kråkmo 67.81 °  N , 15.99 °  O Falkelva tunnel Tennvatn Tunnel (5070 m) 77 Sildhopfjellet tunnel Base tunnel Variant of Bjørnfjell Gjerdalen Kobbvatnet 67.62 °  N , 15.97 °  O Lappstorvik 52 Sommerset 67.55 °  N , 15.67 °  O 41 Kalvik Espenes Tunnel (2710 m) 39 Kvarv 31 Løktehaugen 27 Trengsel bru 67.42 °  N , 15.67 °  E Coordinates: 67 ° 25 ′  N , 15 ° 40 ′  E 24 Megården tunnel Hellbukta Straumen 67.35 °  N , 15.6 °  E Vallvatnet Svartosen Nordlandsbanen from Bodø 0 Fauske 67.26 °  N , 15.39 °  O Roast-eye tunnel Finneid 67.25 °  N , 15.44 °  E Nordlandsbanen to Trondheim

The Polarbahn ( Norwegian Polarbanen ) is a Norwegian project for a railway between Trondheim in the south and the border with Russia on the Barents Sea in the north.

Only the southern part ( the Nordlandbahn ) to Fauske (further west to Bodø ) is in operation. The construction of the middle part from Fauske to Narvik according to one of three variants included in the project was started by the German Wehrmacht in World War II and abandoned after the war. The resumption of construction of this section and the construction of the third and longest section from Narvik to the Barents Sea remains unlikely in the future because sufficient economic efficiency is not expected.

overview

Until the occupation of Norway by the German Wehrmacht in World War II , the Nordland Railway was only completed as far as Mosjøen . The Germans began there with the further construction as part of the "Fortress Norway" beyond Fauske with the provisional destination Drag at the Tysfjord . A train ferry was planned from here to Narvik. Ultimately, the route with a total length of 1215 km to Kirkenes with an additional junction to Vadsø near Kirkenes was to be built. At the end of the war, only a small part of the work was finished; operations to Fauske were not yet possible.

After the war, the polar railway to Fauske was completed and a new line was built from there west to Bodø. The connection between Trondheim and Bodø has been called Nordlandbahn ever since. The work on the polar orbit north of Fauske that had begun during the war was not resumed. Some tunnels and bridges and part of the route between Fauske and Drag were used in the 1960s for the continuation of European route 6 to the north. Since the 1970s (until today: 2020), the idea of ​​a railway to the far north of Norway under the name Nord-Norgebanen ( German  Northern Norway Railway ) has been discussed again.

Planning history

Trondheim-Helgeland

A railway leading far to the north was initiated by Ole Tobias Olsen as early as 1872; it was planned as far as Helgeland . Measurements began in 1892. The first specific plans for a railway line north of Fauske were presented by the Norges Statsbaner (NSB) in 1901. It was proposed to build the line to Røsvik with a branch line to Bodø .

Fauske-Narvik

Route variants Fauske-Narvik
Norwegian State Railways 1923

Underpass of the unfinished polar railway in Hamarøy in 1947, section Fauske-Narvik

The 1923 railway plan included a 306 km long railway line between Fauske and Narvik. The construction costs were estimated at 160 million crowns . At the same time, the railway committee found that the Nordlandbahn would not fulfill its function if it did not cross Finnmark .

In the plans of the Norwegian State Railways handed over to the German Wehrmacht, there were three variants for the route from Fauske to Narvik:

• The ferry route provided for a railway line to Korsnes on the Tysfjord and a continuation with a railway ferry to Narvik. This plan included a ferry terminal on Tjeldsund , from where there would have been a connection further north to Kirkenes.
• The fjord route would have been via Tømmerneset , Innhavet and Musken around the southern end of the Tysfjord and followed the coast to Balingen and Narvik.
• The mountain route would have run further inland from Kobbvatnet over the height to Gerdalen and through a long tunnel.

The fjord route was 40 km longer than the mountain route, but it was considerably cheaper to build.

