BaneService is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 government owned

Public property

Public property is property, which is dedicated to the use of the public. It is a subset of state property. The term may be used either to describe the use to which the property is put, or to describe the character of its ownership...

 railway

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

 construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

 and maintenance

Rail tracks

The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast , plus the underlying subgrade...

 company. It is by far the largest subcontractor

Subcontractor

A subcontractor is an individual or in many cases a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract....

 for Jernbaneverket and is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications

Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications

The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Transportation and Communications is a Norwegian ministry established in 1946, and is responsible for transportation and communication infrastructure in Norway. It is led by Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa...

.

History

The company started out as a division of Norges Statsbaner (NSB), with the construction and maintenance functions dating back to the formation of NSB in 1883. The division was separated from the planning department in 1992 and became part of Jernbaneverket when NSB was split up in 1996 with the name Jernbaneverket BaneService.

On 1 January 2005 the company became a separate limited company

Aksjeselskap

Aksjeselskap is the Norwegian term for a stock-based company. It is usually abbreviated AS or A/S, especially when used in company names. An AS is always a limited company, i.e. the owners cannot be held liable for any debt beyond the stock capital...

 after the liberal-conservative government wanted to create a market for public tender bids for the maintenance of the railway infrastructure. To do this BaneService had to be separated from Jernbaneverket, much like the separation of Statens Vegvesen

Norwegian Public Roads Administration

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the state and county public roads in the country. This includes planning, construction and operation of the state and county road networks, driver training and licensing, vehicle inspection and subsidies to...

 and Mesta. The red-green government to follow in 2005 has announced that they will revert the decision to privatise the maintenance of the railway, but BaneService has remained a separate company.