Vestby Station - History

History

The station was opened in 1879 as a halt on the Smaalens Line, now known as the western branch of the Østfold Line. The station building was designed by the Norwegian architect Peter Andreas Blix in the same Swiss cottage style as the stations Ås and Såner. In the 1950s, the station was frequently used by weekend guests from Oslo that visited the nearby conurbation Hvitsten for having a bath. A few years after the section of the Østfold Line between Ski and Moss Station was upgraded to double tracks, Vestby Station received a major renovation. A regulation plan for the station area was published in May 2010, which involved increasing the number of car parking places.

In 2005, the station was subject of a terrorist attack. A non-Norwegian man had called the Norwegian police 7.49 in the morning, claiming that he had planted a bomb on the station which would detonate 8.00, eleven minutes later. All traffic on the Østfold Line was stopped, and the station investigated, but no bombs were found.

Vestby Station has seen several accidents and injuries. In January 2004, a Linx train from Gothenburg, travelling at 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph), crashed into a plowing car that was partly parked on the railway tracks at Vestby. No passengers were hurt in the accident. It was victim of sabotage in March 2004, when some local youth laid steel pipes over the tracks. In 2006, a two-year-old boy fell down from the platform and was run over by a passing train. In June 2010, the station building caught fire in the middle of the night, but left no injuries.