Jæren Line

During the 19th century, transport along the Jæren coast was dominated by ship. Some simple roads had been built, but these were insufficient for quick and efficient transport. In the mid-19th century, the roads were improved, and ideas were launched to start a traction engine service along the coast. At an 1866 meeting at the sheriff's office in, Forest Manager Andreas Tanberg Gløersen launched the first idea of building a railway to connect Stavanger and Egersund. Gløersen had been to the Netherlands where he had taken and observed train operations. Later the same year, a meeting was held with representatives from the municipalities of Hå, Klepp and Time.[23]

The meeting concluded that a railway should be built, and the responsibility for the preparatory work was given to County Governor Vilhelm Ludvig Herman von Munthe af Morgenstierne. He started by conducting traffic counting throughout the district. This resulted in an estimate for a revenue of NOK 215,000 and a cost of NOK 153,000 per year.[24] Originally the proposal was to connect the various villages in Jæren together. But during planning, national authorities stated that the line would be part of a trans-national railway that would connect Rogaland to Eastern Norway. This resulted in the railway being planned with a straighter profile and running via fewer communities.[24][25]

The narrow-gauged Jæren Line near Ogna in 1908

The proposal was sent to the Ministry of the Interior, who recommended the line and presented it to Parliament on 6 May 1874.[26] Parliament passed legislation to build the line on 3 June 1874.[1] During the celebrations in Stavanger that evening, a gunner lost his hand following the explosion of a cannon.[24] Particularly in Sandnes the choice of route resulted in much debate. Parliament had in its proposal for the line stipulated that the railway should have good port access in Sandnes.[27] The "Blue Line" proposal ran along the waterfront, but would require two different stations in Sandnes. The "Red Line" proposal ran midway through the town center, splitting it in two. However, it gave only a single station, and was eventually chosen, after the municipal council initially had supported the Blue Line.[28]

Construction started in October 1874 on the section between Forus and Gausel. Tracks were shipped to Norestraen, which was the southernmost docks which were sufficiently deep to allow the ships.[27] When the railway was passed, the country was experiencing good times, but through the 1870s, the country fell into harder times. This caused a reduction in spending on the line, which was particularly in investments in stations. A standardized, small station building was chosen and in Egersund an existing house was bought.[29] The line opened on 27 February 1878,[25] and was at the time of opening 76.3 kilometers (47.4 mi) long.[1] When the line opened, it had no tunnels and only twelve stations.[11][20] Already the following year, additional stations were opened in Sirevåg, Brusand,[20] and Hognestad. Hillevåg opened in 1880 and Mariero opened in the 1880s.[11]

The yard at Brueland

On 5 February 1875, the parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways published a report recommending that there be built four trans-national railways to connect western and central Norway to eastern Norway. The Sørlandet Line was part of this plan, and was scheduled to be built between 1876 and 1888.[30] The line was proposed to be built via the Vestfold Line to Skien and onwards along the south coast before connecting with the Jæren Line at Egersund. However, Norway was hit by the Depression of 1882–85, which reduced railway construction to a minimum. In addition, controversy arose over which route should be chosen through Agder: along the populated coast or through the sparsely populated interior. This issue kept the line at bay, and not until 1908 was a decision made in favor of the interior route.[31]

In 1894, the Railway Committee recommended parliament to prioritize three new lines, the Bergen Line, the Rauma Line and the Gjøvik Line. However, this met protests from representatives from Agder, and it became clear that there would not be a majority to build the Bergen Line unless part of the Sørlandet Line was built. Jørgen Løvland proposed a compromise in which the Flekkefjord Line be built from Egersund to Flekkefjord, as the first part of the Sørlandet Line, as well as the Treungen Line. The Flekkefjord Line opened on 31 October 1904.[32] The same year, stations were opened at Forus and Gausel.[11]

The Ålgård Line was originally launched as an alternative route for the Sørlandet Line. In 1910, a committee was appointed to conduct preliminary planning. Although NSB's board supported the line, construction was placed on hold. In 1919, local politicians proposed that the line be built administratively as part of the Jæren Line, but this was rejected by the government.[33] Instead, the ministry wanted to again consider the Ålgård Line as part of the Sørlandet Line, and proposed that the Ålgård Line be built with standard gauge—which would be used for the Sørlandet Line—instead of the narrow gauge used by the Jæren Line. However, there would be no need for standard gauge until the Sørlandet Line was extended to Rogaland, so the line was planned to be built with narrow gauge track, but all other installations would be prepared for standard gauge.[34] The first train to operate on the line went from Stavanger on 20 December 1924,[35] and the Ålgård Line became the last state-owned railway in Norway to be opened with narrow gauge.[36] Not until 1930 was a branch built from the railway station in Sandnes to the port.[28]

