Railways in
Sweden
The first public railway in Sweden opened in 1856 between Nora and
Ervalla, a distance of 18km. The line survives today as a tourist
operation, the Nora Bergslags Jernväg. The first railway to reach the
capital was the Stockholm to Göteborg railway in 1862, with trains
taking 14 hours for the 455km (280 mile) journey between the two major
cities.
The first railways in Sweden were built to standard (1435mm) gauge,
which is the gauge of most of the main line railways today; but there was
also once an extensive network of 891mm (3 Swedish feet) gauge lines.
About 65km of this narrow gauge network in still used by the Roslagståg
suburban trains in the Stockholm area, while elsewhere a few stretches
remain as tourist operations.
Sweden has international rail connections with Norway, and with Finland
via a dual gauge bridge (1435/1520mm) over the River Tornio, the latter now
used only by freight trains. In 2000 a new line to Denmark was opened via
the Öresund fixed link, giving Sweden a direct overland rail connection
with the rest of Western Europe for the first time.
Main line passenger and freight services are provided by various
operators. Regional services are for the most part operated under
contract to local authorities; where possible, the operators are given
in the service entries below.
Main line railways
- SJ long distance
passenger operator, also timetabling and tickets for all operators
- Arlanda
Express passenger shuttle service between Stockholm C and Arlanda
Airport
- Blå Tåget
passenger services between Göteborg and Uppsala via Stockholm
- Inlandsbanan
lengthy railway serving remote inland parts of northern Sweden; the
complete route runs for 1300km from Kristinehamn on the shores of Lake
Vänern to Gällivare, north of the Arctic Circle on the Luleå to Narvik
railway. Passenger tourist services operate during the summer months.
In 2011, about 200km of the route was being operated by buses.
- Krösatågen
regional passenger trains from Nässjö and Jönköping, operated by DSB Småland (Sites in Swedish)
- Kustpilen regional passenger trains from Linköping
to Västervik and Kalmar, operated by Veolia Transport (Sites in
Swedish)
- Kust till Kust
passenger trains from Göteborg to Kalmar and Karlskrona, operated by
SJ (Kust till Kust site in
Swedish)
- Mittnabotåget passenger trains from Östersund to
Sundsvall and Östersund to Trondheim (Norway). Operated by Veolia Transport
- Norrtåg
international passenger trains from Sundsvall to Trondheim (Norway) and
from Luleå to Narvik (Norway), passenger trains along the Bothnian coast
including the Botniabanan high speed line, and local passenger service
from Umeå. Operated by Botniatåg AB, a joint venture of SJ
and Arriva Sverige (Norrtåg and
Arriva sites in Swedish)
- Öresundståg
passenger trains from Göteborg, Karlskrona, Vaxjö and Malmö via the
Öresund fixed link to destinations in Denmark, operated by Veolia Transport (Veolia site in
Swedish)
- Östgötapendeln regional passenger trains in the
Norrköping, Linköping and Motala areas. Operated by Arriva Sverige (Arriva site in
Swedish)
- Roslagståg
suburban trains on a narrow gauge (891 mm) network in the Stockholm
area (Site in Swedish)
- Skånetrafiken
Pågatågen regional passenger trains in the Malmö / Kristianstad area.
Operated by Arriva Sverige (Arriva site in
Swedish)
- Tåg i
Bergslagen regional passenger trains in the Bergslagen area to the
north and west of Västerås. Operated by Tågkompaniet (Sites in
Swedish)
- Tågkompaniet
regional passenger trains to the north and west of Stockholm (Site
in Swedish)
- Upptåget regional passenger trains between Gävle,
Uppsala and Upplands-Väsby. Operated by DSB Uppland (DSB site in
Swedish)
- Västtrafik
Västtågen regional passenger trains in the Göteborg area. Most
trains operated by SJ, except the Kinnekullebanan
lines (Göteborg to Örebro and Herrljunga to Hallsberg) operated by
Arriva Sverige (Arriva site
in Swedish)
- Veolia
Transport operates several main line services in addition to the
local and regional services shown elsewhere on this page (Site
mainly in Swedish with some information in English)
- Xtåget
local passenger trains in the Gävle area. Operated by Tågkompaniet (Sites in
Swedish)
- Green Cargo
freight operating arm of SJ
- CargoNet
independent freight operator
- CFL Cargo Sverige
independent freight operator
- Hector Rail
independent freight operator, also operates some passenger services
under cotract to Veolia
- RushRail
independent freight operator (Site in Swedish)
- Malmbanan (Ore Railway) iron ore trains
on the line from from Luleå to Narvik, in Norway
- Trafikverket
infrastructure authority
Tourist railways
- Anten -
Gräfsnäs Järnväg a narrow gauge tourist lakeside line near Alingsås,
about 50km northeast of Göteborg (11km, 891mm gauge, usually steam
hauled)
- Åre Bergbanan
funicular near the crossing of the Norwegian border by the main line from
Östersund to Trondheim (Website contains little information
relating to funicular)
- Böda Skogsjärnväg (Böda Forest Railway) a narrow
gauge tourist railway located near the northern tip of the island of
Öland. On days when regular trains are not running, you can hire a pedal
driven trolley to ride on the line (Fagerrör to Trollskogen.
