Railways in

Svalbard

Preserved locomotive and wagons in Ny Ålesund.
The locomotive is an 0-4-0 well tank believed to have been built in 1909 by Borsig of Berlin
for a Silesian mining company, imported to Ny Ålesund around 1917.

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, governed by Norway. Only three of the islands – Spitsbergen, Bjørnøya, and Hopen – are inhabited. Hopen does not have any railways. The flag shown here is that of Norway, Svalbard does not have a recognized flag of its own.

Spitsbergen

The largest island of the archipelago was once an important centre of mining for coal and various metals. A few of the mines are still operational. Most of them had a railway system at one time or another, and various relics remain. Noteworthy were:

• Ny Ålesund a mining railway remarkable for being the most northerly railway in the world (with the possible exception of a short section of tramway recently discovered on a former Soviet air base in Franz Josef Land). Opened by the Kings Bay Company around 1916 and closed by 1963. The line was constructed to 900mm gauge, but in later years second hand locomotives of 891mm gauge from Sweden were used, apparently without modification. The site has some of the best preserved railway relics of the area, with a steam locomotive and several wagons cosmetically restored and on display as static exhibits. Although mining here has long since ceased, the Kings Bay Company still exists, and operates in the area as a scientific research and environmental monitoring organization.
• Barentsburg the mine, operated by Arcticugol has a 600mm gauge railway system with as much as 20km of line underground and 2.5km in covered ways on the surface. Battery electric and diesel locomotives are used. Railway reportedly still in operation in the early 21st century, and presumably remains so, since the mine continues in production. Coal is supplied for local power generation needs, together with a small amount for export. Current plans envisage the mine remaining open until at least 2024 (Arcticugol website in Russian, link for English version not functional when last checked)

Bjørnøya (Bear Island)

A metre gauge line was operational for a few years in the early 1920s. The remains of one of the locomotives are visible on the beach.