Stockholm commuter rail

Stockholm commuter rail
Stockholms pendeltåg

Overview
Owner	Storstockholms Lokaltrafik / Swedish Transport Administration
Locale	Stockholm County; Södermanland County; Uppsala County, Sweden
Transit type	Commuter rail
Number of lines	4
Number of stations	53
Daily ridership	269,000
Operation
Began operation	12 May 1968
Operator(s)	MTR Nordic
Train length	100–214 metres (328–702 ft)
Headway	4.5–30 (120) minutes
Technical
System length	211 km (131 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge)
Average speed	60 km/h (37 mph)
Top speed	160 km/h (99 mph)

Stockholm commuter rail (Swedish: Stockholms pendeltåg) is the commuter rail system in Stockholm County, Sweden. The system is an important part of the public transport in Stockholm, and is controlled by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik. The tracks are state-owned and administered by the Swedish Transport Administration, while the operation of the Stockholm commuter rail services itself has been contracted to MTR Nordic since December 2016.

History

An X60 train in Sundbyberg

Local trains have been operated on the mainline railways around Stockholm since the late nineteenth century. At the beginning, local rail services were part of the Swedish State Railways, but in the late-1960s, the responsibility for these services was transferred to Stockholm County, which incorporated it with the ticketing system of Stockholm Transport. New trains were bought, stations were modernised, and the Stockholm commuter rail network was developed with an aim of making it more metro-like. Originally the system was branded as SL förortståg (English: SL suburban train), and later as SL lokaltåg (English: SL local/commuter train). Only in the 1980s did the system officially became known as Stockholms pendeltåg.

In its first year of operation there was only one route which went from Södertälje södra (now Södertälje hamn) to Kungsängen via Stockholm Central Station. On 1 June 1969, the system was extended to Märsta via a branch located after Karlberg Station (sv) and a new service was created in which trains on the Kungsängen branch terminated at Stockholm C instead. In 1975 another branch line opened to Västerhaninge, with a single-track shuttle service to Nynäshamn. Trains on the Kungsängen branch now terminated at Västerhaninge instead of Stockholm C and which now forms part of the modern line 35.

From 1986 until 1996, important improvements were made to the railways around Stockholm. Single-track stretches were upgraded to double tracks, and some double-track stretches were upgraded to four-track, allowing the commuter trains to run with less interference from other rail services. The service frequency was gradually increased, and from 2001 most stations on the network are served by trains at regular 15-minute intervals, with additional trains during rush hours.

In 2001, the northwestern arm of the network was extended from Kungsängen to Bålsta. A southern infill station at Årstaberg was inaugurated in 2006, in order to connect with the then new Tvärbanan light rail system. A new station at Gröndalsviken opened on the southeastern Västerhaninge-Nynäshamn shuttle on 18 August 2008.

Since 9 December 2012, it has been possible for Stockholm commuter rail trains to stop at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Journeys take 38 minutes from Arlanda C station to Stockholm C, and 18 minutes from Arlanda C to Uppsala C.^[1][2] Discussions on the expansion began in December 2007. The airport has had express service from Stockholm Central through Arlanda Express since 1999, and was also reachable by bus from Märsta station. The implementation required negotiations between Stockholm Transport and Arlanda Express, who had operating rights for the tracks.^[3]

A rail tunnel underneath central Stockholm began construction in 2008 and opened on 10 July 2017. This new tunnel, known as Stockholm City Line (Citybanan; lit. ‘the city line’), is intended for the exclusive use of the Pendeltåg system, and will split commuter traffic onto separate tracks from long-distance trains while travelling through the city. This would ease the rail systems' congestion problems, and permit Stockholm Transport to schedule more frequent service. It will also allow more frequent service for other trains, increasing the capacity for large parts of the Swedish rail network since many trains go to and from Stockholm. Two new underground stations, Stockholm City Station (located under T-Centralen, both stations with connections to Stockholm Central Station) and Stockholm Odenplan Station (sv; located under Odenplan metro station, intended to replace Karlberg Station) were built as part of the Citybanan project.^[4]

Operation of the Stockholm commuter rail lines has been contracted to private companies since 2000. The first franchise holder was Citypendeln (sv), which operated the Stockholm commuter rail from 2000 until 17 June 2006. From 18 June 2006 until 10 December 2016, the network was operated by Stockholmståg (sv), a subsidiary of SJ AB, the former Swedish State Railways company. Since 11 December 2016, MTR Nordic has operated the services on a ten-year contract with an option to extend for a further four.^[5]

Lines

Stockholm commuter rail

Uppsala C J38 Knivsta Arlanda C Märsta J36 Rosersberg Upplands Väsby Rotebro Norrviken Häggvik Sollentuna Helenelund Ulriksdal Solna Bålsta J35 Bro Kungsängen Kallhäll Jakobsberg Barkarby Spånga Sundbyberg Citybanan north end Karlberg Odenplan Stockholm C Citybanan south end Stockholm S Årstaberg ÄlvsjöJ38 Farsta strand Trångsund Skogås Handen Jordbro Västerhaninge Krigslida Tungelsta Hemfosa Segersäng Ösmo Nynäsgård Gröndalsviken Nynäshamn J35 Stuvsta Huddinge Flemingsberg Tullinge Tumba(J38) Rönninge Östertälje Södertälje centrumJ36 J37 Södertälje hamn Södertälje syd Järna Mölnbo Gnesta J37

