Sognefjord in late August - public transit options between Flåm & Aurland, etc.?

Context on the storage locker question:

These are the lockers I'm thinking of: https://www.norwaysbest.com/en/flam/luggage-storage-in-flam

I've seen several other posts that cover where they are & how easy they are to use, but I'm wondering about whether it'd be a good idea to leave any larger bags (without valuables, just clothes, etc.) there from our 1st day if they'd be likely to be unavailable later with the cruise passengers in town.

I found this tip on another travel forum, posted a year ago:

The luggage storage gets full very quickly and if you have large
luggage there are only 4 lockers and they are configure one on top of
the other at each end of lockers. Not surprisingly the top lockers
were free since it’s nearly impossible to get a suitcase up to them,
maybe a large pack?

Unfortunately, I cannot help with most of your questions. I do have a bit of info:

It's highly unlikely you'll need cash for any transportation tickets. Norway is cash-averse, and you'll see a lot of "No Cash" signs. During my 3-week visit in 2022, I needed cash only twice--for a public toilet in an Oslo park and for a train- or bus-station locker (not in the area where you will be).

I imagine the lockers you hope to use will require credit-card payment rather than cash, but for such an important transaction, I'd like to have cash on hand, just in case. As you have discovered, everything is expensive in Norway, so I'd expect locker fees to be pricey. An added wrinkle is that, at least in Oslo, it is extremely tricky to find a bank-owned ATM.

I think your concern about locker availability is prudent. I suggest Googling "luggage storage Flam" to see whether there are back-up options. If no results there, you might try what I've done a couple of times (though not in Norway, which is on a different economic level than most other places I've visited): Walk into a nearby hotel with a locally-generous amount of cash in your hand and ask whether they can hold your bags for X hours. It needs to be the sort of hotel that staffs its reception desk during the hours you need, and not all do that now.

You were smart to book a tour including the Borgund Stave Church. Public-bus service in 2022 was barely usable for that trip, being scheduled to allow just one hour at the church and nearby stave-church museum. It became much less usable when the outbound bus showed up in Flam 20 minutes late. That left me no time to read the information displayed at the museum. At least I got to see the church.

In general, I found rural buses ran very, very infrequently. Some run only in mid-summer, so it can be dicey to find summer schedules if you're planning a trip in the spring. However, by now I think the schedule websites should reflect everything that will be running at the time of your trip. I think the best website to use is entur.no.

The so-called "Visitor Center" in Flam is not a tourist information office intended to provide information to travelers; it is a travel agency existing to sell tours. Do not go there for help with public-transportation schedules. Those folks lied to me about the public bus to Borgund, saying there was no such service.

I can't think why cruise passengers would be using lockers. Any cruise that calls at Flam is a one day call, not a turn round call. So you only take ashore what you'll need for the day- especially as anything that goes ashore has to go through security X ray machines on return to ship.

The boat options to Aurland have to be pre booked as they are request calls.

The local buses are year round, as locals need them all year. Some are schoolday only. Thus the last local bus, the NW420 at 1830- that is actually a local long distance bus.
The NW means it is run by Norway Bus Ekspress, so is best booked with them- https://www.nor-way.no/en/

The other skyss local buses are basically just citybus routes- Skyss don't have a booking/payment app- just pay on the bus. It's a bit cumbersome but you can fid out what the fares are as Skyss run to a regional zonal fare system. It's cumbersome partly because Skyss is such a large transport operator.

What you see on Entur is what there is- nothing more is to be added.

The red buses on Entur, where it says you can't buy through them- they are the Shuttle buses run by Norways Best, so you book through them- https://www.norwaysbest.com/en/flam/things-to-do/shuttlebus-flam-aurland (or at the office in Flam, subject to space).

Skyss printed schedules you may find in Bergen, possibly Voss- there are a large number of books.

A good place to find detailed transport schedules is Norway Bus Maps- https://busmaps.com/en/norway/public_transit-stop-Fl%C3%A5m-stasjon-39808211784666996

It takes a bit of getting used to, but for instance to Borgund Stave Church, you find by some fiddling that there is a morning bus, the 820, from Flam and Aurland as well- yes it gives a long time at the Church, but it exists. If you click on the map that gives a very detailed map of stop locations. That should also turn up on entur.

The Norled boat ideally needs to be booked.

thank you so much for these details!

I have booked our Nærøyfjord cruise on Sunday to pick us up at Aurlund (via Norway's Best), but if the public bus routes mostly run during the week, I might need to book a shuttle bus from them to get us back to Aurlund that night too.

I will investigate the bus route map, very happy to have that resource!

I think one of the local bus routes I was interested in looked like I could maybe find the tickets through Vy, but it might be a cross county bus that doesn't run very often.

I do have our boat tickets for the last two days booked through Norled, since I saw recommendations to do that early if your schedule depends on it.