Private railways of Norway


Private railways in Norway consist of industrial and public railways. Industrial railways were used to transport ore or other industrial products to ports, although they have, particularly to begin with, also operated passenger and cargo services. The other nine private railways have been public and operated as mixed passenger and freight services. Of these, four were later taken over by the Norwegian State Railways. Only five non-industrial railways were never nationalized, despite all having been closed. There were the Nesttun–Os, Holmestrand–Vittingfoss, Lillesand–Flaksvand, Tønsberg–Eidsfoss and the Lier lines. No industrial railways remain in operation, although one former private railway, the Trunk Line, Norway's first railway, is still in use.
The division between private and publicly owned railways is related to operation rather than ownership. All non-industrial private railways received state grants for construction, while many of NSB's railways were at first organized as limited companies with private owners, although NSB was responsible for all operations and maintenance of the line and rolling stock. For both NSB-run and private, non-industrial railways, municipalities and counties were often the largest owners. Eventually, all the private, non-industrial railways started losing money, and unless they received subsidies, were forced to close. However, the state and municipalities often provided subsidies to keep them operational. The last private railway to close was the Lillesand–Flaksvand Line, in 1958.

List

The following is a list of the private railways in Norway. It includes the line, type, the owner at the time the railway was closed, the longest length of the line, the gauge, the date the line opened, was nationalized and was closed for passenger and cargo, if applicable. The list only contains industrial railways which at some point had regular passenger transport.
LineTypeOwnerLength
Length
GaugeOpenedNationalizedClosed
Closed
DunderlandIndustrialDunderland Iron Ore Company01 11 1904———-
GrimstadPublic—15 09 190724 01 191201 09 196101 09 1961-
Holmestrand–VittingfossPublicVestfold Privatbaner02 10 1902—27 09 193101 06 1938-
LierPublic—02 10 1904—23 10 193201 01 1937-
Lillesand–FlaksvandPublic—04 06 1894—15 06 195315 06 1953-
Nesttun–OsPublic—01 07 1894—02 09 193502 09 1935-
RjukanIndustrialNorsk Transport09 08 1909—01 07 1991-
SolbergfossIndustrialOslo Lysverker—04 01 1965-
SulitjelmaIndustrialElkem13 10 1892—15 06 1915-
ThamshavnIndustrialSalvesen & Thams15 07 1908—30 05 1974-
Tønsberg–EidsfossPublicVestfold Privatbaner21 10 1901—01 06 193801 06 1938-
TrunkPublic—01 09 185404 03 1926——-
Urskog–HølandPublic—14 11 189601 07 194501 07 196001 07 1960-
ValdresPublic—01 09 190201 01 193701 01 1989—-