Skoppum Station ( no, Skoppum stasjon) is a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
on the
Vestfold Line
The Vestfold Line ( no, Vestfoldbanen) is a railway line which runs between Drammen and Eidanger in Norway. The line connects to the Drammen Line at the northern terminus at Drammen Station and continues as the Bratsberg Line past Skien Station. ...
in the village of
Skoppum
Skoppum is a village in the municipality of Horten, Norway. Its population (2005) is 1,633. Skoppum Station on the Vestfold Line is the sole remaining railway station in Horten. It was the site where the Horten Line
The Horten Line ( no, Hortenl ...
, in
Horten
is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the town of Ã…sgÃ¥rdstrand an ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. Situated from
Oslo Central Station
Oslo Central Station ( no, Oslo sentralstasjon, abbreviated ) is the main railway station in Oslo, and the largest railway station within the entire Norwegian railway system. It connects with Jernbanetorget station. It's the terminus of Dramme ...
, it serves an hourly regional service operated by
Vy. The station has two platforms and is itself located on an
island platform
An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
, giving Skoppum a
keilbahnhof
''Keilbahnhof'' (plural: ''Keilbahnhöfe'', literally: "wedge station") is the German word for a station located between branching tracks.Ernst, Dr.-Ing. Richard (1989). ''Wörterbuch der Industriellen Technik'' (5th ed.). Wiesbaden: Oscar Brandst ...
design. The station building was designed by
Balthazar Lange
Balthazar Conrad Lange (25 March 1854 - 13 September 1937) was a Norwegian architect.
Personal life
He was born in Asker as a son of customs treasurer and lieutenant colonel Christopher Andreas Lange (1808–1888) and Anne Birgithe Falsen. He ...
in
Swiss chalet style
Swiss chalet style (german: Schweizerstil, no, Sveitserstil) is an architectural style of Late Historicism, originally inspired by rural chalets in Switzerland and the Alpine (mountainous) regions of Central Europe. The style refers to traditi ...
.
The station opened on 7 December 1881 and served as an
interchange station
An interchange station or a transfer station is a train station for more than one railway route in a public transport system that allows passengers to change from one route to another, often without having to leave a station or pay an additional ...
between the Vestfold Line and the
Horten Line
The Horten Line ( no, Hortenlinjen) was a branch railway line of the Vestfold Line which ran from Skoppum to Horten, Norway. The line opened as a narrow gauge line on 13 October 1881, the same day as the Vestfold Line. The latter had been propos ...
. The latter was closed for passenger traffic in 1967 and demolished in 2009. Skoppum remains the only station serving Horten, despite being west of the town center. The current station is listed as a heritage site, but will be abandoned in about 2024 when a new section of high-speed rail is built. It may be replaced by a station west of the village or at
Bakkenteigen.
History
![Skoppum stasjon 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Skoppum_stasjon_1.jpeg)
When planning of the Vestfold Line commenced in 1871,
[Jakobsen: 13] there were three main proposals for a route. The outer followed the shore of the Oslofjord, would be and would run through Holmestrand, Horten and
Åsgårdstrand
Åsgårdstrand is a small port town in Horten municipality, Vestfold, Norway. It is also the name of a former independent municipality and a center of trade. The town is situated 10 km south of Horten, 10 km north of Tønsberg and 100&n ...
before reaching Tønsberg. The combined and inner would be , respectively, and both involved building a branch line to Horten. The main argument against the coastal route was that the towns already had a good steamship service, with several daily departures. A third major alternative was to bypass the coast altogether and build down the valley of
LÃ¥gendalen
LÃ¥gendalen ( en, LÃ¥gen Valley) is a valley located in eastern Norway.
Lågendalen forms the lower part of the valley through which the Numedalslågen flows between Kongsberg in Buskerud and Larvik in Vestfold. North of Kongsberg, the valley i ...
to Larvik.
Shares for various routes were issued in 1873,
and the coastal alternative proved to be the most popular.
[Broch (1936): 101] Still, the county politicians preferred an interior route when it applied for the government to build the line. Construction of the Jarlsberg and Horten Lines commenced in 1876. The lines were taken into use on 7 December 1881. The interchange station had the spelling Skopum until 1891.
