The municipal council hired Engineer Sam Eyde to plan a suitable route into town.

He argued that this would make it easy to expand the line, give good transshipment to ships and be advantageous for future industry.

In general, engineers and railway officials supported the Barbudalen alternative, while the town and surrounding area's population wanted Kittelsbukt.

[3] In the meantime, Nikolai Prebensen won the parliamentary election in 1903 largely on the grounds that he supported the Kittelsbukt alternative.

At the same time, the municipality had agreed to pay NOK 420,000 in local grants for the line, on condition that a station be built at Kittelsbukt.

Then a proposal was made whereby Arendal Municipality would have to cover half the extra cost of a station at Kittelsbukt—52 representatives supported this, 65 opposed it.

Following the expansion of the line to Treungen in 1912, the freight house was made 9 meters (30 ft) longer, another outhouse was built and the workshop expanded.

[9] While terminus for the Sørland Line, Arendal experienced a larger increase in traffic, as all transport to the South Coast went through the town.

[11] From July 1997, NSB terminated the night train from Arendal because of lack of rolling stock.

NSB had a serious shortage of motormen, and chose to close operations on the lines with least traffic to allocate sufficient personnel to areas with higher ridership.