page_title: Ålgård Line
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ålgård Line / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Railway station and church at Ålgård.
context_page_description: The Ålgård Line is a closed, but not abandoned, railway line between Ganddal and Ålgård in Rogaland, Norway. The 12.24-kilometer line was built as a narrow gauge branch line of the Jæren Line by the Norwegian State Railways and opened in 1924. It runs through the villages of Foss-Eikeland and Figgjo in Sandnes to Ålgård in Gjesdal. Several proposals were made for the Ålgård Line to become the first part of the main line from Stavanger to Oslo, but instead the Sørlandet Line was connected to the Jæren Line in 1944. At the same time, the Ålgård Line was upgraded to standard gauge.
  The line had up to ten daily round trips with diesel multiple units, until passenger traffic was terminated in 1955. Freight traffic remained until 1988, when most of the line was abandoned in 1988, although 3 kilometers was used until 2001. The line is owned by the Norwegian National Rail Administration. The station at Figgjo has been converted to a museum, and the 3-kilometer section from there to Ålgård is used for recreational draisines. There have been proposals to reopen the line either as part of the Jæren Commuter Rail or the planned light rail for Greater Stavanger.
context_section_description: The first plans to build a railway line along the route of the Ålgård Line was as part of the main route between Stavanger and Oslo. In 1873, County Engineer Th. Sejersted proposed a line running through Høgsfjord, Dirdal, Hunnedalen, Sirdal and Hylestad and onwards through Telemark to Kongsberg. Through Rogaland, it would run further east than the Jæren Line, which was under construction from Stavanger to Egersund. When the plans for a Sørlandet Line—which would connect Stavanger to Oslo via Kristiansand—started to be developed in 1892, some of Sjersted's plans were reconsidered.
  On 27 September 1894, a committee was established to plan a branch from the Jæren Line to Ålgård. The following year, the committee recommended that a line be built branching from Orstad in Klepp, which would cost 348,000 Norwegian krone (NOK). Gjesdal Municipality offered NOK 60,000 of the capital, on the condition that NSB would build and operate it. The state, on the other hand, wanted the line to be private. Private railways were often largely or entirely owned by municipalities, counties and the state, but would operate independently of NSB, and the municipalities would carry the risk for operating deficits.
  A new committee was established in 1910, led by Mayor Sven Nilssen of Gjesdal, who was also director at Ålgårds Ullvarefabrikker. His company paid for traffic counting along the route, and the committee concluded that there was sufficient traffic to build a line. Two routes were proposed: one branching from Sandnes Station and one from Ganddal Station. The Ganddal alternative had lower investment costs, but would give higher operating costs; in 1913, investments were stipulated at NOK 787,800. 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. 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.
  Siting of the Ålgård Line from Ganddal to Ålgård started in 1920. The final cost estimate was NOK 2.82 million and the plan was passed by Parliament on 20 July 1921, with construction commencing on 21 December. The construction was organized by Just Broch and led by Olaf Bakke. Between 200 and 250 people worked on the line during construction. Because of the recession, the railway works were seen as way to create jobs. Most of the workers came from Stavanger and nearly all had families to support. The first train to operate on the line went from Stavanger on 20 December 1924, with the official opening by Minister of Labour Lars Oftedal taking place when it reached Ålgård. The line became the last state-owned railway in Norway to be opened with narrow gauge.
  At the start, there were one or two daily round trips with steam locomotive-hauled trains. In the first year of operation, the line transported 18,500 passengers. The initial ticket price from Sandnes to Ålgård was NOK 1.50, compared to NOK 1 for a bus ticket. This was in part because NSB operated with a standard price based on the length of the line, and the line was longer than the corresponding roads. After a while NSB's board accepted that tickets be priced as if they were the length of the road, and the price was reduced to NOK 1.10. Because of competition from truck drivers picking up random passengers for NOK 0.75, the price was then reduced to NOK 0.80 in 1927. The line made a profit during until the late 1940s, after which it started to operate with a deficit. In the financial year 1948–49, the line transported 79,700 passengers.
  In 1923, Parliament voted for a plan for the Sørlandet Line to run via
caption: Ålgård Station in 1924
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