Planning and construction Public opinion started debating the need for a railway through Vestfold in the late 1860s The parliamentarians from Jarlsberg and Larvik County (renamed Vestfold in 1919) appealed to the government in 1869 for the construction of a railway through Vestfold south from Drammen to Larvik and onwards to
Langefjorden. The request was positively accepted by the government, who instructed the railway director to carry out surveys through Vestfold. The country experienced an economic boom starting in 1871, with demands throughout the country for railways to be built. There were a multitude of proposals for where the railway should run. The only points of agreement were that the line should run through Tønsberg, Sandefjord and Larvik, and the line between the three towns was the least controversial. North of Tønsberg there was more disunity. One proposal was to run the railway from
Vestfossen Station on the
Kongsberg Line along the east shore of
Eikeren and down to Tønsberg along a route similar to that which the
Tønsberg–Eidsfoss Line would later follow. A branch line would then be built to Horten. Alternatively a passage through Sande was proposed, although fourteen different routes were proposed. A third major alternative was to bypass the coast altogether and build down the valley of
Lågendalen to Larvik. Shares for various routes were issued in 1873, Still, the county politicians preferred an interior route when it applied for the government to build the line. By 1874 the state railway commission had considered the line and had concluded that it should be built with narrow gauge. Only its chair, Professor Broch, voted in favor of standard gauge. The construction of the line was considered by
Parliament in 1875. A political deal was struck, where representatives from the Vestfold area agreed to support the
Voss Line while representatives from
Hordaland supported the Jarlsberg Line. The decision, taken on 8 June 1875, was made with 76 against 36 votes, and supported the compromise coastal route with an extension to Skien. Construction of the Jarlsberg and Horten Lines commenced in 1876. Because King
Oscar II happened to be touring Norway in October 1881, the railway between Drammen and Larvik was officially opened by him on 13 October 1881, including the branch to Horten. However, the construction was not completed and the line did not actually start operations until late December. Travel time was initially 16 minutes between Skoppum and Horten. The Horten Line was served with the same rolling stock as the Vestfold Line. This included steam locomotives including the
Class V,
Class XIII and
Class XXIII. From 1930 four
Bmc Class 1 gasoline multiple units were delivered to the Vestfold Line, and these were frequently used on the Horten Line. A used gasoline multiple unit was taken over from the Tønsberg–Eidsfoss Line when it closed in 1938, and a
Cmbo Class 1 from the
Flekkefjord Line when it was gauge converted in 1944. The line's patronage peaked in the 1920, when ca. 200,000 annual passengers were transported along with between 5,000 and 15,000 tonnes of cargo. Originally the line only had three stations: Skoppum, Borre and Horten. Vestre Sande and Rørestrand opened on 1 July 1929, although the latter was closed on 17 June the following year. Instead Steinenes was opened on 25 June. Langgrunn opened on 23 June 1941. Planning of conversion to standard gauge commenced in 1910, but steady delays caused the Vestfold Line to remain the last narrow-gauge mainline railway by 1945. The gauge conversion was carried out simultaneously on the Horten and Vestfold Lines, and the new gauge was taken into use on 3 October 1949. With the gauge conversion the number of daily services to eight. Electrification of the Vestfold Line was carried out in 1957, and the Horten Line became the last segment to receive electric traction, on 11 December 1957. With the electrification the passenger trains were operated using
Class 65 electric multiple units, while freight trains were hauled using primarily
El 2 locomotives, supplemented with
El 1 and
El 10.
Closing NSB gradually increased its focus on bus traffic on the route, reducing the number of train services to five from 1962. NSB decided that it was cheaper to operate all services by bus, and closed down all passenger services on the Horten Line from 26 May 1967. A modest amount of freight traffic was retained. From 1992 to 1994
National Road 19 was rebuilt along the route, which forced the
overhead lines along part of the line to be taken down. Electric traction resumed in 1994. All traffic terminated in 2002 and the line was demolished in 2009. ==Architecture==