inception nettbuss
Orkney , also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland , situated off the north coast of Great Britain . Orkney is ___MASK57___ kilometres ( 10 mi ) north of the coast of Caithness and comprises approximately 70 islands , of which 20 are inhabited . The largest island Mainland is often referred to as " the Mainland ". It has an area of , making it the sixth - largest Scottish island and the tenth - largest island in the British Isles . The largest settlement and administrative centre is Kirkwall . Rom Eiendom is a subsidiary of the Norwegian State Railways responsible for managing the commercial sections of the companies real estate . With headquarters in Oslo , the company manages . The vast majority of this is in or in connection with railway stations . Rom owns all railway stations in Norway built before ___MASK84___ . Nettbuss AS is the largest bus company in Norway owned by the Norwegian State Railways ( NSB ) . It was until ___MASK95___ known as NSB Biltrafikk . The company has 14 operating subsidiaries throughout Norway and in Denmark and Sweden . The company has its headquarters in Oslo with the operations being performed by subsidiaries . The company has about 25 % market share in Norway and offers both local and express bus services in addition to tour buses / coaches through Peer Gynt Tours . The corporation has approximately ___MASK63___ , 000 employees . Most of the routes are on contract or public service obligation ( PSO ) with the counties , and in some counties the buses are branded with the counties public transport brands , like Ruter in Akershus and Kolumbus in Rogaland . On some regional high - frequency routes Nettbuss uses its own brand TIMEkspressen ( the hourly express ) . Nettbuss AS is the largest bus company in Norway , owned by the Norwegian State Railways ( NSB ). It was established on ___MASK13___ as the continuation of the bus operations from former NSB Biltrafikk . In addition to bus services in major parts of Norway , it also operates buses in Sweden through subsidiaries . Norway (; Norwegian : ( Bokmål ) or ( Nynorsk ); Sami : " Norgga "), officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a sovereign and unitary monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula plus the island Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard . The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub - Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom . Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land . Until ___MASK59___ , the Kingdom included the Faroe Islands ( since 1035 ), Greenland ( 1261 ), and Iceland ( ___MASK98___ ). It also included Shetland and Orkney until 1468 . It also included the following provinces , now in Sweden : Jämtland , Härjedalen and Bohuslän . A monarchy is a form of government in which a group , usually a family called the dynasty , embodies the country ' s national identity and one of its members , called the monarch , exercises a role of sovereignty . The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic ( crowned republic ), to partial and restricted (" constitutional " monarchy ), to completely autocratic (" absolute " monarchy ). Traditionally and in most cases , the monarch ' s post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication , but there are also elective monarchies where the monarch is elected . Each of these has variations : in some elected monarchies only those of certain pedigrees are , whereas many hereditary monarchies impose requirements regarding the religion , age , gender , mental capacity , and other factors . Occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election . Finally , there have been cases where the term of a monarch ' s reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved : an invasion being repulsed , for instance . Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy . Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century , but it is no longer prevalent . Where it exists , it is now usually a constitutional monarchy , in which the monarch retains a unique legal and ceremonial role , but exercises limited or no official political power : under the written or unwritten constitution , others have governing authority . Currently , 47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state , ___MASK42___ of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state . All European monarchies are constitutional ones , with the exception of the Vatican City which is an elective monarchy , but sovereigns in the smaller states exercise greater political influence than in the larger . The monarchs of Cambodia , Japan , and Malaysia " reign , but do not rule " although there is considerable variation in the degree of authority they wield . Although they reign under constitutions , the monarchs of Brunei , Morocco , Oman , Qatar , Saudi Arabia and Swaziland appear to continue to exercise more political influence than any other single source of authority in their nations , either by constitutional mandate or by tradition . The European Union ( EU ) is a political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe . It has an area of , and an estimated population of over 510 million . The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states . EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people , goods , services , and capital within the internal market , enact legislation in justice and home affairs , and maintain common policies on trade , agriculture , fisheries , and regional development . Within the Schengen Area , passport controls have been abolished . A monetary union was established in ___MASK67___ and came into full force in 2002 , and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency . Svalbard ( formerly known by its Dutch name Spitsbergen ) is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean . Situated north of mainland Europe , it is about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole . The islands of the group range from 74 ° to 81 ° north latitude , and from ___MASK89___ ° to 35 ° east longitude . The largest island is Spitsbergen , followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya . Nynorsk , literally New Norwegian or New Norse , is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language , the other being Bokmål . From ___MASK16___ , when the parliament declared them official and equal , until new voting in ___MASK37___ , their names were Landsmål and Riksmål . The Landsmål language standard was constructed by the Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen during the mid - 19th century , to provide a Norwegian - based alternative to Danish , which was commonly written , and to some extent spoken , in Norway at the time . The official standard of Nynorsk has since been significantly altered . A minor purist fraction of the Nynorsk populace has stayed firm with the Aasen norm , which