The start of the "Västgötabanan"
When and where the discussion about building a railroad from Västergötland to Göteborgs first took place in not known. Around 1890 did however the discussion started. When the local branch lines in Västergötland had been connected to each other, they were suddenly a financial factor to count with. Even outside the county of Västergötland. To come into direct contact to these railroad was of great interest for Göteborg.
On a meeting in Alingsås 1892 there were a intense debate between the interest of Skara and Lidköping were the railroad from Göteborg should be built. Skara wanted the railroad through Vara to Skara but Lidköping preferred the railroad should go through Håkantorp to connect to the already existing railroad from Håkantorp to Lidköping. The parties had, however, agreed on a proposal, the end of the railroad should be Göteborg and not Älvängen (about 30 km north of Göteborg, along the river Göta Älv).

The interim board of directors
At the first meeting of the interim board on the 9^th January 1893 it was decided that the new railroad company should have the name "Västergötland - Göteborgs Järnväg" or "VGJ". The captain Ph. Oterdahl was commissioned to lead the work to investigate the railroad building. At the meeting of the board on the 14^th of August 1893, Captain Oterdahl had produce a proposal about building a railroad from Göteborg through Vara to Skara and for the branch line between Pedersbacke (later renamed Tumleberg) to Håkantorp. The proposed main line were 129,2 km and the cost would be 4 029 000 SEK, the distance of the branch line were 11,8 km and would cost 270 000 SEK.

During the years after the railroad were under a intense debate, mainly during the year of 1894between the interest of Skara and Lidköping. At last they were united and in January of 1896 an invitation was sent out to sign share capital in the nwe company. The building of the new railroad was set to start at 31^st of December 1896, at the latest, and the railroad was to be opened by the 1^st of October 1898.

Concession for the main line Göteborg - Skara was granted by Kungl. Maj:t (HRH King Oskar II) on the 10^th of May 1895. Concession for the branch line Tumleberg - Håkantorp was delayed until 31^st of December 1896.

Building of the railroad
To build the railroad was contracted to lieutenant K A Lagergren and engineer F H Malmstedt according to the agreement by the 10^th of August 1897. Lagergren and Malmstedt undertook an assignment to build the railroad for a cost of 1 469 100 SEK. In the amount was not the cost for rails, houses or engines and coaches, only for the embankment.

The construction was carried out with intensive work and the labour force was in average 900 people. Sometimes as much as 1300 people were engaged. At the end of 1897 were 47,3 km already built.

The calculations made by Lagergren and Malmstedt was not correct, depending of cost increase. At the end of 1898 VGJ had to take over the construction work.

At that time most of the railroad was built, including the two tunnels. The building of the rails had started in June 1898, and now were the parts Vara - Öttum (20 km), Håkantorp - Utby (27 km), Pedersbacke - Afså ( 7 km), and Skräppekärr - Linnarhult (6 km)already completed.

Special contractor for the buildings
As a contractor to build all buildings for the railroad VGJ had accept the building contractor C J Carlsson from Mjölby. He got the contract to build 12 larger station houses, 8 smaller station houses, 8 cabins with waiting room , 12 larger outhouses, 8 middle size outhouses, 31 small outhouses, 23 cabins, 20 freight houses for a total amount of 269 000 SEK.

Later on also the station buildings and freight house at Vara (25 000 SEK), roundhouse in Skara (9 500 SEK), roundhouse in Pedersbacke (9 000 SEK) and roundhouse in Göteborg (23 500 SEK) was added to the contract.

In the same way as for Mr Lagergren and Mr Malmstedt, the building contractor C J Carlsson got into financial problem due to of cost increase. A big problem was to find wood to build the houses and to have it transported to the construction sites.

Despite this Mr Carlsson succeded to built most of the houses but in January 1900, he went bankrupt.

Engines and coaches
To the opening of the railroad the railway company has ordered 4 steam engines from Motala Verkstad.

During 1899 they ordered more steam engines, 2 tender locomotives, and 5 passenger coaches and 40 freight coaches.

Opposite many other narrow gauge railroads VGJ early separated the engines for freight trains or passenger trains. VGJ, as the first narrow gauge railroad company in Sweden, acquired tender locomotives with large water and coal supplies to avoid stops along the railroad to refill the supplies.

At AGJ you could find the engines VGJ 24 and 31. No 24 is used in the dayly traffic and No.31 is under renovation.

The start of the traffic was to full satisfaction. In the summer of 1900, on the 16^th of July, RHR Oskar II travelled on the railroad to his summer vacation on the island of Marstrand. In Göteborg HRH Oskar II held the inaugural speech and declared the railroad opened.

When the final inspection took place in october the same year, the speed on the railroad was set to 45 km/tim on the part Skara - Gunnilse and to 35 km/tim on the parts of unnilse - Göteborg and Håkantorp - Tumleberg. With full satisfaction the board declared that "no other narrow gauge in Sweden had ever before been granted with such a high speed".

The traffic operations
Opposite many other narrow gauge railroads VGJ early separated the engines for freight trains or passenger trains. VGJ, as the first narrow gauge railroad company in Sweden, acquired tender locomotives with large water and coal supplies to avoid stops along the railroad to refill the supplies. A trip from Göteborg to Skara could go almost nonstop, except a lunch stop at the railroad restaurant in Gräfsnäs, just beside the station building.

VGJ staked on the passenger traffic. This was to be noticed on the large and elegant passenger coaches. Very early VGJ introduced so called "Sunday ticket special ". This ment a return trip to the price of a single trip.

The railway company also bought the 28 acres large area around the castle ruin of Gräfsnäs to stimulate the Sunday trips. In the beginning of the 1920-ies all labours in Swede got one week of vacation and in many cases Sunday off. Soon Gräfsnäs was a very popular destination and it was told about extra trains with 10 - 12 large passenger coaches and double tender engines in the lead with all together 2000 passengers fromGöteborg.

Traffic operations were significant and from time to time on a large scale. Already after 10-15 years the VGJ company was one of the largest railroad companies in Sweden.

One main reason was the fact that already in 1929 the speed of the trains was raise to 60 km/h on the part Göteborg - Skara and in 1931 on the part Skara - Gårdsjö.

In the 1940-ies VGJ was intruduced the railcars and raised the speed to 80 km/h for them on a great part on the lines of VGJ.