Editing Rauma Line (section)

===Operation===
Maintenance was originally organized with under two track masters, one in Åndalsnes and one in Dombås, and subdivided into 17 divisions. Each division had two employees, a [[platelayer]] foreman and a platelayer, in addition to four seasonal workers during the summer. Each division had a railway-owned house for the family of the two platelayers. Later the areas were merged to a single track master in Åndalsnes.<ref>Raumabanen (1994): 169</ref> During the [[Second World War]], the line was bombed by Germany. This caused among other things the restaurant at Bjorli to burn down.<ref>Raumabanen (1994): 139</ref>

In 1923, parliament voted to expend the line to Ålesund, but did not follow up with any grants. The decision was annulled in 1935, but local interests continued to pursue an expansion. However, there was no local consensus for any one line; there was a conflict between the three areas of [[Sunnmøre]], [[Romsdal]] and [[Nordmøre]], each who wanted a different branch to their city, and a conflict between building railways and roads. In 1953, the proposals were finally discarded by regional politicians. However, proposals have since regularly been made.<ref name="hoel" />

The line played an important role in the World War II in 1940, when Germany attacked Norway ("[[Operation Weserübung]]"). Bergen and Trondheim and with a little delay Oslo, were quickly occupied by Germany, but not Åndalsnes, Ålesund and Molde. This allowed British forces to land in this area, and the king, government and the gold reserve could be sent to the United Kingdom.

Regular use of steam locomotives in passenger trains was terminated from 1 June 1958,<ref>Raumabanen (1994): 237</ref> when [[NSB Di 3|Di 3]] locomotives were taken into use.<ref>Raumabanen (1994): 243</ref> From 1 June 1965, steam locomotives were no longer used for freight trains.<ref>Raumabanen (1994): 241</ref> In 1960, [[Ålesund Airport, Vigra]] was opened, and in the following decade also [[Molde Airport, Årø]] and [[Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget]] opened. This resulted in a reduction of passengers on the railway, although the rail fares remained considerably lower than air fares. The infrastructure was upgraded between 1973 and 1983 for NOK&nbsp;70; this included replacing all wooden [[sleeper (rail)|sleepers]] with concrete sleepers, and replacing the sand with ballast.<ref name="b80">Bjørnstad (1990): 80</ref>

[[File:Bjorli Station 2009.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bjorli Station]] during winter]]
In 1996, the government had proposed closing the night train service, after suggestions from NSB. The railway company was losing money on operating the night services, and stated that they needed a subsidy of {{NOK|8 million}}, or NOK&nbsp;400 per passenger, to retain the service. That year, the line had a ridership of 108,800, down from 116,500 in 1966.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nilsen |first=Knut A. |date=8 August 1996 |title=Åndalsnes kan miste nattoget |work=[[Aftenposten]] |page=16 |language=no}}</ref> The service was kept after a parliamentarian compromise to convert NSB to a company in exchange for keeping the service.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Haugan |first=Bjørn |date=8 November 1996 |title=Samråd koster |work=[[Verdens Gang]] |page=17 |language=no}}</ref>

In 2000, NSB introduced the new two-car [[NSB Class 93|Class 93]] [[diesel multiple unit]]s on the Rauma Line.<ref name="krogrud">{{Cite journal |last=Krogrud, Svein |year=2000 |title=Type 93 – NSBs nye Talbot Talent |journal=[[På Sporet]] |volume=103 |pages=4–8}}</ref> In October, the night train service was terminated and replaced by a night express bus.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 October 2000 |title=Buss erstatter nattog Oslo-Møre |language=no |agency=[[Norwegian News Agency]]}}</ref> The original seating configuration in Class 93 was for 88 seats, but due to customer complaints about lack of [[seat pitch]], NSB has reconfigured the trains in 2006 to 76 seats.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Forbord, Arne |date=14 March 2006 |title=Garanterer bedre plass på Agenda |url=http://www.ranablad.no/nyheter/article1999362.ece |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724183336/http://www.ranablad.no/nyheter/article1999362.ece |archive-date=24 July 2011 |access-date=13 July 2011 |publisher=[[Rana Blad]] |language=no}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=NSB |author-link=Vy |title=Class 93 |url=http://www.nsb.no/om-vaare-tog/nsb-regiontog-type-93-article38030-4480.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110808041413/http://www.nsb.no/om-vaare-tog/nsb-regiontog-type-93-article38030-4480.html |archive-date=8 August 2011 |access-date=13 July 2011}}</ref> Starting in 2003, NSB and the tourist board in Rauma started cooperating with running tourist trains during the summer. Aimed primarily at tourists arriving by cruise ship at Åndalsnes, the trains use longer time to Dombås, allowing for longer stops underway for passengers to disembark and board to look at various attractions. On special occasions, a steam train is used in the tourist runs.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hustad |first=Rune |date=4 May 2007 |title=Nytt tilbud på Raumabanen |url=http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/more_og_romsdal/1.2369281 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102185010/http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/more_og_romsdal/1.2369281 |archive-date=2 November 2012 |access-date=13 July 2011 |work=[[Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation]] |language=no}}</ref>