Flåm Railway stops and which side to sit

Where does the Flåm Railway start and finish?

At Myrdal, a mountain station 867 m up on the Bergen Line, and at Flåm, 2 m above sea level at the head of the Aurlandsfjord.

Myrdal has no road. You reach it by Bergen Line train, by bike on the Rallarvegen or on foot. Flåm is a village of about 300 people with a quay, hotels and the station by the water. The trip down drops about 865 m in 20.2 km, at up to 55 per mille, according to the operator's technical data.

Most trains are timed to meet the Bergen Line at Myrdal. Tour groups from Bergen either start at Myrdal and ride down, or start at Flåm and ride up. The Bergen guide explains both.

What are the stops on the Flåm Railway?

From the top: Myrdal, Vatnahalsen, Reinunga, Kjosfossen, Kårdal, Blomheller, Berekvam, Dalsbotn, Håreina, Lunden and Flåm. Kjosfossen is the photo stop; the small halts are request stops.

Elevations below are the commonly cited figures, from the railway's historical records as reproduced on Wikipedia; the operator gives Myrdal as 867 m.

One guide to the line notes you can only get off at a small station if you asked when booking. Hikers and cyclists use the operator's "Hike or Bike the Flåm Valley" ticket, valid with stops at Vatnahalsen and Myrdal.

What happens at Kjosfossen?

The train stops for about five minutes and everyone can step onto a platform in front of the 93 m main fall. In summer a performer plays the Huldra.

The stop runs all year, says Fjord Tours. The waterfall drops about 225 m in all its tiers; the part you see from the platform is about 93 m. There is no road or trail to Kjosfossen, so the train is the only way to see it. A small power station on the falls has fed the railway since 1944.

The Huldra is a seductive forest creature from Norwegian folklore. At Kjosfossen she is a performer in a red dress singing and dancing on the rocks: a staged summer show, not an old custom, and not guaranteed. There is no show in winter, when the falls often freeze. Get off fast, stand near the old stone ruin, and get back on at the whistle.

Which side of the Flåm train should you sit on?

Views switch sides, so no seat wins the whole way. Most guides say the right side going up and the left side going down, and everyone gets out at Kjosfossen.

Neither Vy nor the operator gives advice. Here is what the main guides say:

Right going up and left going down is the same side of the valley, the side with the river far below and the far wall full of waterfalls. In practice the screens on board announce each sight and which side it is on. Some seats face backwards; on a part-empty train you can move once it leaves. Groups usually sit at the back, so individual travellers tend to get the front.

Is it better to go up or down the Flåm Railway?

Down, by a small margin. The scenery is the same, but going down you face the fjord as it appears and you end at the water.

Going down, the valley opens in front of you and the last minutes run along the river into Flåm. Going up, you finish at a cold mountain station and often wait for the Bergen Line. Both give you the hairpins, Kjosfossen and the tunnels.

For tours the direction is fixed. The classic guided loop rides down from Myrdal mid-morning. The day with lunch, the minibus loop and the self-guided tickets ride up at the end of the day. The small-group day sells one of each.

The downhill ride: Bergen Line to Myrdal, then the Flåm Railway down to the fjord, with the Nærøyfjord boat after.

★ 4.8 · 10.5 hours

Explore the classic guided loop from Bergen → Tour details

How much of the Flåm Railway is in tunnels?

About a quarter. There are 20 tunnels, about 6 km in total, 18 of them dug by hand. The longest, Nåli, is about 1.3 km.

The operator's technical page lists 20 tunnels, 18 hand-dug; Store norske leksikon says tunnels make up more than a quarter of the line. Nåli, "the needle", runs 1,341.5 m below Kjosfossen. Near the top, at Vatnahalsen, the line turns inside the mountain, so you lose your bearings and come out facing the other way.

Tunnels are why the ride feels like a slideshow: dark, view, dark, view. Have your camera ready before each gap. Some tunnel mouths have open sides, and the train runs at 40 km/h at most, so you have more time than it seems.

Where are the Myrdalsberget hairpins and the Rallarvegen view?

Between Vatnahalsen and Kårdal, near the top. The Rallarvegen gravel road zigzags down the slope in 21 hairpin bends beside a waterfall.

The Rallarvegen, the navvies' road, was built to supply the men who built the Bergen Line. Today it is one of Norway's best-known bike rides: 53 km from Finse to Flåm, or 17 km from Vatnahalsen, says the operator's Rallarvegen page. The descent of Myrdalsberget has 21 hairpins. From the train you see them laid out below you, often with cyclists braking hard.

The same slope carries the Flåm Zipline, 1,381 m from Vatnahalsen to Kårdal. The high Rallarvegen near Finse usually opens in early to mid July; the Flåm valley section opens earlier.

What is there to see in Flåm at the end of the line?

The free Flåm Railway Museum in the old station building, the fjord boats to Gudvangen, and a short ride up to Stegastein viewpoint.

The Flåm Railway Museum is free and open all year, with the story of the hand-dug tunnels and the navvies who lived beside them. Boats leave the quay for the two-hour cruise through the UNESCO-listed Nærøyfjord; the classic cruise to Gudvangen is the one to book if you came by train on your own. The Stegastein day trip adds the platform 650 m above the Aurlandsfjord.

Is the whole thing worth the fuss? Our honest take is in is the Flåm Railway worth it.

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