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 14.5 meters (48 ft) above mean sea level, and is 115.68 kilometers (71.88 mi) from Oslo Central Station. The current station is from 1915.

When Vestfoldbanen first opened in 1881, Tønsberg was accessed to by means of a branch line running in a 221 meters (725 ft) long tunnel through Slottsfjell. At that time the Tønsberg station was a terminal station and trains had to reverse direction in Tønsberg, usually the cars were pushed into the station. This was a cumbersome operation, and in 1915 the current layout was opened. Now trains from the east run in a loop around Tønsberg city before entering the station and no reversing is necessary.^[1] On 11 May 1934, Norsk Spisevognselskap took over operation of the station restaurant. In 1948, a separate building for the restaurant was opened.^[2]

The loop does take up space however, and in 2002 the Tønsberg city council passed a resolution to replace the loop with a single line, reintroducing the simple cul-de-sac station. The Norwegian National Rail Administration, who owns the railway, protested, pointing out that turning trains around would hold it up for ten minutes.^[3] There have been calls to continue the discussion.^[4]

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