page_title: Kristiania Sporveisselskab
section_title: Establishment
hierarchical_section_title: Kristiania Sporveisselskab / History / Establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: Kristiania Sporveisselskab horsecar in Karl Johans gate. Norsk bokmål: gateløp, mennesker, hestesporvogn, hestekjøretøyer, Grand hotell, bygårder
context_page_description: A/S Kristiania Sporveisselskab or KSS, nicknamed the Green Tramway, was an operator of part of the Oslo Tramway from 1875 to 1924. The company was established in 1874 and started with horsecar operations on the Ullevål Hageby Line, Gamlebyen Line and the Grünerløkka–Torshov Line. The network was electrified with in 1899 and 1900, whereby the company was bought by Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft. It delivered new Class U trams. Within a few years the company had also opened the Vålerenga Line and Kampen Line. It took over Kristiania Kommunale Sporveie in 1905, taking over its fleet of Class S trams and the Sagene Ring, the Vippetangen Line and the Rodeløkka Line.
  The company was based at Homansbyen Depot. From 1912 it started an extensive cooperation with its main competitor, Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei. KSS also took delivery of the Class SS trams and from 1921 the Class H trams. The company build part of the Sinsen Line in 1923. Both companies were municipalized in 1924 to become Oslo Sporveier.
context_section_description: The first plans for horsecar operations in Oslo—then known as Christiania—took place in 1868, when Engineer Jens Theodor Pauldan Vogt and Architect Paul Due applied for a concession. They proposed a line from Homansbyen to Gamlebyen (then known as Oslo) with branches to Pipervika and Palaisbryggen. The municipal authorities rejected the application—citing concerns of the street being too narrow. A new application was issued in 1873 with a common section with four branches, along Drammensveien, Gamlebyen, Oslo West Station (Vestbanen) and Grünerløkka. This time the municipality granted the necessary permissions.
  Vogt and Due's concession was transferred to a company, A/S Kristiania Sporveisselskab, which was incorporated on 26 August 1874. The share capital was set to 200,000 speciedaler. The company bought a lot on Pilestredet 10,000 speciedaler, which became the site of Homansbyen Depot, including the company's administration. In its original design it had places for 44 vehicles and 116 horses, as well as a smithy, offices, apartments, a laboratory for the veterinary and a sick bay for twelve horses. The company was permitted to use tracks on top of the roads, although the municipality retained the right at any time to require them to be dug down. The company opted for standard gauge, presumably because this was most common amongst horsecars and eased procurement. Track-laying started in May 1875. Because of the location of the depot and the low traffic estimates along Drammensveien, KSS opted to instead build a branch to Homansbyen.
  The first twenty-two trams arrived from John Stephenson Company on 2 September 1875. The first horses arrived nine days later. Trial runs started on 21 September and operating permit was granted on 4 October. The official opening took place the following day. Regular traffic started on 6 October, as the second horsecar system in the Nordic Countries, after Copenhagen. The original network consisted of three services: from Homansbyen to Stortorvet, from Vestbanen to Stortorvet and from Stortorvet to Oslo. The services to Vestbanen corresponded with trains, while the other two operated every ten minutes. The fares were set to 10 øre. Shortly after a direct service was set up from Homansbyen to Vestbanen.
caption: Horsecars in Karl Johans gate in 1898
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "gThumb 2.14.3", "Image DateTime": "2014:05:18 12:23:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "144", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "300", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3413", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "758", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "801"}