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Skoppum Station () is a railway station on the Vestfold Line in the village of Skoppum, in Horten, Norway. Situated from Oslo Central Station, it serves an hourly regional service operated by Vy. The station has two platforms and is itself located on an island platform, giving Skoppum a keilbahnhof design. The station building was designed by Balthazar Lange in Swiss chalet style.
The station opened on 7 December 1881 and served as an interchange station between the Vestfold Line and the Horten Line. The latter was closed for passenger traffic in 1967 and demolished in 2009. Skoppum remains the only station serving Horten, despite being west of the town center. The current station is listed as a heritage site, but will be abandoned in 2025 when the Horten Station opens.
Shares for various routes were issued in 1873, and the coastal alternative proved to be the most popular.Broch (1936): 101 Still, the county politicians preferred an interior route when it applied for the government to build the line.Broch (1936): 100 Construction of the Jarlsberg and Horten Lines commenced in 1876.Broch (1936): 105 The lines were taken into use on 7 December 1881. The interchange station had the spelling Skopum until 1891.Bjerke & Holom: 214
Skoppum was a third-class station, given a more extensive design than many other stations serving rural areas because of its function as a transshipment station between the Vestfold Line and the Horten Line. The station originally consisted of an office for the station master, a ticket office, a waiting room and a restaurant, run by the station master's wife. Next to the station building there was a building for handling cargo. The station also originally contained a locomotive depot, water tower and a turntable. The depot had a place for a single locomotive, which was used on the Horten Line.Jakobsen: 34 At the time of the opening the station was staffed by a station mater, two telegraphists and two station workers. The station master lived in the four-room apartment in the upper story of the station building.Jakobsen: 36
Initially the Horten Line had four trains per direction per day, increasing to seven in 1884. It reached eleven during the 1920s and peaked with thirteen from 1946.Aspenberg (1994): 140 Travel time was initially 16 minutes between Skoppum and Horten.Jakobsen: 125 The line's patronage peaked in the 1920, when ca. 200,000 annual passengers were transported along with between 5,000 and 15,000 tonnes of cargo.Aspenberg (1994): 143 An interlocking system was installed on 19 February 1934.
Though their bus division, NSB Biltrafikk, the railway company operated both bus and train services between Skoppum and Horten from the mid-1940s.Aspenberg (1994): 142 The new standard gauge was taken into use on 3 October 1949.Jakobsen: 96 With the gauge conversion the number of daily services to eight. Electrification of the Vestfold Line was carried out in 1957, and the Horten Line became the last segment to receive electric traction, on 11 December 1957.
NSB gradually increased its focus on bus traffic on the route, reducing the number of train services to five from 1962. NSB decided that it was cheaper to operate all services by bus, and closed down all passenger services on the Horten Line from 26 May 1967. A modest amount of freight traffic was retained. Skoppum Station was unstaffed from 1 July 1971, when centralized traffic control was installed. It continued to have a staffed ticket sale until 1 January 2001. NSB introduced its "InterCity" service from 29 May 1978. Most stations on the Vestfold Line were closed, but Skoppum was kept as the key station to serve Horten.Gulowsen: 288 All traffic on the Horten Line terminated in 2002 and the line was demolished in 2009.
Balthazar Lange was selected as the main architect for the Vestfold and Horten Lines, and thus also designed Skoppum, which was designed in Swiss chalet style. To accommodate best possible transfer between the two lines, the station building and auxiliary structures were placed in the central of an island platform, denoted as an island station. The buildings were covered with a adjoined roof, called an umbrella. Although providing excellent transfer conditions, the keilbahnhof-design meant that access to the station had to take place from the southern short end.Hartmann: 147 A second platform and third track serves a passing loop. The unique design has caused the station building, goods shed and umbrella to listed as heritage sites. Hartmann: 148
Vestfold Kollektivtrafikk serves Skoppum with Line 1 which shuttles in to downtown Horten. Travel time is no shorter than 20 minutes. Buses run once or twice per hour. The buses and trains do not correspond in either direction.
The conditions made it impossible to place a line through the town of Horten, forcing the Norwegian National Rail Administration to consider three routes which entirely bypassed the town. Three proposals were made. The two easternmost, denoted Bakkenteigen and Skoppum East, would largely be carried on a large viaduct over the landscape. The third, Skuppum West, would run entirely west of the existing track and pass west of the village of Skoppum.Norwegian National Rail Administration: 6 Either way the new station will need a feeder bus service as well as be built with significant park and ride facilities.Norwegian National Rail Administration: 13
The Bakkenteigen alternative would serve the Vestfold campus of the University College of Southeast Norway. Its viaduct would be long. It could also pass through the village of Nykirke. Bakketeigen is regarded as having the best possibility for urban development.Norwegian National Rail Administration: 7 Skoppum East would be shorter, with a slightly shorter viaduct and a slightly longer tunnels.Norwegian National Rail Administration: 8 Skoppum West would avoid viaducts and be only , but have of tunnel. The station would be situated on National Road 19, just off the intersection with E18, west of the village of Skoppum.Norwegian National Rail Administration: 9 The latter has the lowest investment costs,Norwegian National Rail Administration: 10 and the least interference with the landscape. The National Rail Administration has therefore recommended Skoppum West.Norwegian National Rail Administration: 14
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