Norway launches EUR 90 million climate-resilience drive after fatal landslides
Norway’s infrastructure manager Bane NOR is investing NOK 1 billion (EUR 90 million) this year to protect the country’s rail network against extreme weather, following two deadly landslides and repeated freight disruptions on key routes.
The programme targets drainage systems, culverts, flood barriers, avalanche protection, and tunnel reinforcement across vulnerable corridors including the Dovre Line through Gudbrandsdalen, the Bergen Line, and the Nordland Line.
The initiative follows fatal accidents at Finneidfjord in 2024 and Nesvatnet in January 2025, where a worker died when a landslide destroyed a section of the Trønder Line. Both incidents disrupted the TEN-T Scandinavian–Mediterranean corridor connecting Trondheim, Bodø, and Oslo.
Fatal landslides expose network vulnerability
Norway’s railway faces mounting climate pressure. Precipitation has increased nearly 20 percent over the past century, contributing to approximately 30 railway landslides annually. Bane NOR estimates a maintenance backlog of NOK 32 billion (EUR 2.9 billion), with 5,000 culverts and drainage systems requiring urgent upgrades.
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The NOK 1 billion investment addresses immediate safety risks but barely dents the EUR 2.9 billion maintenance deficit accumulated over decades. With climate models projecting more intense rainfall across Scandinavia, Norway’s challenge mirrors the wider Nordic struggle to retrofit century-old infrastructure for extreme weather — a pattern visible across TEN-T corridors from Sweden to Finland, where national funding increasingly targets climate adaptation ahead of capacity expansion.