In the meantime, the issue of a pure industrial versus a general purpose railway line had stirred local protests, since Norsk Hydro had indicated they were not interested in building a railway to serve the general public. At the time it was common that lines built primarily for single-company freight transport would involve the subsidized operation of passenger and general cargo trains, at the expense of the railway owner. Heavy local protests were transmitted to parliament in 1906, but by the next year an agreement was made for the construction of a general purpose line. On 13 April 1907 Norsk Hydro and the German group Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (today BASF) made an agreement for the creation of the factory at Rjukan, Rjukan Salpeterfabrik, and at the same time created Norsk Transportaktieselskap—both companies were owned as 50/50 joint ventures. Norsk Transport received a concession to build—with