A fourth proposal was brought into play by the Wehrmacht and envisaged a ferry across the Tysfjord with an otherwise largely identical course as the fjord route.

Narvik – Kirkenes and Vadsø

Route Fauske-Kirkenes planned by the Wehrmacht
(separate route Fauske-Korsnes / Narvik under construction)

A report on the continuation from Narvik to Kvesmenes was published in March 1923. This was followed by reports for a section from Kvesmenes to Alteidet in June 1926, from Alteidet to Porsangerfjord in December 1926, from Porsangerfjord to Tana in June 1927, from Tana to Vadsø in January 1928 and from Nyborg to Kirkenes in April 1928. The distance from Fauske to Vadsø was 1144 km and from Fauske to Kirkenes 1215 km. It was estimated that the construction of the route would cost 375 million crowns.

The Wehrmacht's planning for the route from Narvik to Kirkenes was headed by Professor Flörke in Narvik. The report made three proposals:

• The NSB's proposal from the 1920s
• The proposal of the railway department of the Reich Commissioner
• The suggestion from Flörke's working group.

NSB had recommended a route that follows the coast. For strategic military reasons, Flörke recommended staying inland, where fewer tunnels would have been necessary.

route

The route of the ferry line started by the Wehrmacht and the route of the planned route Narvik – Kirkenes are described.

Section Finneid – Fauske

→ Main article : Nordlandsbanen

The route began in Finneid , a little south of Fauske. She crossed the Bratthaugen tunnel before she reached Fauske , where a train station was planned. At the end of the war on May 8, 1945, most of the track had already been completed by Fauske.

Section Fauske – Tysfjord

The route led north and crossed the Svartosen on a bridge and continued at Lake Vallvatnet, where a meeting station was to follow. The nearest train station should be one kilometer north of the village of Straumen . A power station was built in Røyrvatnet . The route continued at Lake Hellandsjøen. Five tunnels and a train station were to be built in Hellbukta on the 4.9-kilometer section from Hellandsjøen to Buvik.

In Megården, 24 km north of Fauske, the 554 m long Megården tunnel was built. Over the narrow connection between Tørrfjorden and Nordfjorden, the Trengselet 67.42 °  N , 15.67 °  O (km 27) which lies between Torkelsengkollen and Trengselkollen, should a bridge occur approximately at the location of the current Trengselbrücke the Europastraße E6 . After passing Torkeleng 67.42 °  N , 15.65 °  O (km 28) the circuit should perform two short tunnel. Railway stations were to be built in Løktehaugen and Kvarv (km 31 and 39). According to the plan, there were 18 tunnels between the two stations. A power plant was built in Kvarv. The route was supposed to run through the 2710 m long Espenestunnel before reaching the next train station in Kalvik, which should be 47 km from Fauske.

The next station would have been in Sommerset (km 59), followed by the station in Lappstorvik. After that, the railway would have reached the Sørfjord. The next two train stations should be in Kobbvatnet and Gjerdalen. Then the route would have run through a base tunnel and the Sildhopfjell tunnel (km 77). It would have been continued through the 5070 m long Tennvatntunnel, another 2720 m long tunnel and the Falkelva tunnel. Railway stations would have been built in Kråkmo and Sandnes (km 91 and 100). The route would have run through the 2000 m long Hellarvik tunnel just before reaching Tømmernes station (km 110). The Trollpollhaugentunnel would have been built 123 km from Fauske. A train ferry was planned from Korsnes (Drag) on ​​the Tysfjord to Narvik.

Narvik – Skibotn section

From Narvik to Bjørnfjell , the existing Narvik-Luleå line to Sweden would have been used. The new line would have run near the Norwegian-Swedish border in Fylke Troms before it would have been brought down into Salangsdalen . It would have touched the villages of Setermoen and Andselv before running west of Lake Takvatnet . She would have reached the Balsfjord , which she would have followed to Nordkjosbotn . There she would have crossed Balsfjordeidet to Storfjord , which she would have followed on the east coast. She would have come through the village of Skibotn and around the Kåfjorden and through the town of Birtavarre (Kåfjordbotn).