The Sørlandet Line was being built in standard gauge, and when the line was to connect to the Flekkefjord Line at Moi Station, the Jæren Line would have to be rebuilt to standard gauge to avoid a break-of-gauge. Preliminary work to ease the conversion was done during the 1920s.[37] The conversion itself took only two days, during which the line was closed. On 29 April 1944, a test train was run from Sira to Stavanger. The upgrade was officially opened on 1 May, after which the Jæren Line was connected to Oslo, and considered part of the Sørlandet Line.[38] When the Jæren Line was built, the station in Egersund was located in the city center. With the opening of the Sørlandet Line, a new station was built 1-kilometer (0.62 mi) north of the city center.[37][39] The old station remained in use, despite being located on a dead-end track, as it was served by trains terminating in Egersund. However, this section of line was not converted to standard gauge until 1948. Passenger traffic was terminated from 25 September 1952, although the spur remained in use as a port line until 1986.[3]

With the change of gauge, NSB took the opportunity to change the route several places.[40] After these changes, including the move of the station in Egersund, the Jæren Line was reduced to a length of 73.1 kilometers (45.4 mi).[3] The changes included building twelve new tunnels on the section between Brusand and Egersund, of which nine were between Hellvik and Egersund.[20] Another tunnel was built at Lurahammer in Sandnes.[11] The tunnels opened between 1947 and 1950.[11][20]

Sandnes became the third-largest intermediate stop on the Sørlandet Line, after Drammen Station and Kristiansand Station. To better the facilities for serving Sandnes, the track through the city center was rebuilt to an elevated railway. Given the unofficial name The High Line (Norwegian: Høybanen), the new Sandnes Station was located further south of the center of Sandnes, at Skeiene. The new station and the elevated section opened on 1 October 1955.[18] Also a number of other stations were rebuilt, in part because they had become too small and in part because they needed to be moved because of line realignments during the gauge conversion. New station buildings were opened at Vigrestad in 1954, at Nærbø in 1955, at Sirevåg in 1956, at Bryne in 1958 and at Klepp and Varhaug in 1959.[40] The 1950s also saw the establishment of a new depot at Kvaleberget.[41] New stations were established at Varden and Vardheia in 1956,[20] Lyngnes in 1957 and Luravika in 1959. Tumarki Station was closed in 1957.[11]

In 1955, passenger traffic on the Ålgård Line was terminated, although sporadic freight traffic remained until 1988.[42] On 3 June 1956, the Jæren Line received electric traction.[43] With electrification, NSB introduced three weekly services with the Class 66 multiple units, which were capable of 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph), but the service did not generate sufficient patronage and was terminated in 1958.[44] The remaining long-haul trains were hauled using El 11 locomotives.[45] They were from the 1960s supplemented with El 13 locomotives.[46] The electrification also saw the introduction of electric multiple units for local trains. Originally this consisted of Class 65[47] and five Class 67. In 1960, the Class 67 units were swapped with Class 68 units.[48]

After the Ofoten Line, the Jæren Line was the first line in Norway to receive centralized traffic control, which was taken into use on 20 March 1964. The section from Sandnes to Egersund followed suit on 7 July.[7] In 1966, 18 stations were closed, consisting of Maurholen, Vatnanot, Stokkaland, Hogstad, Stavnheim, Odland, Dysjaland, Kvia, Tårland,[20] Gjerdo, Vardheia, Laland, Engjelsvåg, Orstad, Skjæveland, Lura, Luravika and Vaulen.[11] During the 1970s, El 14 locomotives were gradually introduced on both freight and passenger trains.[49]

Automatic train stop was introduced on 30 December 1986.[8] During the late 1980s, El 17 locomotives were introduced, but they proved unreliable and were taken out of service after 1998,[50] with the introduction of El 18.[51] In 1991, four Class 69 units were introduced on trains between Egersund and Stavanger,[52] and in 1994, two renovated Class 69 units were moved from Eastern Norway and put into service between Kristiansand and Stavanger.[53] The Scanet train radio system was installed between 1993 and 1996.[54]

