Norwegian State Railways

Norwegian State Railways (NSB) matters to the investigation not only as the operator of the trains carrying passengers through the Norwegian mountains, but also as the institution whose travel records make otherwise separate movements legible. Online ticket purchases and a dining-car payment help direct attention toward Ustaoset and the possible connection among Adele Vetlesen, Borgny Stem-Myhre, and Marit Olsen.

Travel records and the investigation

Katrine Bratt finds that Adele Vetlesen, a 28-year-old woman from Drammen reported missing by her partner in November, bought an online ticket from Drammen to Ustaoset for November 7. The same date, Borgny Stem-Myhre bought a ticket from Kongsberg to the same destination. The parallel journeys provide a concrete link between two women in the investigation, while the mountain region’s relative remoteness makes their shared destination noteworthy.

Marit Olsen leaves a less direct trace in NSB’s records: investigators find no registered ticket in her name, but they do find a payment made at the dining-car card terminal aboard the same train. It was recorded at 14:13 on the previous day, when the timetable placed the train between Äl and Geilo, before Ustaoset. Harry Hole points out that the train continued to Bergen, so the payment alone does not establish Marit’s destination. Katrine’s further discovery—that a hotel in Ustaoset recorded a double-room stay for Rasmus Olsen, whose registered address matched Marit’s—adds context to the rail clue without turning it into proof that NSB’s records do not provide.

A railway in everyday use

The railway appears as a working passenger service with different carriage classes and onboard facilities. Aboard an NSB comfort car, Kaja Solness finds that the label promises little more than free magazines, two cups of coffee, and power for a computer: passengers are packed closely together, while the economy car is nearly empty. When her phone rings, she retreats there to speak with Harry Hole. The contrast gives the service a modest, practical presence in the narrative, far removed from any romantic idea of comfortable travel.

The route also fixes the investigation in physical space. Kaja reports that the train has just passed through Kongsberg, while the earlier payment record places another journey between Äl and Geilo. Together with the ticket destinations, these details make the railway a moving line of evidence: NSB’s routes connect towns and mountain settlements, and its records help investigators reconstruct who may have travelled, when, and toward which part of the country.

Narrative significance

NSB’s role is evidentiary rather than dramatic. Its systems do not solve the case; they supply fragments that investigators must interpret alongside hotel registration and other information. A purchased ticket gives a clear destination, whereas a dining-car transaction gives only a time and a train location. That difference matters: the railway’s data narrows possibilities, but Harry’s objection to Katrine’s inference shows that a trace of travel is not the same as certainty about intent or destination.