[Bjerke & Holom: 214]
![Skoppum stasjon postkort 1 crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Skoppum_stasjon_postkort_1_crop.jpg)
Skoppum was a third-class station, given a more extensive design than many other stations serving rural areas because of its function as a
transshipment
Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination.
One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...
station between the Vestfold Line and the Horten Line. The station originally consisted of an office for the station master, a ticket office, a waiting room and a restaurant, run by the station master's wife. Next to the station building there was a building for handling cargo. The station also originally contained a locomotive depot, water tower and a
turntable
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
. The depot had a place for a single locomotive, which was used on the Horten Line.
[Jakobsen: 34] At the time of the opening the station was staffed by a station mater, two telegraphists and two station workers. The station master lived in the four-room apartment in the upper story of the station building.
[Jakobsen: 36]
Initially the Horten Line had four trains per direction per day, increasing to seven in 1884. It reached eleven during the 1920s and peaked with thirteen from 1946.
[Aspenberg (1994): 140] Travel time was initially 16 minutes between Skoppum and Horten. 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. An interlocking system was installed on 19 February 1934.
Though their bus division,
NSB Biltrafikk
NSB Biltrafikk was the former road transport division of the Norwegian State Railways from the first bus routes in 1925, as a subsidiary of NSB BA from 1 December 1996, until it was divided into bus operator Nettbuss and truck operator Nettlast o ...
, the railway company operated both bus and train services between Skoppum and Horten from the mid-1940s.
[Aspenberg (1994): 142] The new
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
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.
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.
Skoppum Station was unstaffed from 1 July 1971, when
centralized traffic control
Centralized traffic control (CTC) is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America. CTC consolidates train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system con ...
was installed. It continued to have a staffed ticket sale until 1 January 2001.
NSB introduced its "InterCity" service from 29 May 1978. Most stations on the Vestfold Line were closed, but Skoppum was kept as the key station to serve Horten. All traffic on the Horten Line terminated in 2002 and the line was demolished in 2009.
Facilities
![Skoppum stasjon postkort 2 crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Skoppum_stasjon_postkort_2_crop.jpg)
Skoppum Station is situated from
Oslo Central Station
Oslo Central Station ( no, Oslo sentralstasjon, abbreviated ) is the main railway station in Oslo, and the largest railway station within the entire Norwegian railway system. It connects with Jernbanetorget station. It's the terminus of Dramme ...
, at an elevation of
above mean sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
.
The station building is open and has toilets and a
ticket machine
A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ...
and
vending machine
A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...
s. There are four tracks at the station, although two are closed. In addition to the Horten Line, this is an outer passing loop which is about . The main passing loop is . There are two platforms, with track 1 next to the station and track 2 a
side platform
A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...
. They are long, respectively, with
tall platforms. There is about 100 parking spaces and a bicycle rack at the station.
Balthazar Lange
Balthazar Conrad Lange (25 March 1854 - 13 September 1937) was a Norwegian architect.
Personal life
He was born in Asker as a son of customs treasurer and lieutenant colonel Christopher Andreas Lange (1808–1888) and Anne Birgithe Falsen. He ...
was selected as the main architect for the Vestfold and Horten Lines, and thus also designed Skoppum, which was designed in
Swiss chalet style
Swiss chalet style (german: Schweizerstil, no, Sveitserstil) is an architectural style of Late Historicism, originally inspired by rural chalets in Switzerland and the Alpine (mountainous) regions of Central Europe. The style refers to traditi ...
. To accommodate best possible transfer between the two lines, the station building and auxiliary structures were placed in the central of an
island platform
An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
, denoted as an island station. The buildings were covered with a adjoined roof, called an umbrella. Although providing excellent transfer conditions, the keilbahnhof-design meant that access to the station had to take place from the southern short end. A second platform and third track serves a passing loop.
The unique design has caused the station building,
goods shed
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...
and umbrella to listed as heritage sites.
Service
Vy serves Skoppum with line R11, a regional service running between
Skien Station
Skien Station ( no, Skien stasjon) is a railway station located about one kilometer from downtown Skien in Vestfold og Telemark, Norway.
