Norway plans to have 75 - 95% of current intranational air traffic between large cities replaced by rail

This is today's second article on high-speed rail in Norway after this one. The article itself is a few months old but worth taking a look at given its long-term perspective. The original in Norwegian is here. Here's a short summary of the article:

The parliament has a majority to invest in high-speed trains (speeds of 250 kph and above) in Norway. The goal is to capture 95% of air travellers in between Oslo and the largest cities. This has the support of most of the parties except one, the Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party), who believe it to be useless in a country like Norway. They are of the opinion that the money would be better spent on upgrading existing rail instead of going with high-speed rail, and also that building high-speed trains would go at the expense of other transport projects in the next few years.

The committee majority believes that there is a significant traffic base for high-speed rail, as shown in a study from Urbanet Analyse carried out on behalf of the rail administration. The study shows that high-speed rail sa the potential to take over 75 to 95% of the airline market between Oslo and the other large cities in Norway. The cost to set up the lines is calculated to be somewhere between 80 and 130 billion krone ($14.2 billion to $23 billion), suggesting that the lines would be paid over 30 years.