Norwegian State Railways (1883–1996)

Norwegian State Railways

Former type	Government agency
Industry	Rail transport
Fate	Demerger
Successors	Norwegian National Rail Administration Norwegian State Railways Norwegian Railway Inspectorate
Founded	1883
Defunct	December 1, 1996 (1996-12-01)
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Area served	Norway
Number of employees	12,000 (1996)
Parent	Ministry of Transport and Communications

The Norwegian State Railways (Norwegian: Norges Statsbaner or NSB) was a state-owned railway company that operated most of the railway network in Norway. The government agency/directorate was created in 1883 to oversee the construction and operation of all state-owned railways in Norway. On 1 December 1996, it was demerged to create the infrastructure operator Norwegian National Rail Administration, the train operator Norwegian State Railways and the Norwegian Railway Inspectorate. The name was taken by the train operator, although the infrastructure operator remained a government agency and is the legal successor.

Norway's first railway, the Trunk Line, was opened in 1854. It was built and run as a private company, although with some government ownership. This was followed by two wholly state-owned railways, the narrow-gauge Hamar–Grundset Line in 1861 and the standard-gauge Kongsvinger Line in 1862, with the latter branching from the Trunk Line at Lillestrøm. Several more where built over the next two decades. In 1871 the national railway was connected to the Swedish rail infrastructure.

By the 1880s, the pace of railway construction ground to a halt due to economic and political problems. In 1883, the Norwegian State Railways was established and railway construction started up again. The Norwegian State Railways also bought up many private railways to integrate them into the national railway network. In 1920 the Bratsberg Line was acquired by the government. The Trunk Line was first formally acquired in 1926, despite having formed a central part of the network for half a century.