Timber is one of the main industries in Sweden, especially in the Norrland region in the north. Despite persisting challenges, rail freight is increasing its role in the transport of timber, with volumes doubling between 2023 and 2025, according to Norra Skog, one of Sweden’s largest forest owners’ associations.
Number-wise, Norra Skog members went from moving 249,000 cubic metres of timber by rail in 2023 to 340,000 in 2024 and 508,000, setting a new record. The association claimed that volumes could have even been larger, but extreme weather conditions and signal failures affected traffic. There are two main drivers behind this growth, according to Oscar Jakobsson, Flow Manager at Norra Skog.
First, there were significant “efforts in the inland region to move more volumes by train to get them efficiently to Husum, without having to transport everything by truck all the way”. In Husum, the timber is destined to the Metsä Board mill, one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The second reason is the terminal opened in Östavall, which made it easier to consolidate volumes and load them onto trains for Husum. “That is perhaps the single largest factor behind the growth we’ve seen compared to last year”, Jakobsson added.
Track access charges remain a problem
Though more and more timber is finding its way onto freight trains, the situation is still far from perfect. The largest obstacle continues to be track access charges (TAC), which are increasing all across Europe, but especially in Sweden with a +40% between 2024 and 2025. These increases have a stronger impact on heavy freight trains, such as the ones loaded with timber, as they are usually charged higher fees.
“If track charges were lowered, the economic conditions of the railways would improve, which could release the potential to move even more goods from road to rail”, Patrik Jonsson, Head of Forest & Timber at Norra Skog stated. Last Fall, the Swedish government proposed a special fund to compensate companies for the high TAC with a budget of 80 million euros.