The station serves as terminus for the regional trains on the Vestfold Line (''Vestfoldbanen'') from Oslo via ...
through Vestfold to
Oslo Central Station
Oslo Central Station ( no, Oslo sentralstasjon, abbreviated ) is the main railway station in Oslo, and the largest railway station within the entire Norwegian railway system. It connects with Jernbanetorget station. It's the terminus of Dramme ...
and onward on the
Gardermoen Line
The Gardermoen Line ( no, Gardermobanen) is a high-speed railway line between Oslo and Eidsvoll, Norway, running past Lillestrøm and Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. The line is long and replaced the older Hoved Line as the main line north-east of Os ...
to
Eidsvoll Station
Eidsvoll is a railway station located at Eidsvoll in Akershus, Norway. The station is a terminal of the Trunk Line, the Gardermoen Line, and the Dovre Line. Though the Dovre Line and the Trunk Line/Gardermoen Line practically are the same contin ...
.
Trains run once per hour in each direction, in addition to rush-hour services. Travel time is 1 hour and 10 minutes to Oslo, and 1 hour and 30 minutes to Skien.
Vestfold Kollektivtrafikk serves Skoppum with Line 1 which shuttles in to downtown Horten. Travel time is no shorter than 20 minutes. Buses run once or twice per hour. The buses and trains do not correspond in either direction.
Future
The Vestfold Line is being upgraded to
high-speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
, with the section north of Tønsberg scheduled for completion by 2024. The section through Horten is bound by two components. The first is that the line needs to be dimensioned for through speeds of . The second is that two smaller sections of line have already been upgraded. The first is a passing loop at the closed
Nykirke Station which opened on 15 October 2001. The second was of double track from
Tønsberg Station
Tønsberg Station on the Vestfold Line, is the main railway station in the town of Tønsberg in Vestfold, Norway. The station is located in the downtown area, to the east of the hill Slottsfjellet. It is located at an altitude of above mean sea l ...
to the closed
Barkåker Station, including the
Jarlsberg Tunnel, which opened on 7 November 2011.
These were both built without a plan for where the line in between would run. With the 2016 opening of the
Holmestrand Tunnel, Nykirke–Barkåker and the section through
Kobbervikdalen are the only remaining sections needed for a continual high-speed line between
Drammen
Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken (county), Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and village ...
and
Tønsberg
Tønsberg , historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, eastern Norway, located around south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative ce ...
.
![Riksvei 19 Skoppum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Riksvei_19_Skoppum.jpg)
The conditions made it impossible to place a line through the town of Horten, forcing the
Norwegian National Rail Administration
The Norwegian National Rail Administration ( no, Jernbaneverket) was a government agency responsible for owning, maintaining, operating and developing the Norwegian railway network, including the track, stations, classification yards, traffic m ...
to consider three routes which entirely bypassed the town. Three proposals were made. The two easternmost, denoted Bakkenteigen and Skoppum East, would largely be carried on a large
viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...
over the landscape. The third, Skuppum West, would run entirely west of the existing track and pass west of the village of Skoppum. Either way the new station will need a feeder bus service as well as be built with significant
park and ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...
facilities.
The Bakkenteigen alternative would serve the Vestfold campus of the
University College of Southeast Norway. Its viaduct would be long. It could also pass through the village of Nykirke. Bakketeigen is regarded as having the best possibility for urban development. Skoppum East would be shorter, with a slightly shorter viaduct and a slightly longer tunnels. Skoppum West would avoid viaducts and be only , but have of tunnel. The station would be situated on
National Road 19, just off the intersection with
E18, west of the village of Skoppum. The latter has the lowest investment costs,
[Norwegian National Rail Administration: 10] and the least interference with the landscape.
The National Rail Administration has therefore recommended Skoppum West.
[Norwegian National Rail Administration: 14]
References
Bibliography
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{{Vestfold Line
Railway stations in Horten
Railway stations on the Vestfold Line
Railway stations on the Horten Line
Railway stations opened in 1881
1881 establishments in Norway