Malmtrafik
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| Franchise(s): | Malmbanan |
| Main line(s): | Malmbanan |
| Fleet size: | 18 IORE |
| Stations called at: | |
| Parent company: | LKAB |
| Web site: | www.lkab.se |
Malmtrafik or MTAB / MTAS is a Swedish railway company that operates the iron ore freight trains on Malmbanan between Malmberget and Kiruna to the SSAB steel mill in Luleå and the port at Narvik in Norway. The company is owned by the mining company LKAB.
[edit] History
Malmbanan was built in 1888 and electrified in 1923. Until 1996 the operation of the ore trains was performed by Statens Järnvägar (SJ) in Sweden and Norges Statsbaner (NSB) in Norway with locomotive changes at the national border at Riksgränsen. In 1996 Malmtrafik was created by SJ, NSB and LKAB to perform the transportation of iron ore, while the passenger transport was retained by SJ and NSB. Malmtrafikk took over the Dm+Dm3+Dm and El 15 locomotives and there were created two operating companies, Malmtrafik AB (MTAB) in Sweden and Malmtrafikk AS (MTAS) in Norway. Both SJ and NSB have since sold their ownership in Malmtrafikk to LKAB.
The new company ordered 18 IORE locomotives from Bombardier with delivery between 2000 and 2004. The Dm locomotives were then scrapped while the El 15 locomotives were sold to HectorRail.
