Earlier this year, I took a trip on the Bergensbanen – one of world’s most scenic railway routes travelling the full route from Oslo to Bergen. The train, operated by Vy, offers a stunning, scenic journey of seven hours with mountains, lakes and rivers on display – and a great choice of accommodation onboard. Here is a link to this post if you’d like to see!
Conveniently, there is also a night train provided by Vy on the same 308 mile (495 km) route. This, of course, misses the fantastic scenery, but is a great time-effective travel option and can be taken in combination with the day trip in the other direction. It also has a fantastic choice of accommodation onboard and one particularly innovative product! Read on to find out more.
During my visit to Norway in February 2024, I took a trip on the Vy sleeper train, the Regiontog number 605 as well as the daytime trip mentioned above.
Here’s the all important route map of the trip from Bergen to Oslo, taken by the night train and daytime train.
Departure from Oslo Sentralstasjon
The main central railway station in Oslo has everything you could need to kick start your trip – from eateries and shops, left luggage facilities, ticket office and ticket machines.
Onboard the Vy sleeper train
The Vy sleeper train features a wide choice of accommodation onboard and I truly believe there’s something for everyone here, suited to all budgets. This includes private sleeping car compartments, couchette compartments and seated carriages. The train also features an innovative, new type of accommodation called ‘PlussNatt’, or PlusNight, but first, let’s have a look at the sleeping car.
‘Sleeper’ Accommodation
The most premium type of accommodation on the Vy sleeper train is the sleeping car, of which there are normally three sleeping car carriages per train. This is what I had booked for this trip.
Each carriage houses fifteen compartments with two beds in each compartment. These are always booked for sole occupancy and will always be private for a booking of one passenger. There aren’t any compartments with en-suite bathrooms, but there is a sink in each compartment and shared toilets at the end of the carriage.
Continuing on the theme of individuality, unlike other sleeper trains in Europe, Norway has its own process for boarding the train. Anyone with a ticket for the sleeping car, must check-in with the onboard train attendant at the Dining Car and collect the key to the room. The check-in time for Oslo is 22:40.
On the day, the train attendant opted to do the check-in on the platform, adjacent the Dining Car as we boarded at the station origin. It would probably have been different if boarding at one of the stops en-route. There was a swarm of people all trying to grab the attention of the train attendant, enough to give me as a British person heart palpitations at the lack of orderly queuing, but eventually it was my turn.
Once the key had been handed to me, it was time to locate the compartment as per the ticket. As this was done on the platform, it made it far simpler to walk to the correct carriage, which happened to be the furthest one of the three – so it made sense to walk along the platform instead of through the train as there was still time before departure.
The room was fairly spacious though crying out for some colour and a carpet on the floor for some cosiness. The beds were comfortable and there was a small towel provided. There is also a small window – probably the smallest I’ve seen on a train – but enough to see a little of the moonlit scenery I was missing through the night.
There is no breakfast provided onboard the train, however Vy proactively advertise their partnerships with hotels in Oslo and Bergen to offer a discounted breakfast for passengers travelling on the Vy sleeper train – we took advantage of this in Bergen with more details below.
‘Rest’ Couchette Car Accommodation
An alternative to the sleeping car is the ‘Rest’ couchette car featuring three bunk beds per side and accommodating up to six people. According to Vy these offer “simple comfort” as customers are required to make up the beds themselves with the provided sheet, pillow and blanket.
This enables groups of up to six people to travel in the same compartment for the lowest price of any other accommodation on the train, including the seats. They can be retailed for smaller groups but become less competitive price wise with the other accommodation on the train. Again, the compartment will always be for sole occupancy of the booking irrespective of the number of passengers.
‘PlusNight’ Accommodation
Now for the exciting part! ‘PlussNatt’ (PlusNight in English), is the new innovative type of accommodation on the Vy sleeper train. As nicely summed up by the friendly conductor I was chatting to, “it’s aeroplane business class on a train!”.
PlusNight, in theory, enables the best of both worlds – a lie flat bed at a lower cost than a sleeping car compartment. My goal was to reserve one for this trip actually, however, for my specific travel date at the time of booking it was actually cheaper for me to purchase a ticket for a private sleeping car than to buy one for a PlusNight seat. I, of course, opted for the more comfortable, private option and decided to check out the PlusNight offering before everyone arrived!
