Private railways of Norway

The other nine private railways have been public and operated as mixed passenger and freight services.

[2] The division between private and publicly owned railways is related to operation rather than ownership.

All non-industrial private railways received state grants for construction, while many of NSB's railways were at first organized as limited companies with private owners, although NSB was responsible for all operations and maintenance of the line and rolling stock.

For both NSB-run and private, non-industrial railways, municipalities and counties were often the largest owners.

Eventually, all the private, non-industrial railways started losing money, and unless they received subsidies, were forced to close.