The main purpose of the railway was to move lumber from Mjøsa to the capital, but passenger service was also offered.

Bergen closed down its first generation system between 1944 and 1965, but (re-)introduced light rail transit (LRT) in 2006.

In 1966 Norway's only rapid transit, Oslo T-bane was opened, but in the same decade the Bergen tramway was closed.

The national main routes in Norway are considered to be among the slowest in Europe,[7] and slower than parts of East Africa,[8] with average speeds below 80 km/h.

In addition there are some industrial tracks and minor branch lines and some abandoned and heritage railways.

The entire main network is 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) (standard gauge), as are the urban railways in Oslo and Bergen.

Still, Narvik is one of the northernmost towns in the world to have a railway connection, as the terminus for the Ofoten Line.

It connects to Kiruna, Sweden, but not to Bodø, the northern terminus of the Norwegian railway network.

2,622 km (64%) of the railway network is electrified, all of it at 15 kV  16.7 Hz AC with overhead wires.

All of the urban railways use 600 or 750 V DC, via overhead wires on the tramways and via third-rail on the Oslo T-bane.

In its plans, Bane NOR will concentrate its expansions primarily on the cramped network around Oslo and the larger cities.

The question about building a high-speed railway between the largest Southern Norwegian cities has been discussed at political level, and a report was ready by the end of 2007.

The Norwegian Railway Museum is located in Hamar and includes exhibits of train hardware, related objects, as well as document and photography archives.

There are proposals to connect Northern Norway to Finland (the planned Arctic Railway) and Russia.

In 2017 Norway's Ministry of Transport and Communications decided to develop tenders for the operation of passenger rail services.

On 4 February 2018, it launched a tender to deliver Traffic Package 1 that will commence on 15 December 2019, comprising long-distance services on the Sørlandet Line from Oslo to Stavanger.