The PlusNight seats are comfortable and easily converted to a bed at the switch of a button. The seats do provide some privacy, considering it is an open saloon, more with the way the seats are angled and the cocooning shell of the seat. A free blanket is provided as well as earplugs, eye mask. The hard product features a reading lamp, USB and electrical charging outlet and a small table. There are no curtains, however, most of the route is through the wilderness so I don’t imagine this being too much of a problem and the lights are dimmed.
From what I saw, I would definitely try PlusNight in the future and would like to see it as an alternative to seating on other sleeper trains!
Seated Accommodation
As is standard on European night trains, there are also regular seated accommodation – ideal for late night or early morning trips, not so great for an overnight haul.
These feature a pretty comfortable seat, similar to that used in Second Class on the older DB ICE high speed trains, in a 2+2 configuration. Although perfectly fine during the day they wouldn’t be so during the night. Most seats are in an airline-style configuration and feature small foldable tray tables.
I don’t recommend this for the full overnight trip if a lie-flat option is within your means.
Onboard Catering
Onboard the Vy sleeper train is a Dining Car, although it should be noted that this is closed for breakfast, presumably as the arrival into Bergen, and Oslo in the other direction is an early 06:27. There are a range of cold and hot meals available in the evening with cold and hot beverages. Although prices for this food and drink aren’t bad by Norway’s standards, they aren’t cheap.
Scenery
With it being a night train in the middle of winter, the scenery on offer was extremely limited. Waking up in the middle of the night, I could still see a snowy landscape in the moonlight – so it is worth a check if you wake up!
Otherwise, take a trip on the daytime Vy service to really enjoy the scenery on offer – the best bits of which can be seen in my YouTube video below.
Arrival into Bergen
The Vy sleeper train arrived into a chilly Bergen five minutes early at 06:22. There was an announcement made five-six minutes before arrival, which appears to be the standard time for announcing stops in Norway. There was no mention on the tannoy of being able to stay on the train a bit longer, so not fancying a trip to the sidings I disembarked straightaway. It turns out that the train waited until 06:45 at least, when some passengers, either in the know or risk takers, alighted!
It’s one of those trips where a delay would have been nice to have longer in bed. It did feel a bit too early to be in Bergen, which hadn’t woken up yet.
The station itself has facilities including left luggage lockers, a waiting room, ticket offices and some kiosks / cafés though these weren’t open yet. On the wall above the entrance is a nice mural featuring some landmarks of Bergen.
Grand Hotel Terminus Breakfast
A breakfast buffet is available in the Grand Hotel Terminus across the road from Bergen station for NOK 195 (16,30€) and available from 06:45. This was a good option to also have somewhere comfortable to wait for sunrise before exploring Bergen. There is also the option of the Thon Hotel Opera if arriving at Oslo – check out Vy’s website for more information.
Highlights in Bergen
Bergen is Norway’s second largest city is also known as the ‘city of seven mountains’. Bergen makes for a nice day or two’s excursion.
From my visit to Bergen, I recommend:
- Exploring Bryggen – an insight into Bergen’s medieval past with its coloured, wooden houses
- A trip on the Fløibanen funicular for views of the city
- Bergenhus Fortress
Booking and Fares
Norway has a reputation for being an expensive country. Thankfully when it comes to train travel prices are relatively affordable.
Fares vary like air fares and other long distance railway routes and can be booked in advance at http://www.vy.no. Not all types of accommodation are available in the ‘non-flexible tickets’ category so do check each fares’ category first to see your full options.
In terms of typical fares available on the Bergensbanen, here’s a guide:
| Journey Leg | Private Sleeping Car | Private Couchette “Rest” Car for up to 6 people | PlusNight Lie-flat seat | Seat |
| Oslo to Bergen | from NOK 759 / 63,40€ | from NOK 1,299 / 108,40€ | from NOK 499 / 41,70€ | from NOK 269 / 22,50€ |
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Conclusion
All in all, I really enjoyed my trip on the Vy sleeper train. Rather than mirror other European operators night train products, Vy have set their own standards and seem to have really considered their accommodation options and processes onboard to cater for as many people as possible. The four accommodation options onboard offer something for everyone – whether you travel in a group or alone, want maximum comfort or a low ticket price. The brand new innovative PlusNight product is great for solo travellers who want to save money on the sleeper. It’s a shame that the train arrives so early and that sleep is limited, but you can’t have it all!
Have you taken the Oslo to Bergen train? What was your experience – let us know in the comments below!
This Travel Report was first published in November 2024.
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