Arendal Station

Arendal Station (Norwegian: Arendal stasjon) is the terminus railway station of the Arendal Line, located in the town of Arendal in Arendal Municipality, Norway. The station opened on 23 November 1908 and is served by the Go-Ahead Norge.

The decision to build the Arendal–Treungen Line was made by Parliament in 1894, although this did not include which route to follow. In 1902, the Norwegian State Railways made six proposals for a route between Arendal and Solbergvann, each with a slightly different station location within Arendal. The Strømsbu Line would give a station at Strømsbusletten, the Kittelsbukt Line would give a station at Kittelsbukt, the Barbu Line would give a station at Barbudalen, the Gaardal Line would give a station both at Strømsbubukten and Svinodden, the Langsæ Line would also give a station in Barbudalen, and the Holmesland and Lysgaard Line would give a station in the town center for passengers and port and freight station in Barbudalen and Koviken. The town is surrounded by several hills, which made it difficult to find an ideal route for the Arendal–Treungen Line into town. The first proposal was to build the station outside the town limits, at Strømsbusletten. This was met by strong local opposition and local politicians quickly demanded that the terminus be located within the town borders. The municipal council hired Engineer Sam Eyde to plan a suitable route into town. He proposed filling in Kittelsbukt, a small bay in the town center, which would place the station next to the town square. The alternative would require 161,000 cubic meters (5,700,000 cu ft) of earthwork and would be 313,000 Norwegian krone (NOK) more expensive than the Stømsbusletten alternative. A consensus was not reached for any alternative, and when Parliament voted on the proposal on 8 June 1903, no decision was made. Arendal's member of parliament, Johan Frøstrup, supported the Barbudalen alternative. He argued that this would make it easy to expand the line, give good transshipment to ships and be advantageous for future industry. After the parliamentarian rejection, the plans were sent back to the Ministry of Labour. In general, engineers and railway officials supported the Barbudalen alternative, while the town and surrounding area's population wanted Kittelsbukt. In 1904, the ministry supported the latter, but by then there was a majority in the Standing Committee on Railways for the Bardbudalen alternative. In the meantime, Nikolai Prebensen won the parliamentary election in 1903 largely on the grounds that he supported the Kittelsbukt alternative. At the same time, the municipality had agreed to pay NOK 420,000 in local grants for the line, on condition that a station be built at Kittelsbukt. However, such a location would be NOK 238,000 more expensive than in Barbudalen. In the proposal to parliament, the ministry presented five alternatives: the Barbu Line with stations in Barbudalen and a freight terminal in Barbubukta; the Strømsbu Line, with stations in Strømsbusletten and the port facilities on Svinodden; an alternative Strømsbu Line with stations in Kittelsbukt and Strømsbusletten with the port facilities at Svinodden; and two Kittelsbukt Line proposals with a station at Kittelsbukt and port facilities at Svinodden, one of which was Eyde's proposal. Prebensen and Minister Hans Christian Albert Hansen supported the Kittelsbukt alternative, while the railway authorities supported the Barbu alternative. The debate in Parliament took place on 13 May with the voting taking place the following day. First the Kittelsbukt alternative lost with 40 against 77 votes. Then a proposal was made whereby Arendal Municipality would have to cover half the extra cost of a station at Kittelsbukt—52 representatives supported this, 65 oppo

TrainStation data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).