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560 N. O. E. Olsson et al.Table 1.Overview of the studied projectsFinal cost( millions) Type of projectConstructionbegunConstructionendedGardermoen line 968 new line (double track) 1994 1999Vestfold line 159 from a single to a doubletrack 1993 2002Østfold line (Ski–Sandbukta) 195 from a single to a doubletrack 1987 1996Bergen line (Finse-Gråskallen) 101 major improvements of theexisting single-track line 1990 1999NSB BA (now NSB AS), The Norwegian Railway Inspectorate and the NorwegianNational Rail Administration in 1996. Competitive bidding for subsidized traffic isunder introduction and new train operators have entered the freight market.The Norwegian railway network consists of 4077 km of railway line, of which38% is not electrified (based on information given at http://www.jernbaneverket.no).A special characteristic of the Norwegian rail network is the relativelylow share of double tracks. Only 5% of the network consists of double tracks. Alldouble tracks are close to Oslo. All long-distance, regional and freight trainsmainly run on single tracks. Many commuter trains in the Oslo region are run onboth single and double tracks. Figure 1 shows an overview of the Norwegian railnetwork along with the location of the studied projects.Figure 1. Norwegian rail network and location of studied projects (in grey). The relative size location of the new built rail lines are only indicativeBetween 1975 and 1991, the number of passengers on Norwegian railways wasfairly stable at around 33 and 38 million passengers per annum, respectively, witha declining tendency from 1981. From 1991 to 2000, there was an increase innumbers. In 1991, the total number of passengers was 33.4 million, while thenumber was 55.3 millions in 2000 (data from http://www.ssb.no). Beginning in2001, there was a downward trend in the numbers of passengers, which at thetime of writing have levelled out and show signs of improvements. Buses haverepresented a fairly constant transport volume for most of the last 30 years, withan increase during the last few years, when express coach traffic has been deregulated(JBV Utredning, 2004). Air traffic volumes affect rail ridership in two ways:first, as competition to long-distance trains; and second, related to train traffic toand from airports, and Oslo Airport Gardermoen in particular. Norwegian airtraffic has been growing for a number of years, until 2000. After a few years ofdecline and fierce price completion, air travel is now growing again.Results from an Analysis of the ProjectsFigure 2 shows that the four projects all had different characteristics about how theywere planned to be executed, and how they actually were carried out. In Figure 2,a ‘planned approach’ relates to how a project was intended to be decided upon andexecuted in the front-end phase, typically described in a ‘main report’ for the project,dated at least 1 year before final approval of the project in parliament. An ‘actualapproach’ describes how the projects were finally decided upon and executed.Figure 2. Model for the planning and execution of railway investment projects, and how the studied fit into the modelAll the studied projects were divided into sections for practical purposes. Thedistinctions between an ‘integrated’ and ‘section-by-section’ approach in Figure 2relate primarily to the decision process. Projects that actually were executed as