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Sweden mulls new high-speed rail lines

Sweden should build high-speed rail lines connecting Stockholm to Gothenburg and Malmö, a government appointed commission recommends.

Sweden mulls new high-speed rail lines

According to the findings of a commission investigating the future of high speed rail in Sweden, building the new lines between the Swedish capital and the next two most populous cities would cost about 125 billion kronor ($17.6 billion), with the state financing about half of the cost.

Additional funding would come from local authorities and regions through which the lines would pass, as well as from the European Union and income from ticket sales.

Tracks in place today, which can carry trains traveling at speeds exceeding 200 kilometres per hour, are unable to accommodate modern high speed trains, which can reach speeds of 320 kilometres per hour.

Trains traveling at those speeds would halve travel time between Stockholm and Gothenburg to about two hours, while the time to travel from Stockholm to Malmö would drop to about two and a half hours.

“Building high-speed rail lines would create conditions for an entirely new transportation system with better options for the effective transport of goods and people, while at the same time altering the conditions governing where one chooses to work and live,” said lead investigator Gunnar Malm, head of the Arlandabanan rail line connecting Stockholm to Arlanda airport, in a statement.

Malm estimates that the new high-speed rail lines could be operational between 2023 and 2025.

The commission looking into high speed rail was appointed by the government in December 2008, and presented its findings to infrastructure minister Åsa Torstensson on Monday.

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TRANSPORT

Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure

Lines M3 and M4 of the Copenhagen Metro are back in service having reopened on Sunday, one day ahead of schedule.

Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure

The two lines had been closed so that the Metro can run test operations before opening five new stations on the M4 line this summer.

The tests, which began on February 10th, are now done and the lines were running again as of Sunday evening, a day ahead of the original planned reopening on Monday February 26th.

“We are very pleased to be able to welcome our passengers on to our two lines M3 and M4,” head of operations with the Metro Søren Boysen said.

“The whole test procedure exceeded all expectations and went faster than expected and we can therefore get a head start on our reopening now,” he said.

Time set aside for potential repeat tests was not needed in the event, allowing the test closures to be completed ahead of time.

“Several of our many tests went better than expected and we have therefore not used all the time we needed for extra tests,” Boysen said.

The two lines serve around one million passengers every week, according to the Metro company.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen city government greenlights extension to Metro line

The new stops on the M4 line will be located south of central Copenhagen in the Valby and Sydhavn areas. The will have the names Haveholmen, Enghave Brygge, Sluseholmen, Mozarts Plads and København Syd (Copenhagen South).

The M3 and M4 lines, the newer sections of the Metro, opened in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

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