Background
When Holmenkolbanen, the operator of the Holmenkoll Line, was merged into Oslo Sporveier in 1975, plans were put in place to replace the old teak cars with faster units that could operate from Nationaltheatret to Frognerseteren in 25 minutes—allowing a turn-around time of one hour. At the time there had been two separate pools of trains for the eastern and western networks. On the eastern metro, the T1000 units were in use, while the western network was using older material. During the 1980s, some T1000 stock had been rebuilt with pantograph, and taken into use on the western network.
Oslo Sporveier was highly satisfied with the SL79 articulated trams that had been delivered during the 1980s. In 1985, work started on the development of a modified version for the western suburban lines. The stock on the Holmenkoll and Kolsås Line was the first that needed to be replaced. The new stock was considered to be a limited trial. If it met performance expectations, future orders could be made to replace the T1000 stock when the latter reached the end of its economical life in around 2000. The required specification for the new train was published in October 1988.
On 22 October 1987, a fatal accident occurred when one of the old HkB 600 units suffered a catastrophic failure of its braking system, and rolled down the Holmenkoll Line, finally tipping over at Midtstuen. One person was killed and four were seriously injured, leading to a safety inspection of the old teak cars used on the line; the HkB 600 units were withdrawn from service, but were reintroduced after some refits.
The initial proposal had called for 22 units, to replace all of the Kolsås and Holmenkoll Line stock. However, the Sognsvann and Røa Line was upgraded to metro standard between 1992 and 1995, and could start using T1000 stock with only third-rail support. At the time, the eastern network used third-rail, while the western network used overhead wire. The upgrade used non-utilised stock, so the order for T2000 was reduced to 12 units.
Read more about this topic: OS T2000
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