Reservelinjer

Reservelinjer is a concept in infrastructure planning describing spare or backup lines kept in reserve to maintain service continuity in the event of equipment failure, maintenance, or unexpected demand. The term is used across several sectors and is common in Norwegian planning and regulatory discussions.

In railways, reservelinjer can be secondary tracks or sidings that can be used to reroute trains during maintenance work or incidents. They may be non-electrified or have limited capacity and require protection agreements and signaling adjustments to be activated safely.

In telecommunications, reserve lines are standby circuits or fiber routes that remain idle until a primary line fails, then automatically or manually take over to preserve connectivity. They are typically geographically diverse to reduce the risk of common-cause failures.

In power and utilities, reserve transmission lines connect substations to provide voltage support and service continuity when lines are out of service, enabling reliability standards and fallbacks during outages or peak loads.

Planning for reservelinjer involves risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and governance frameworks that balance resilience against capital and operating expenses. The concept supports disaster readiness and service reliability, yet it can entail substantial upfront costs and underutilized capacity. Overall, reservelinjer are a practical approach to ensuring continuity in critical infrastructure, but their design and use require careful evaluation of needs, geography, and budget. See also redundancy, contingency planning.