600mm gauge)
- Dal-Västra Värmlands
Järnväg a standard gauge tourist railway in the mountains of western
Sweden (Bengtsfors to Mellerud. 44km, usually operated by diesel railbus)
and a separate line for the use of pedal driven trolleys (Bengtsfors to
Årjäng. 52km)
- Engelsbergs-Norbergs
Järnväg a standard gauge tourist railway about 100km northwest of
Uppsala (Kärrgruvan to Ängelsberg. 18km, usually operated by diesel
railbus) (Site in Swedish)
- Gammelstad -
Karlsvikshyttans Järnväg standard gauge tourist railway between
the North Bothnia Railway Museum at Karlsvik (near Luleå) and Gammelstad.
Dining facilities are provided on certain services (Site mainly
in Swedish with some information in English)
- Gotlands
Hesselby Jernväg tourist railway between Hesselby and Eken on
the island of Gotland, about 20km east of Visby
- Jädraås - Tallås
Järnväg a narrow gauge tourist railway between Jädraås and
Svartbäcken, about 40km west of Gävle on the east coast of Sweden
(6km, 891mm gauge)
- Järnvägssällskapet
Åmål - Årjäng railway museums at Åmål Östra and Svanskog, with
occasional tourist passenger train services between the two sites
(25km, standard gauge)
- Lennakatten a narrow
gauge tourist railway between Uppsala and Faringe (32km, 891mm gauge)
- Munkedals Jernväg narrow gauge tourist railway
between Åtorp and Munkedals harbour, on the west coast of Sweden
about 80km north of Göteborg (600mm gauge) (Site in Swedish)
- Nora Bergslags
Veteran Jernväg two separate services, Nora Stad to Ervalla and
Nora Stad Gyttorp, together about 25 km, standard gauge. Diesel
railcars operate most days during the summer, steam trains on
certain Saturdays and holidays (Site mainly in Swedish,
with some information in English)
- Östra Södermanlands
Järnväg a narrow gauge tourist railway between Mariefred and
Läggesta, about 60km west of Stockholm (3.6km, 600mm gauge, constructed
on a former standard gauge trackbed). Circular tours are available from
Stockholm, aboard the historic steamship Mariefred from
Stockolm to Mariefred, returning from Läggesta to Stockholm by normal
service trains. On certain days, a similar trip is possible aboard the
historic steamship Ejdern but this is not specifically marketed as a round
trip and separate tickets must be purchased for each leg of the journey.
- Risten - Lakviks Järnväg a narrow gauge tourist
railway centered on Lakvik, about 25km southeast of Linköping
(a little over 1km, 600mm gauge; extensions proposed) (Site
in Swedish)
- Skånska
Järnvägar a standard gauge tourist railway in the southeast of
Sweden, located midway between Ystad and Kristianstad (Brösarp to Storn
Olof, 13.4km)
- Skara - Lundbrunns
Järnvägar a narrow gauge (891mm) tourist railway located about
100km northeast of Göteborg. Originally part of the same network
as the Anten - Gräfsnäs Railway
- Smalspårsjärnvägen
Hultsfred-Västervik a narrow gauge tourist railway near the Baltic
coast about 100km south of Noorköping (Västervik to Hultsfred. 71km,
891mm gauge, usually operated by diesel railbus)
- Wadstena Fogelsta
Järnväg a narrow gauge (891mm) tourist railway on a short length
of line in Vadstena, on the shores of Lake Vättern about 200km southwest
of Stockholm. Possible future extension to Fågelsta, a distance of about
9.5 km (Site mainly in Swedish, with some information in English)
- Ringlinien Historic trams operating on the
Göteborg network (Site mainly in Swedish with an introduction
in English)
- Historic tramways
in Stockholm, Malmö and Malmköping
Metro, trams and local railways
- Stockholm
Metro, trams, funiculars and local trains
- Göteborg
trams, local and regional trains
- Norrköping trams, local and regional trains
