Vestbanen (company)

The original route of the Varde - Oksbøl Jernbane ( VNJ ) is a standard gauge railway line in Denmark and is also called Vestbanen. This is 38 km long and runs from Varde Varde about Vestbanegården and Oksbøl Oksbøl.

Varde is located north of Esbjerg, the largest city on the west coast of Jutland. In Varde is also the workshop. The company was incorporated in 1878. Despite the 1913 connection opened by Tarm ( route Esbjerg - Skjern ) this path always led in this sparsely populated area in the shadows. The main customer for freight until the summer of 2005, the Danish military.

During World War II the connection was built to Nymindegab by the Germans, which was planned as early as 1878. In this section you can go with track bikes today. The route Oksbøl - Oksby was built by the Germans. Reason for the two extensions was the construction of fortifications on the coast. The route Oksby and Oksbøl - Tarm were shut down.

With the company's VESTBUS the VNJ also operated bus services. Since 2003 ARRIVA Tog Danmark operates the regional train services in North Jutland. Even before the VNJ was sold to ARRIVA. This happened in 2002. ARRIVA chose the VNJ workshop on the future main workshop. Since the previous workshop was too small, had to be expanded.