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Chaotic week in store for Sweden’s train services

Travellers on Sweden's railways should be braced for a challenging week, with 350km of railways on Sweden's southern mainline closed for engineering works.

Published: 12 June 2023 15:23 CEST

Chaotic week in store for Sweden's train services

Previous works on the southern mainline in 2020. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The replacement of track, junctions and contact lines means that there will be track closures between Stockholm and Malmö, as well as the Norrköping-Hässleholm line.

Travel will be possible between these stations, but will take place via the western mainline instead.

No tickets have been sold for the affected lines, so there will not be any cancellations for those who have booked journeys, according to previous information given to TT newswire by Jonas Olsson from train company SJ’s press office.

However, the diversion via the western mainline means that a journey with a usual length of around four hours will take closer to seven.

Rail replacement buses will be also be in place.

Sweden’s Transport Administration has been planning the engineering works for around a year and a half.

“The reason it is happening now is a growing need for updates on the railway,” project leader Jenny Nilsson told TT. “We want to carry out as much work as possible in a short period to avoid unplanned disruptions in the future.”

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Which Swedish roads are set to be busiest around Midsummer?

What are the peak traffic hours?

Between noon and 6pm on Thursday, 9am-2pm on Friday and 2-6pm on Sunday.

Which roads are expected to be the worst?

The big motorways are expected to be busy. That’s for example the E4 motorway, which runs from Helsingborg to Stockholm and then all the way up the northeast coast.

Other typical bottlenecks are the E6 between Malmö and Strömstad via Gothenburg and the E22 between Norrköping and Kalmar, as well as the E14 between Sundsvall and Åre.

Roads leading to popular Midsummer destinations, such as Lake Siljan (or Dalarna in general), the roads around Lake Mälaren, and roads leading towards the archipelagos in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Bohuslän are also likely to be packed with holidayers.

See the map at the bottom of the article.

What can I do to avoid the queues?

The best tip is to avoid travelling during peak hours, but other than that, there’s not much, to be honest.

You could stay home or take public transport (which will probably also be busy), but neither is likely to be a realistic option for you this late in the game. If everyone on the road drives responsibly and respectfully, that’s the best way to avoid total gridlock.

If you’re considering alternative routes to avoid the motorway queues, think twice. Of course accidents could happen anywhere, but the major dual carriageways are generally safer than minor roads where you risk head-on collisions with overtaking drivers.

If there is an accident and you get stuck in a queue as a result, the motorways – at least one lane – are also likely to reopen to traffic faster than some of the smaller roads.

So the best thing is to allow extra time for travel, stick to the speed limit and put up with the queues. If that means driving slower than the speed limit, so be it. Don’t overtake for the sake of it. Bring good music and snacks in the car to make the journey part of the holiday.

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t drive while under the influence of alcohol (the drink-drive limit in Sweden is blood alcohol content of 0.02 percent or 0.10 milligrams per litre) and remember that you may still be over the limit the morning after drinking.

Tiredness is also a cause of dangerous driving, so make sure you get enough sleep and take plenty of breaks along the way. This is always important, but even more so on the way home on Sunday after a weekend of late nights and Midsummer revelry.

The map below, issued by the Swedish Traffic Administration, shows the roads that are expected to get the most traffic during Midsummer.

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