European Railroad Discussion > Norway: Major Landslide on Malmbana

Yesterday afternoon at 4 PM a major landslide occurred on Malmbana.

The location for the slide in a little bit from Katterat towards Narvik.

The good news is that the personnel already were in the area working on the smaller landslide. This is a separate site so nobody was hurt when the major slide came down the mountain slope. Equipment in place it will take a few days to get the rock removed. As in Switzerland last week, also here no roads worth mentioning exist so everything needs to be either transported to place by rail or airlifted.

To me it strikes strange coincidence that two landslides should occur simultaneously.

Affected are train passengers of SJ on their way to and from Narvik. Buses have been arranged to between Björnfjellet and Narvik (I suppose making intermediate stops at Straumnes, the only station affected with road in the vicinity).

Also affected are the iron ore shipments of Northland Resources and LKAB, as well as their incoming minerals from Narvik. LKAB currently runs around 10 ore trains back and forth to Narvik (taking other minerals on their way back when necessary). Green Cargo runs 2 ore trains per day between Pitkäjärvi (Southeast of Kiruna) and Narvik for Northland Resources. Both operators are severely affected, but both can also add some rolling stock to increase the train movements. With LKAB established traffic since 1903 they are less affected that NR. NR can ask Green Cargo to add a third train pair, since the NR harbor facilities can handle this kind of increased volumes of enriched iron. Looking at the Narvik Port statistics the JSW Salem loaded at Northland in Narvik a couple of weeks ago is now in Mauritania on its way to Asia. AM Express was filled in last week and is now sitting (strangely) nearby instead of making a dash towards its destination in Hamburg. The data according to NR. On the LKAB side of the bay the ship from last week is loaded and gone. All is empty there. Judging from this no immediate effect to iron shipments will occur if the Malmbana can be opened later this week.

Third affected operator is CargoNet, who run their fast intermodal trains to and from Narvik. But fortunately boxes can easily be loaded onto trucks at Kiruna intermodal terminal for the rest of the 2100 kilometer route to Narvik to to be taken on rubber wheels.


First a few pictures from the mountains nearby the affected area.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/14 08:22 by McKey.

---

---

---

A few pictures from the harbor facilities. 4rail.net has dozens more if you are interested: http://www.4rail.net/reference_norway_gallery2.php

LKAB facilities in Narvik.

Northland Resources facilities in Narvik, opposite side from LKAB.

Narvik Passenger station, where traffic has now stopped.

---

---

---

And some views to nicely colorful (mostly Veolia colored) passenger services on Malmbana. The middle picture here was taken by Gerry at Vassijaure, the lowest by Hannu.

---

---

---

I recognise the location, IIRC when we were there in 2008 we went walking along the shore of the Rombaksfiord having parked just off the E6 main road and then climbed up towards the railway in time for the Stockholm to Narvik through train. There was plenty of wildlife on the foreshore aas well as some remnants of the Battle of Narvik in 1940.

Has the weather in North Norway been particularly bad this summer to cause a landslide? The incident on the RhB in Switzerland occured after some particularly torrential rainstorms.

Just my thoughts too. There has been some bad weather, but up near Narvik it is normal anyway. And looks like during the weekend the weather was very poor. But then again, this is hard rock, not what they have in the RhB area in Switzerland, which makes me puzzled. Almost like something unusual, like earthquake, or someone would have caused these? Or maybe it was just time for the first rock to start moving almost simultaneously in two spots?

Hopefully this will enhance the need for state of Norway to invest some more on Malmbana maintenance. Of course Norwegians have so many other places too to take care of.

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has the weather in North Norway been particularly
> bad this summer to cause a landslide? The incident
> on the RhB in Switzerland occured after some
> particularly torrential rainstorms.


Nick, were these two pictures of (true) Veolia trains (not SJ like today) taken anywhere nearby? (or was this around Abisko?)


Interestingly the SSRT owned locomotives today are just like they were, except for the logo. These locos today are actually run all over Sweden, so you might spot one or two in Stockholm, Kristinehamn, Hallsberg, Gothenburg, ... but all coaches now are nicely matching the locomotives (third picture by Gerry of the same locomotive unit as is shown on your picture above).

---

---

---

The first picture was taken at Björkliden and the second just on the Norwegian side of the border west of Riksgransen. I must go again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/14 03:50 by 86235.

Oh yes, that is indeed Björkliden! Looks very similar to what you find just below Rombak station in Norway.

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The first picture was taken at Björkliden and the
> second just on the Norwegian side of the border
> west of Riksgransen. I must go again.

So best that I can gather, into Narvik LKAB runs about 10 ore trains each way per day, Green Cargo runs 2 each way, Cargonet runs 1 intermodal each way 5 days per week to/from Oslo, and SJ runs 2 passenger trains each way. No intermodal trains from Narvik to Stockholm, other than connecting at Oslo. No grain or other type of general merchandise besides intermodal. Grand total of roughly 30 trains per day in and out of Narvik.