Hellvik Station

The commuter rail system was introduced from 1 January 1992, after an agreement between NSB, Rogaland County Municipality and the six municipalities along the line. NSB introduced new Class 69 multiple units, while the county municipality introduced a fare coordination with the corresponding bus services.[55] The increase in service involved 15 departures per direction per day, and the travel time from Stavanger to Egersund was reduced from 80 to 55 minutes.[56] In addition, NSB introduced a half-hour headway between Stavanger and Sandnes.[57] The stations were upgraded, including new sheds.[58] A new station, Sandnes Sentrum, was opened in the city center of Sandnes.[59] At the same time, the stations with the least patronage, Hognestad and Lyngnes, were closed.[11] NSB stated that the goal was to increase the daily ridership from 2,900 to 5,000 passengers by 1994.[56]

The commuter service was a success, with NSB experiencing a 112 percent increase in ridership the first year.[60] In 1993, NSB won Statens Byggeskikkpris, among other things for the new sheds on the Jæren Line.[58] By 1995, ridership was up 150 percent from before the commuter rail started.[61] In 1997, NSB announced that they would order 36 new electric multiple units, which would among other things replace the aging trains on the Jæren Line.[62] The new Class 72 trains were put into service on 8 August 2002, several years after schedule.[63] In April 2004, the rail administration opened Jåttå Station, which was located close to Viking Stadion, the new home ground of the Norwegian Premier League side Viking FK.[15] The train transported generated a market share of one sixth of the spectators.[64] On 2 January 2007, the Scanet train radio system was replaced with GSM-R.[9]

To further increase capacity and regularity, the Norwegian National Rail Administration decided to rebuild the section from Stavanger to Sandnes to double track. The upgrade involved closing Hillevåg Station, and building three new stations: Paradis, Jåttåvågen and Gausel. Construction was estimated to cost 2.2 billion Norwegian krone.[65] The primary goal of the project was to increase capacity and build stations in areas with transit-oriented development. Travel time between Stavanger and Sandnes was only reduced with four minutes. Construction was done by adding another tack adjacent to the existing one, rather than building a new right-of-way. The upgrades included the construction of 6.3 kilometers (3.9 mi) of low noise barriers and 3.5-kilometer (2.2 mi) of conventional high noise barriers. The upgrades were made in such a way that a future tram-train can run on the route. All intermediate stations were built in such a way that they later could be adapted to also serve the light rail service. The route is built to allow the light rail service to enter and leave the Jæren Line at Lura, Gausel, Hinna and Stavager.[4]

Jåttåvågen Station opened in 2008

Construction of the 14.5-kilometer (9.0 mi) long section was split into four contracts: Stavanger–Hinna, Jåttåvågen, Jåttåvågen–Lurahammaren and Lurahammaren–Sandnes. The section past Jåttåvågen was the first to commence, in October 2006.[4] The original plans called for this section to be built last, but Stavanger Municipality wanted to prioritize transit-oriented development in conjunction with new major building projects, and therefore the municipality advanced NOK 90 million for the station.[66] In addition to Jåttåvågen Station, a number of bridges were built. The area is a growth area for Stavanger, with the station being located next to Viking Stadion, Jåttå Upper Secondary School and several large workplaces. Jåttåvågen Station opened on 6 January 2008.[67]

Construction of the section from Jåttåvågen to Lurahammaren started in March 2007, while the section from Lurahammaren to Sandnes started in September 2007. The latter is the narrowest part of the line and required the construction of several new bridges. Lurahammaren Tunnel was widened to allow double track, a new bridge was built over the intersection og Langgaten–Strandgaten, a new bridge was built over County Road 44 at Lura, the technical facilities at Sandnes Station were upgraded, and the tracks to the port in Sandnes were removed. Construction on the section between Stavanger and Hinna started in April 2008. As there was already a double track between Kvaleberg and Stavanger Station, only the southern part of the route received new track. However, the existing part was subject to technical upgrades and a new station was built at Paradis to serve the southern part the downtown area.[4] From April to November 2009, the section from Ganddal to Stavanger was closed while the last part of the upgrade was completed.[68] The new line was opened on 16 November 2009 and from 14 December, the 15-minute headway was introduced between Stavanger and Sandnes.[5]

Construction of a new freight terminal at Ganddal started in 2005. The terminal cost NOK 500 million and replaced the terminal at Stavanger Station. Construction 0was completed in 2007 and the terminal opened on 21 January 2008[19] Both the terminal and the double track were to use the newly developed signaling system Merkur, but the Norwegian Railway Inspectorate would not give permission for the system to be installed.[69][70] Because of this, the signaling system at the terminal is operated manually and therefore cannot be used with full capacity.[71]