The Northern Norway Line is a proposed railway which would be built through Northern Norway. Several proposals have been launched; one is to connect from the Nordland Line at Fauske and continue onwards to Narvik, Tromsø, and Harstad. The Troms Line is a more limited proposal, which calls for a line between Narvik and Tromsø, but which would not connect to the rest of the railway network in Norway and instead the Swedish railway network via the Ofoten Line. During the Second World War, the German occupation forces started building the Polar Line between Fauske and Narvik, but that was abandoned after the war.

2019 study

In 2019 the Norwegian Railway Directorate signed an agreement with Asplan Viak to study the development of a line from Fauske via Narvik to Tromsø. The Fauske – Tromsø Line would be around 375 km long, while the Bjerkvik – Harstad line would be just over 80 km long. The study has two suggested routes, one with a lot of tunnels, and one with fewer tunnels. The former has a 53 km long tunnel and the latter 9 bridges over 1000 m length. Both have suspension bridges with over 1000 m span, near world record for railway bridges. The analyses found the full scheme development would cost NOK113 billion, while the line to Harstad would cost around NOK20 billion. The analysis showed that it would cost more than NOK100 billion ($US 11.6 billion). However, the Norwegian Railway Directorate says the line will not be economically viable, as calculations show a net loss for the state of between NOK46 billion and NOK109 billion.

Proposed routes and details

There are both and lines being proposed.

1520mm gauge routes

1435mm gauge routes