The line's elevation difference is 866 meters (2,841 ft); it has ten stations, twenty tunnels and one bridge.

In 1992, freight services were terminated, and due to low ticket prices and high operating costs, the line was nearly closed.

The line has standard gauge and a minimum curve radius of 130 meters (430 ft),[1] and is the steepest standard-gauge railway in Europe.

[1] The line is electrified at 15 kV  16.7 Hz AC using overhead wire, and is equipped with Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R),[3] but lacks centralized traffic control (CTC).

[8] At 10.51 kilometers (6.53 mi) from Myrdal, the line reaches Berekvam Station, located at 344 meters (1,129 ft) AMSL.

Because the station is unmanned and lacks CTC, crossing must be performed using flags at day and torches at night, set by personnel who travel from Myrdal or Flåm.

[11] After Håreina Station, located 17.21 kilometers (10.69 mi) from Myrdal at 48 meters (157 ft) elevation,[7] the valley widens and changes character, becoming flatter and with more vegetation.

[11] After passing Lunden Station, 18.60 kilometers (11.56 mi) from Myrdal and at 16 meters (52 ft) elevation, the line reaches the terminus at Flåm.

[7] Located on Aurlandsfjord, a branch of the Sognefjord, Flåm has 400 residents and is nearly exclusively a tourist area, featuring amongst other things a hotel and a cruise ship port.

[13] Plans to build a railway to connect Norway's two largest cities, Oslo and Bergen, were launched by Andreas Tanberg Gløersen in 1871.

[14] During the construction of the Bergen Line, the path that ran up Flåmsdalen was upgraded by NSB to allow access to the area around Myrdal.

[15] This road was used by horse carriages and later cars, becoming an important access route to the area, but it was too steep and narrow for heavy vehicles.

It resulted in a proposal for a 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge railway which would be 18.0 kilometers (11.2 mi) long.

[17] In 1904, a radically different route to Sognefjord was proposed: a 47.13-kilometer (29.29 mi) long adhesion line from Voss to Gudvangen via Stalheim.

It was estimated to cost NOK 800,000, but NSB was concerned that the proposal's light rolling stock would not be sufficient to operate through snow during the winter.

His final report was finished in 1913, and although it recommended adhesion, it pointed out that the line's capacity would be smaller than predicted and that costs would be three times as high—NOK 5.5 million.

In that period, construction was led by Peter Bernhard Kristian Lahlum, who was also responsible for the Hardanger Line.

[23] After the Hardanger Line was completed, Lahlum retired, and the office was moved to Flåm where responsibility was taken over by Adolph M. B.

Other slides during construction included an avalanche near Store Reppa on 10 February 1925, which deposited up to 3.5 meters (11 ft) of earth.

[30] Ten stations were built for the line, including a major upgrade to Myrdal and port facilities at Flåm.

Myrdal Station was given side tracks and additional buildings to serve transferring passengers, with the upgrades costing NOK 0.5 million.

[25] During construction of the Bergen Line in 1898, the upper part of Kjosfossen had been built up with a hydroelectric power station.

Built by Kværner and Norsk Elektrisk & Brown Boveri (NEBB), it had a power output of 1,700 kilowatts (2,300 hp).

In the latter half of the decade, NSB launched the Norway in a Nutshell package, which included a ride on the Flåm Line.

[40] When the line opened, it received a lot of freight traffic for the construction of a power station in Årdal.

[41] Partial loads saw a large increase during the 1960s, after NSB and the ferry operator Fylkesbaatane i Sogn og Fjordane teamed up to send packages via Flåm to Oslo and Bergen.

New locomotives would cost NOK 20 million, and the company saw it as unrealistic to invest so much in a marginal branch line.

If a new class of locomotives was to be built, it would have to satisfy more than the requirements for the Flåm Line, so NSB instead started investigating whether any of the older models could be used.

El 13 had rheostatic brakes, which were not suitable for the gradient; the locomotives were also better suited for mainline service and would therefore not be prioritized for branch lines.

[54] The line is solely served by a tourist-oriented service operated by Vy on behalf of Flåm Utvikling.