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The Jærbanen railway runs between the cities of Stavanger and Egersund, forming the first part of the Sørlandsbanen railway. All passenger train services on the line are operated by the Norwegian State Railways (NSB).
Jærbanen was opened in 1878 as a narrow gauge (1067 mm), single tracked railway. In 1944 it was converted to standard gauge (1435 mm), and in 1956 the line was electrified. Because of the extensive local traffic, plans have been worked out to expand the line from Stavanger to Ganddal to double track. Construction is scheduled to start in 2005.
The local train services stops at these stations (distance from Stavanger in parenthesis):
- Stavanger (0 km)
- Hillevåg (1.94 km)
- Mariero (4 km)
- Sandnes stasjon (14.78 km)
- Sandnes holdeplass (15.36 km)
- Ganddal (18.49 km)
- Øksnevadporten (22.42 km)
- Klepp (24.84 km)
- Bryne (29.58 km)
- Nærbø (37.68 km)
- Varhaug (43.11 km)
- Vigrestad (49.22 km)
- Brusand (54.17 km)
- Ogna (58.41 km)
- Sirevåg (60.36 km)
- Hellvik (66.79 km)
- Egersund (74.71 km)
The long distance train services (Stavanger-Kristiansand and Stavanger-Oslo) stop at Bryne and Egersund.
Jærbanen has one branch line, Ålgårdbanen, which runs from Ganddal to Ålgård, a distance of 12 kilometres. Ålgårdbanen had passenger traffic from its opening in 1924 until 1955, while regular freight traffic continued until 1988. Currently, only the three first kilometres from Ganddal to Foss-Eikeland are casually used for freight transport. In the summer it is possible to rent rail tricycles at Figgjo, where the former station building has been turned into a museum.