is known as Høgnorsk ( analogous to High German ). Tågkompaniet or Svenska Tågkompaniet AB (" The Swedish Train Company ") is a Swedish railway company that operates franchises in Northern Sweden and Greater Stockholm . The company was founded in ___MASK67___ by three former railway employees in Statens Järnvägar and the investment company Småföretagsinvest / Fylkinvest . In ___MASK97___ Norwegian State Railways purchased 34 % of Svenska Tågkompaniet , and later on October 31 , 2006 increased its ownership stake to 85 %. NSB Biltrafikk was the former road transport division of the Norwegian State Railways from the first bus routes in ___MASK72___ , as a subsidiary of NSB BA from ___MASK34___ December 1996 , until it was divided into bus operator Nettbuss and truck operator Nettlast on ___MASK13___ . CargoNet AS is the primary operator of freight trains on the Norwegian railway system . It was formed as NSB Gods after NSB fissioned into a passenger and a freight company . NSB Gods changed its name to CargoNet at the beginning of ___MASK77___ . It was originally owned by NSB ( ___MASK29___ % share hold ) and the Swedish freight company Green Cargo ; however Green Cargo sold their share to NSB in 2010 , making the latter the sole owner . The Norwegian CargoNet AS has a subsidiary company in Sweden called CargoNet AB which was purchased as RailCombi AB . Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Europe . The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries , it is south - west of Sweden and south of Norway , and bordered to the south by Germany . The Kingdom of Denmark is the sovereign state that comprises Denmark proper and two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean : the Faroe Islands and Greenland . Denmark has a total area of , and a population of ___MASK63___ . 7 million . The country consists of a peninsula , Jutland , and an archipelago of 443 named islands , with the largest being Zealand and Funen . The islands are characterised by flat , arable land and sandy coasts , low elevation and a temperate climate . Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden ( Swedish : ), is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe . It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east , and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge - tunnel across the Öresund . At , Sweden is the third - largest country in the European Union by area , with a total population of ___MASK89___ . 0 million . Sweden consequently has a low population density of , with the highest concentration in the southern half of the country . Approximately 85 % of the population lives in urban areas . Mantena is a Norwegian rolling stock maintenance company owned by Norges Statsbaner (" Norwegian State Railways "). It has workshops at Grorud and Lodalen in Oslo , Marienborg in Trondheim as well as in Skien , Drammen and Stavanger . In addition to NSB , customers include CargoNet , Kollektivtransportproduksjon , Ofotbanen , Green Cargo , Hector Rail and Tågkompaniet . The company was separated from NSB as a separate limited company in ___MASK77___ . It has ___MASK58___ employees and head offices in downtown Oslo . MiTrans , that performs rebuilding of rolling stock , is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mantena . Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a sovereign state in Northern Europe . A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west , the country has land borders with Sweden to the northwest , Norway to the north , and Russia to the east . Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland . Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia , which also includes Scandinavia . Finland ' s population is ___MASK63___ . ___MASK63___ million ( 2014 ), staying roughly on the same level over the past two decades . The majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region . In terms of area , it is the eighth largest country in Europe and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union . Norges Statsbaner AS , trading as NSB AS and known in English as the Norwegian State Railways , is a government - owned railway company which operates most passenger train services in Norway . Owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications , it is also engaged in real estate through Rom Eiendom , bus transport through Nettbuss , cargo trains through CargoNet and Swedish train transport through Tågkompaniet . NSB transported 52 million train passengers and 104 million bus passengers in ___MASK3___ . The current company was established on ___MASK34___ December 1996 , when the former Norwegian State Railways ( 1883  1996 ) was split into the new NSB , the infrastructure company the Norwegian National Rail Administration and the Norwegian Railway Inspectorate . In 2002 the freight operations were split to the subsidiary CargoNet , and the maintenance department became Mantena . Queen Maud Land is a c . ___MASK99___ . ___MASK51___ million - square - kilometre ( 1 million sq mi ) region of Antarctica claimed as a dependent territory by Norway . The territory lies between 20 ° west and 45 ° east , between the British Antarctic Territory to the west and the Australian Antarctic Territory to the east . On most maps there had been an unclaimed area between Queen Maud Land ' s borders of ___MASK61___ and the South Pole until June 12 , 2015 when Norway formally annexed that area . Positioned in East Antarctica , the territory comprises about one - fifth of the total area of Antarctica . The claim is named after the Norwegian queen Maud of Wales ( 1869  1938 ). The Faroe Islands ( Irish : " Na Scigirí ") are an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic approximately halfway between Norway and Iceland , north - northwest of mainland Scotland . The area is approximately with a ___MASK81___ population of 49 , 188 . The islands are an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark . Jämtland ( Norwegian : " Jemtland "; Latin : " Iemptia ") or Jamtland is a historical province (" landskap ") in the center of Sweden in northern Europe . It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south , Ångermanland in the east , Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west . Jämtland covers an area of 34 , 009 square kilometres , ___MASK92___ . 3 % of Sweden ' s total area and is the second largest province in Sweden . It has a population of 112 , 717 , the majority of whom live in " Storsjöbygden ", the area surrounding lake Storsjön . Östersund is Jämtland ' s only city and is the 24th most populous city in Sweden . Härjedalen is a historical province or " landskap " in the centre of Sweden . It borders the country of Norway as well as the provinces of Dalarna , Hälsingland , Medelpad , and Jämtland . The province originally belonged to Norway , but was ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Brömsebro , ___MASK70___ .