Section Skibotn – Nordreisa

Then the route would have run along Rotsundet and would have reached Nordreisa , 335 km from Bjørnfjell.

Section Nordreisa – Kirkenes

At Nordreisa, the course near the coast would have ended. Until Skiippagurra near Tana bru it would have taken place inland. The route would initially have followed the Reisaelva ( German : Reisa ) over a length of about 85 km to the southeast, where it would have described a large S-shaped arc around the lake Ráisjávri , and would have reached Kautokeino 140 km from Nordreisa . Then she would have been led further northeast. She would have crossed the Finnmarksvidda plateau and reached Karasjok , 280 km from Nordreisa. The route would have run north again, along the Norwegian-Finnish border and the Tanaelva to Skiippagurra, 450 km from Nordreisa. From there the route was to be built along the south coast of the Varangerfjord and around the Kjøfjord to Kirkenes. A junction to Vadsø would have been along the north coast of the Varangerfjord.

construction

Northern part of the Nordland Railway

Immediate plans of the Wehrmacht called on the NSB to build the Nordlandbahn to Rognan by August 1, 1943 and later in autumn to Fauske.

Fauske – Tysfjord

In contrast to the southern section, the construction of the section north of Fauske was carried out without Norwegian participation.

The construction was led by the Wiking Task Force , which had its headquarters in Mo i Rana and branches in Fauske and Tømmerneset . The work was carried out by a number of German construction companies. The construction of the polar orbit began in January 1943. The first step in the construction was auxiliary structures such as barracks, quays and energy supply. The workforce was predominantly Russian and Serbian prisoners of war. Despite the enormous number of workers, the construction was obviously inefficient and parts of the railway line that were already being completed further south were of such poor quality that a large part of the tracks had to be replaced. North of the Tysfjord, the only construction site already recorded was a construction road between Narvik and Bjørnfjell.

The area where the line was built was without road links and the steep terrain made it difficult to position the line other than near the fjords. Since this was the area where the residents of the region lived, there were conflicts of interest. Under the peacetime expropriation law, the state was forced to pay adequate compensation for the land and houses expropriated in order to build public infrastructure. The German occupying power had no interest in complying with these laws and simply claimed the property they needed, often without informing local residents at all. In Lappstorvika the street became so dilapidated that the residents decided to move away until after the war.

30,000 prisoners of war were brought to work on the railway line to Nordland. The treatment of prisoners of war varied depending on their nationality, their status in relation to the Geneva Convention and their adaptation. Russians who switched to supporting Andrei Andreevich Vlasov were treated better and often sent to their own camps. Only two of the more than 1000 Polish prisoners of war in Nordland died and they were treated better because Poles were generally classified as axis-friendly. The Wehrmacht invested the equivalent of 15 million crowns in labor and other costs in the route. Towards the end of the Second World War in Europe, on May 8, 1945, around 8,300 prisoners of war lived in the camps on the route segment between Fauske and Drag. About 10 percent of the workers who worked on the site had died.

On December 4, 1945, the Soviet embassy in Oslo started a dialogue with the Norwegian Foreign Ministry in order to set up a joint Norwegian-Russian commission of inquiry to investigate issues relating to Russian prisoners of war in Norway. The commission was set up in March 1946 with the support of the Norwegian authorities. Both NSB and the Norwegian state agencies were concerned that the Soviet goal might be a claim for financial compensation for the work actually done by prisoners of war in Norway. Although rough estimates of the hours worked were made, the monetary value of this work was never determined and no claim by the Soviet Union on Norway was ever made.

Further developments

The Trengsel Bridge on Europastraße 6 was originally intended as part of the polar orbit. Part of the tunnel is still visible from the road today.

