The railway was constructed by the Wehrmacht in occupied Norway during the Second World War as part of Festung Norwegen.

After the war, the plans were abandoned by Norwegian authorities, although from the 1970s, they were revitalized as part of the proposed Northern Norway Line.

The line was planned to run through the 2,710 m-long (8,890 ft) Espenes Tunnel before reaching the next station at Kalvik, 47 km (29 mi) from Fauske.

The line would then run through the 2,000 m-long (6,600 ft) Hellarvik Tunnel just before reaching at station at Tømmernes, 110 km (68 mi) from Fauske.

[10] The line would have continued down the Reisadalen valley, following the Reisaelva river for about 85 km (53 mi), at which point it would make a large S-bend around the lake of Ráisjávri.

[11] The Nordland Line, which was originally proposed to run from Trondheim to Helgeland, was first launched by Ole Tobias Olsen in 1872.

[14] In the Railway Plan of 1923, a 306 km-long (190 mi) line between Fauske and Narvik was included and estimated to cost 160 million Norwegian krone (NOK).

At the same time, the Standing Committee on Railways stated that the Nordland Line would not meet its function until it had crossed Finnmark.

A report on the section from Narvik to Kvesmenes was published in March 1923, followed by the section from Kvesmenes to Alteidet in June 1926, Alteidet to Porsangerfjorden in December 1926, from Porsangerfjorden to Tana in June 1927, from Tana to Vadsø in January 1928 and from Nyborg to Kirkenes in April 1928.

The second alternative—the Fjord Line—would run via Tømmerneset, Innhavet and Musken, around the southern end of Tysfjorden and then followed the shoreline to Ballangen to Narvik.

Rabcewicz stated that it would be necessary with immediate start of construction for all tunnels longer than 2.8 km (1.7 mi), with the establishment of 24 breaking-in points.

[16] The Mountain Line could be built faster because of shorter tunnels, the longest being 5.5 km (3.4 mi), which with an estimated 4 m (13 ft) per day would give a construction time of 33 months.

[18] However, Rabcewicz noted several disadvantages of the line, including steeper gradients, the lack of any fjords or residents between Kobbvatnet and Bjrnfjell and the increased amount of snow in the area.

Plans consisting of the section from Setermoen to Nordreisa (325 km (202 mi) from Bjørnfjell) were sent to Einsatzgruppe Wiking in Oslo on 8 July 1942.

[20] As part of Operation Barbarossa—the German invasion of the Soviet Union—plans were immediately dispatched to complete a railway to Kirkenes.

[21] Construction was organized by Einsatzgruppe Wiking which was based in Mo i Rana and had clerks of works in Fauske and Tømmerneset.

[20] The area the line was being built was without road connection, and the steep terrain made it difficult to place the railway elsewhere than close by the fjords.

According to the peace-time compulsory purchase law, the state was forced to pay due compensation for any land they needed to build public infrastructure.

The treatment of the POWs varied depending on their nationality, their status in regard to the Geneva Convention and their alignment.

At the time of the German capitulation on 8 May 1945 there were an estimated 8,300 POWs living in camps on the segment between Fauske and Drag.

[21] On 4 December 1945, the Embassy of the Soviet Union in Oslo and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs started work on a common Norwegian–Soviet commission which would investigate issues regarding Russian POWs in Norway.

[26] Both NSB and Norwegian authorities were concerned that the Soviet goal was to claim compensation for the effective work which the POWs had done in Norway.

[27] Although vague estimates of the number of man-hours were calculated, no monetary value was ever determined, and no claim was submitted to the Norwegian authorities from the Soviet Union.

Starting in the 1970s, a series of regional airports were built, largely undermining the need for the railway for passenger transport.

[1] In 2019, the Norwegian Railway Directorate signed an agreement with Asplan Viak to study the development of a line from Fauske via Narvik to Tromsø.