The Nordland Line was first publicly proposed by Ole Tobias Olsen in a letter to the editor in "Morgenbladet" in 1872, where he argued for a railway between Trondheim and his home county of Nordland. The same year, Nord-Trøndelag County Council voted in favor to start planning of a railway between Trondheim and Namsos. The county council appointed a railway committee in 1875, who on 23 August 1876 published a report to encourage national authorities to consider the line, which resulted in surveying starting in 1877. On 27 April 1881, the committee made its recommendation to the county council and ceased its work. No planning was done the next three years, until three county councilors, Vilhelm Andreas Wexelsen, Peter Theodor Holst and Bernhard Øverland, made a new proposal. However, it was not until 1889 that the county council appointed a new railway committee, which was led by Wexelsen.