The Nordland Railway was completed to Bodø in 1962. In the 1960s, Parliament decided to suspend plans to continue the railway north for ten years. Instead, the road network should be expanded. A number of regional airports have been built since the 1970s, which largely postponed the need for a railroad line for passenger transport. In 1968 the NSB again considered building a Northern Norway Railway. The proposal provided for the extension of the existing Nordlandbahn from Fauske via Narvik to Harstad and Tromsø . The Ministry of Transport recommended not building the line. However, in the 1970s, consideration was given to using the incipient income from oil production for the expansion of the local infrastructure.

In 1977 the Ribu Commission was set up to investigate the construction of the railway line north of Fauske. The commission did not make any clear recommendations as to whether the railway should be built. She stated that the construction would cost 4.4 billion NOK and that the operation would have to be subsidized. The construction would have a positive economic effect on the region, especially if additional industrial and commercial investments were made along the route. Parliament did not take a decision when it debated the 1983 Commission's report. Instead, a new report was issued in 1992. This time a high-speed line was recommended. The project was rejected by parliament in 1994.

When Europastraße 6 was built by Fauske to the north in the 1960s, parts of the route that had been laid out for the polar orbit were used for the road. In particular, the European route follows the railway route from Fauske past Lake Vallvatnet to a point north of Straumen . In addition, part of the route at Torkilseng has been used. The road uses tunnels in Asp, Eva, Espenes, Kobbvatnet and north of Tømmerneset that were built for the railway line.

literature

• Thor Bjerke: Banedata '94 . Norsk Jernbaneklubb, Oslo 1994, ISBN 82-90286-15-5 .
• Arvid Ellingsve: Nordlandsbane's war history . Norges Statsbaner, Oslo 1995.
• Jan Hoås, Morten Stene: Hell Sunnanbanen . Jubilee Committees, 2005.
• Per Overland: Med toget til 69 ° 42: North Norgebanen . Norges Statsbaner, Oslo November 1992, urn : nbn: no-nb_digibok_2010052006062 .
• Svanberg Erling: Langs vei og lei i Nordland: Samferdsel i Nordland gjennom 3000 år . Nordland fylkeskommune, Bodø 1990, ISBN 82-7416-021-5 , urn : nbn: no-nb_digibok_2010110308003 .

Web links

Commons : Polar orbit  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Private page with lots of pictures
• Special exhibition "On the way to the Arctic Circle - Railway adventures in Scandinavia". Retrieved March 27, 2013 . 
• Thomas Lillevoll: "Polar Banen" Fauske - Korsnes. Retrieved July 6, 2018 (Norwegian). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In Norwegian , the ending "-en" for nouns is a definite article . Therefore, the correct designation in German texts when using the Norwegian name is either “Polarbanen” or “die Polarbane”.
2. ↑ Hoås and Stene: 14
3. ↑ ^{a b} Ellingsve: 50
4. ↑ Ellingsve: 70
5. ↑ ^{a b} Ellingsve: 54
6. ↑ ^{a b} Ellingsve: 56
7. ↑ Ellingsve: 57
8. ↑ Ellingsve: 59
9. ↑ Ellingsve: 60
10. ↑ Ellingsve: 62
11. ↑ Ellingsve: 64
12. ↑ Ellingsve: 68
13. ↑ Ellingsve: 79
14. ↑ Ellingsve: 80
15. ↑ Ellingsve: 81
16. ↑ ^{a b} Svanberg
17. ↑ ^{a b} Ellingsve: 22
18. ↑ ^{a b} Ellingsve: 52
19. ↑ Ellingsve: 78
20. ↑ Ellingsve: 69
21. ↑ Ellingsve: 84
22. ↑ Ellingsve: 88
23. ↑ Ellingsve: 90
24. ↑ Ellingsve: 91
25. ↑ Ellingsve: 92
26. ^ Svanberg: 373
27. ↑ Storting: Innstilling fra samferdselskomiteen om Northern Norway Line (norw.)
28. ↑ ^{a b c} Overland: 8
29. ↑ ^{a b} Overland: 9
30. ↑ Ole Johan Nilsen: Nei til bane fra Fauske til Narvik . In: Aftenposten . May 27, 1994, p. 2 (Norwegian).