page_title: Meråker Line
section_title: Impact
hierarchical_section_title: Meråker Line / History / Impact
caption_attribution_description: English: Meråker Line in Meråker, Norway
context_page_description: The Meråker Line is a 72-kilometer railway line which runs through the district and valley of Stjørdalen in Trøndelag county, Norway. The line branches off from the Nordland Line at Hell Station and runs eastwards to the Norway–Sweden border, with Storlien Station acting as the border station. From there, the line continues as the Central Line. Traditionally, the Meråker Line was regarded as the whole line from Trondheim Central Station to the border, a distance of 102 kilometers. There are two daily passenger train services operated by the Norwegian State Railways and a limited number of freight trains hauling lumber and wood chippings.
  Proposals for a railway were first made in 1870. Routes via Verdal and Røros were soon discarded and the Meråker Line was approved on 5 June 1873. The first revenue services ran in 1879 and the line was officially opened on 22 July 1882. The line gave a boom to the local economy, allowing for same-day transport of produce to Trondheim. The line has been upgraded several times to increase the axle load. During World War II, the line was the scene of both the Hommelvik train collision and the Meråker train derailment.
context_section_description: The Meråker Line was of great economic and social importance for the villages it passed through. It allowed much quicker transport into Trondheim, and the station buildings became centers of community life. For the first time these places had telegraph stations and daily post deliveries. The expedient transport meant that many more people chose to travel into Trondheim, which gained an advantage over other towns, such as Levanger and Stjørdalshalsen, in becoming the regional center for trade. Especially  Stjørdalshalsen lost much of its importance for the villages up the valley Stjørdalen. For farmers, the railway made it possible to sell fresh dairy products to Trondheim, and even to Sundsvall. New markets, combined with good income during construction that allowed for investments in machinery, increased the revenue and profits for agriculture along the line. By 1900, 68 people were employed by the railway in Meråker alone.
  Storlien, located on the Swedish side of the border, flourished as a resort, with the first hotel established soon after the railway arrived. Trade between the two countries increased, as Jämtland had easy access to the Trøndelag market. However, the freight rates were so high that it was cheaper to send some products to Trøndelag from the Swedish east coast by ship around Scania.
  Meråker saw an industrial boom due to the railway. There was already a copper mine and smelters at Kopperå, and they saw the railway as a possibility to change from locally produced charcoal to imported coke. A pulp mill opened in 1887, but burned down in 1912. The most important industry was the carbide factory that opened in Kopperå in 1900—Meraker Smelteverk. Though located close to the hydroelectricity sources in Meråker, the import and export of raw and finished materials would not have been possible without the railway. A port for the plant was built at Muruvik in 1918.
  Lumber export was one of the main driving forces for building railways at the time, and the Meråker Line was no exception. In both Stjørdalen and the vast areas of Jämtland and Northern Sweden are huge amounts of woodlands. The Meråker Line ran straight through this area, and was seen as a new possibility to export lumber to the continent, where there was high demand for it. Before the railway was built, there was a small sawmill in Hommelvik. In 1881, the Scotsman Lewis Miller bought huge areas of woods in Jämtland, as well as nine sawmills in Sweden. All the produce from these were then sent to Hommelvik for processing and shipment. At the most he employed 100 men, and exported up to 183,000,000 m³ (6.5×10⁹ cu ft) of lumber each year. Also located at Hommelvik were two wharfs owned by NSB, and one of the major imports was coal for the Swedish State Railways.
caption: The Meråker Line through Meråker in the 1880s
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