SWEDEN formally opened its first four-track section of railway on December 10. The new 12km four-track section is part of the southern main line, and will boost capacity between Malmö and Lund from 460 to 650 trains per day.
This will also benefit cross-border services between Malmö and Copenhagen, for which 10 second-hand trains were purchased from Danish State Railways (DSB) during the summer. Following the refurbishment of three more, the Öresundståg fleet operated by Transdev now consists of 114 trains.
“It’s all about there being a bottleneck,” IRJ was told by Mr Jens-Peter Eisenschmidt, project leader for the Malmö - Lund capacity expansion project at infrastructure manager Trafikverket.
“The route between Malmö and Lund has always been double track. But we’re losing capacity. All trains coming from Europe to Sweden have to go through the Malmö - Lund route. There is no other route. The two tracks have become full, and we haven’t been able to plan any more trains there.”
Long-distance trains will use the two central tracks, while other trains will use the two outer tracks, Eisenschmidt explains. That will also make it possible to improve local services, and several stations have consequently been upgraded. In Lund, a completely new station has been built. Parts of the route have been placed in cuttings or completely underground in order to reduce the impact of operational noise.
Meanwhile, the 24km section between Helsingborg north of Lund and Ängelholm has been widened to double track.
The total SKr 7.8bn ($US 750m) cost for both projects has been met by the region, the cities involved, and the European Union (EU), and construction has been carried out by a consortium including Sweden’s NCC and Spain’s OHLA. Work commenced in 2017 and was completed in September.
Trains started operating along the line two months ago, but the grand opening with a number of public events at all stations along the line only took place last weekend, in order to coincide with the new timetable introduced on December 10 that will make full use of the increased capacity.
