Transport in Sweden

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Transportation in Sweden is carried out by car, bus, train, tram, boat or aeroplane.

Railways in Sweden

Rail transport is operated by SJ, DSBFirst, Green Cargo, Vy Tåg and more. Most counties have companies that do ticketing, marketing and financing of local passenger rail, but the actual operation are done by the above-mentioned companies.

• Total: 11,663 km (includes 3,594 km of privately (in fact county) owned
  railways
  ) or 9227 km of national railways
• standard gauge
  : 11,568 km 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge (7,531 km electrified and 1,152 km double track) (2008)
• narrow gauge
  : 65 km of 891 mm (2 ft 11+3⁄32 in) gauge (2008)
• Trains generally keep to the left, as opposed to all neighbouring countries.

Light rail and metros

Cities with light rail (trams);

• Gothenburg tram
  – consisting of 190 km on a total track length of 161 km
• Norrköping tramway
  – small but growing
• Stockholm: Tvärbanan, Nockebybanan, Lidingöbanan, Spårväg City
• Lund – Lund tramway

Stockholm previously had a large tram network, but this was discontinued in favour of bus and metro; a revival of the tram network was seen in the construction of Tvärbanan in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Railway links with adjacent countries

• Eda (Stockholm-Oslo), Storlien (Östersund-Trondheim, not electrified Storlien-Trondheim) and Riksgränsen (Narvik-Kiruna
  )
  • same gauge – same voltage – same
    protection system
    . Most Swedish and Norwegian rail vehicles can cross the border. As there is only single-track at all border crossings, there is no need for bridges to make the transition from left- to right-hand traffic.
• Finland at Tornio/Haparanda
  • break-of-gauge
    1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)/1,524 mm (5 ft) – other protection system. All freight has to be reloaded. No passenger traffic by rail.
• Öresund bridge
  • same gauge – voltage change
    25kVAC
    – other protection system. Only custom made locomotives or EMUs can cross the border. Bridges to make the transition from left- to right-hand traffic, are located north of Malmö, so all traffic south of Malmö is in right-hand traffic.

Above: Left-hand traffic in Slussen in 1963. Below: Right-hand traffic in Slussen in 2007.

Sweden has right-hand traffic today like all its neighbours.

Sweden had left-hand traffic (Vänstertrafik in

Nevertheless, in 1963 the Riksdag passed legislation ordering the switch to right-hand traffic. The changeover took place on a Sunday morning at 5am on September 3, 1967, which was known in Swedish as Dagen H (H-Day), the 'H' standing for Högertrafik or right-hand traffic.

Since Swedish cars were left-hand drive, experts had suggested that changing to driving on the right would reduce accidents, because drivers would have a better view of the road ahead. Indeed, fatal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents did drop sharply as a result. This was likely due to drivers initially being more careful and because of the initially very low speed limits, since accident rates soon returned to nearly the same as earlier.

Total roadways: 572,900 km, as of 2009.

Motorways

• Gothenburg
• Gävle
• Halmstad
• Helsingborg
• Hudiksvall
• Kalmar
• Kapellskär
• Karlshamn
• Karlskrona
• Lidköping
• Malmö
• Norrköping
• Nynäshamn
• Stockholm
• Sundsvall
• Sölvesborg
• Trelleborg
• Varberg
• Västerås
• Waterways: 2,052 km (2010)
• note: navigable for small steamers and barges

Merchant marine

• total: 135 ships (1,000 gross tonnage (GT) or over) totaling 2,205,370 GT/1,663,091 tonnes deadweight (DWT)
• ships by type: (2010)
  • bulk carrier 4
  • cargo ship 26
  • carrier 1
  • chemical tanker 15
  • passenger 5
  • passenger/cargo 36
  • petroleum tanker 11
  • roll-on/roll-off 30
  • vehicle carrier 17

Airports

• Gothenburg City Airport
• Göteborg Landvetter Airport
• Jönköping Airport
• Luleå Airport
• Malmö Airport
• Stockholm-Arlanda Airport
• Stockholm-Bromma Airport
• Stockholm-Skavsta Airport
• Umeå Airport
• Växjö Airport
  – Smaland Airport

Pipelines

See also

• Sweden
• Government agencies in Sweden
• Scandinavian Airlines
• Saab, Scania
• Estonia disaster
• Transport in Denmark
• Transport in Finland
• Transport in Iceland
• Transport in Norway

References

• CIA World Factbook
  2010

External links

Media related to Transport in Sweden

• resrobot.se, Search engine for all public transport inside Sweden including air