Editing Jæren Line (section)

===Construction===
During the 19th century, transport along the Jæren coast was dominated by ship. Some simple roads had been built, but these were insufficient for quick and efficient transport. In the mid-19th century, the roads were improved, and ideas were launched to start a [[traction engine]] service along the coast. At an 1866 meeting at the sheriff's office in, Forest Manager [[Andreas Tanberg Gløersen]] launched the first idea of building a railway to connect Stavanger and Egersund. Gløersen had been to the Netherlands where he had taken and observed train operations. Later the same year, a meeting was held with representatives from the municipalities of Hå, Klepp and Time.<ref>Jubileumskomitéen Sørlandsbanen Vest (1994): 6</ref>

The meeting concluded that a railway should be built, and the responsibility for the preparatory work was given to [[County governor (Norway)|County Governor]] [[Vilhelm Ludvig Herman von Munthe af Morgenstierne]]. He started by conducting traffic counting throughout the district. This resulted in an estimate for a revenue of NOK&nbsp;215,000 and a cost of NOK&nbsp;153,000 per year.<ref name=jsv7>Jubileumskomitéen Sørlandsbanen Vest (1994): 7</ref> Originally the proposal was to connect the various villages in Jæren together. But during planning, national authorities stated that the line would be part of a trans-national railway that would connect Rogaland to [[Eastern Norway]]. This resulted in the railway being planned with a straighter profile and running via fewer communities.<ref name=jsv7 /><ref name=jsv8>Jubileumskomitéen Sørlandsbanen Vest (1994): 8</ref>

[[File:Jærbanen gjennom Hå 3.jpg|thumb|left|The narrow-gauged Jæren Line near [[Ogna]] in 1908]]
The proposal was sent to the [[Ministry of the Interior (Norway)|Ministry of the Interior]], who recommended the line and presented it to [[Parliament of Norway|Parliament]] on 6 May 1874.<ref>Bergsgård (1964): 208</ref> Parliament passed legislation to build the line on 3 June 1874.<ref name=b194 /> During the celebrations in Stavanger that evening, a gunner lost his hand following the explosion of a cannon.<ref name=jsv7 /> Particularly in Sandnes the choice of route resulted in much debate. Parliament had in its proposal for the line stipulated that the railway should have good port access in Sandnes.<ref name=e28>Eggebø (1996): 28</ref> The "Blue Line" proposal ran along the waterfront, but would require two different stations in Sandnes. The "Red Line" proposal ran midway through the town center, splitting it in two. However, it gave only a single station, and was eventually chosen, after the municipal council initially had supported the Blue Line.<ref name=e29>Eggebø (1996): 29</ref>

Construction started in October 1874 on the section between Forus and Gausel. Tracks were shipped to [[Norestraen]], which was the southernmost docks which were sufficiently deep to allow the ships.<ref name=e28 /> When the railway was passed, the country was experiencing good times, but through the 1870s, the country fell into harder times. This caused a reduction in spending on the line, which was particularly in investments in stations. A standardized, small station building was chosen and in Egersund an existing house was bought.<ref>Hartmann (1997): 54</ref> The line opened on 27 February 1878,<ref name=jsv8/> and was at the time of opening {{convert|76.3|km|sp=us}} long.<ref name=b194 /> When the line opened, it had no tunnels and only twelve stations.<ref name=b201 /><ref name=b200 /> Already the following year, additional stations were opened in Sirevåg, Brusand,<ref name=b200 /> and Hognestad. Hillevåg opened in 1880 and Mariero opened in the 1880s.<ref name=b201 />