Corrections?

You have quite right figures! Just remember that looking at the timetable the slots are just slots, which can be used or not. Also the trains are actually often not running according to timetables. Green Cargo can also run trains on Malmbana when wagonloads appear. And to add some more variation extras to normal traffic do exist. Plus frequent MOW equipment moves are not on timetables at all.

One possible correction: the Oslo to Narvik intermodal does connect to other intermodals at terminals as far as I've seen right. But I still need confirmation to this. Sweden seems to be full of CargoNet intermodals these days anywhere I go.

Doubling of some of the Swedish section of Malmbana is going to start in the near future, raising the capacity of around 35-50 trains / day to a little more. Much depends of course if revenue runs are made during the night or if Malmbana is confined to MOW operations only at that time. And future of the iron rich northern rail line depends on the iron ore / iron pellet market price, more or less. I know several places where rich iron magnetite is located just next to track / sea, but no line / harbor exists yet. It is interesting to see how these are developed.

Theoretically there could be forestry products shipped through Narvik, but so far I have not seen this happening (which does not mean it would not happen). The Southern Malmbana has huge wooded areas but so far it looks like these are railed or trucked tot he opposite direction to Bothnian gulf, where the traditional wood industry factories in dozens are located.

Grain is not being shipped by rail around here at all, but covered hoppers are used extensively by many other types of industries.

darkcloud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So best that I can gather, into Narvik LKAB runs
> about 10 ore trains each way per day, Green Cargo
> runs 2 each way, Cargonet runs 1 intermodal each
> way 5 days per week to/from Oslo, and SJ runs 2
> passenger trains each way. No intermodal trains
> from Narvik to Stockholm, other than connecting at
> Oslo. No grain or other type of general
> merchandise besides intermodal. Grand total of
> roughly 30 trains per day in and out of Narvik.
>
> Corrections?

---

When I was there two years ago SJ ran two passenger trains trains between Stockholm and Narvik (one north and one south), plus two trains (one east and one west) between Lulea and Narvik. Has there been more "bustitution?" Gerry

darkcloud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
So best that I can gather, into Narvik...SJ runs 2 passenger trains each way.

Corrections?
-------------------------------------------------------

---

---

---

Thank you Gerry for a set of pictures capturing the feeling up on Malmbana!

Yes, there has been bustitution, unfortunately, reason most likely being the rail congestion and price difference between the two modes of transportation. I was actually waiting for a passenger train at Narvik station for an hour and half this spring. A couple of IORE pulled LKAB trains passed the place instead. Only then I noticed that the little text at the bottom of the timetable actually says that it is a bus instead of a train. So that is where the waiting passengers from the Narvik station building disappeared to...grrrr...

The animal in the picture is quite hard to recognize as if you put the name to google to check the species you actually get something quite different results instead...

GPutz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I was there two years ago SJ ran two
> passenger trains trains between Stockholm and
> Narvik (one north and one south), plus two trains
> (one east and one west) between Lulea and Narvik.
> Has there been more "bustitution?" Gerry
>
> darkcloud Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> So best that I can gather, into Narvik...SJ runs 2
> passenger trains each way.
>
> Corrections?
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----

---

---

Gerry, can you memorize where the double track tunnel in your picture is located?

John, From the sequence of my images, it appears that Katterat Station is near the east/south end of the tunnels. The Google Earth is not very clear in this area. Gerry

Oh, that area! I wish I could get there. Maybe during the next trip to the area.

GPutz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> John, From the sequence of my images, it appears
> that Katterat Station is near the east/south end
> of the tunnels. The Google Earth is not very
> clear in this area. Gerry

darkcloud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So best that I can gather, into Narvik LKAB runs
> about 10 ore trains each way per day, Green Cargo
> runs 2 each way, Cargonet runs 1 intermodal each
> way 5 days per week to/from Oslo, and SJ runs 2
> passenger trains each way. No intermodal trains
> from Narvik to Stockholm, other than connecting at
> Oslo. No grain or other type of general
> merchandise besides intermodal. Grand total of
> roughly 30 trains per day in and out of Narvik.
>
> Corrections?

The empty ore trains also carry stone inbound, or at elast they did in 2008. Incidentally back in 2008 Cargonet ran more than one daily intermodal train.

I think they still do. Looking at the LKAB terminal picture above the pier closest to the camera is for incoming pelleting and mine building materials.

I could actually keep looking at that pier, the maritimetraffic site and several Narvik webcams can provide pretty good picture of the happenings there. For the moment it looks like a ship called "Serenity" (IMO:9287998) is loading pellets on LKABs side and will most likely be heading next to Northern Germany or UK port for unloading.


86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The empty ore trains also carry stone inbound, or
> at elast they did in 2008.