There are two long lines across the county which run through central Stockholm: line 35 runs from Nynäshamn in the southeast to Bålsta in the northwest, and line 36 connects Södertälje in the southwest with Märsta in the north. The shorter line 37 in the southwest connects Gnesta to Södertälje. Line 38 runs from Uppsala C in the northeast to Älvsjö in the south via Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Stockholm C, with some trains continuing to Tumba. The branch to Uppsala C located after Upplands Väsby used by Line 38 utilises the existing infrastructure of the Arlanda Line and a part of the East Coast Line. The total track length of the system is 211 kilometers (131 mi).

The line to Nynäshamn beyond Västerhaninge consists of single track with passing loops. Previously, short platforms and limited passing places meant that a change of train had to be made in Västerhaninge, but as of 2013 the line has been improved with longer platforms and additional loops, and all services are now run through to Stockholm and Bålsta.

Trains operate every 30 minutes from 5 am to 1 am every day, with 15-minute intervals during the daytime. Additional trains during rush hours give an average of 7½ minutes intervals for many stations, and trains every 4½ minutes on the central parts. Line 37 and outer parts of line 35 are served less frequently, with up to two hours between trains on weekends.

Most trains stop at all intermediate stations, except a few trains during rush hours that omit some smaller stations. 269,000 passengers use Stockholm commuter trains on an ordinary weekday (counting connecting passengers double). This is almost half of the total number of train passengers in Sweden, the metro and trams not included.

Stations

There are 53 stations in the network, four of which are beyond the borders of Stockholm County. Eight stations connect with regional and long-distance trains, three connect with the light-rail tram system Tvärbanan, and three stations have access to the Stockholm metro. Several stations are important interchanges to local buses.

Most stations are of a similar style, with an island platform in a ground-level location with one or two exits, turnstiles, and a staffed ticket office. A few interchange stations have multiple platforms. The stations south of Västerhaninge and Södertälje are smaller, and have no ticket vending facilities; passengers buy their tickets from the train conductor on these parts of the network.

Stockholm Central Station is by far the biggest station in the network, the largest railway station in Sweden, with more than 50,000 boarding commuter rail passengers per day. This is the main station if changing from long-distance trains or from the metro. The smallest station is Hemfosa, which has approximately 100 boarding passengers per day.

The stations are marked with a J symbol, which just stands for the generic term "järnvägsstation" (i.e. railway station) and is similar to the T symbol used by the Stockholm underground railway stations ("tunnelbanestation").

The ten busiest stations (number of boarding passengers on a normal winter weekday 2005):

Rolling stock

An ice covered X1 train

Since the opening of the Stockholm City Line (Citybanan) on 10 July 2017, only one train type, the X60 Coradia Nordic trains from Alstom is currently used on the network, due to the use of platform screen doors on the Citybanan. A total of 71 X60 trains were delivered between 2005 and 2008 to replace secondhand X420 trains previously operated by Deutsche Bahn in Germany, and which were imported into Sweden by the then-operator Citypendeln to temporarily increase capacity on the Pendeltåg network. A full-length train with two X60 units measures 214 metres (702 ft). In 2016, 46 trains of a new generation of the Coradia Nordic family called X60B entered service to replace the X10 trains originally delivered between 1983 and 1993.^[6] The maximum speed of the X60 and X60B trains is 160 km/h (99 mph).

Former

An X10 train towards Märsta

• X1 (from 1968 until 2011)
• X10 (from 1983 until 2017)
• X20/X23 (from 2001 until 2002)
• Bn passenger coaches hauled by SJ Rc locomotives (from 2001 until 2003)
• X420 (from 2002 until 2005)

Future expansions

A new station called Vega (sv), located in Haninge Municipality between Skogås and Handen stations, has been under construction on the Nynäs Line since 2015, and is expected to be completed in 2019.

See also

• List of suburban and commuter rail systems
• Public transport in Stockholm

Notes

References

• Banverket (2007). Linjebok Stockholms trafikledningsområde (in Swedish) (Utgåva 4, ätr 4 ed.). BVF 646.4. 
• "Tekniska fakta - pendeltåg" (in Swedish). Storstockholms Lokaltrafik. Archived from the original on 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2007-07-10. 
• "Pendeltågen i Stockholms län : Historisk bakgrund och utveckling 1957-2003" (PDF) (in Swedish). Regionplane- och trafikkontoret, Stockholms läns landsting. 2003-12-09. 
• "Fakta om SL och länet år 2005" (PDF) (in Swedish). Storstockholms Lokaltrafik. 2006-05-18. 
• Stockholm commuter rail timetables (in Swedish). Storstockholms Lokaltrafik. 2007.  |access-date= requires |url= (help) J35 J36 J37

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stockholms pendeltåg.

• Stockholm Transport - official website
• Map of all Stockholm Transport rail lines
• Pendelavstånd till Stockholms central