Sweden has embarked on a major railway renovation project. Works are now taking place on a large part of the Western Main Line, which runs between Gothenburg and Stockholm. While Germany took over 10 months for the Hamburg–Berlin railway, Sweden is planning to complete its rail upgrade much faster.
The Swedish renovation resembles the earlier German rail works. In both cases, they concern the railway running between the countries’ major port cities (Hamburg and Gothenburg) and the capital cities (Berlin and Stockholm). Both have a significant impact on rail freight operations. An efficient execution is highly desired.
In the case of the Hamburg–Berlin railway, there was much left to be desired in terms of execution. The renovation caused widespread chaos: detours faced disruptions and trains were delayed and cancelled on multiple occasions across Germany. Sweden’s rail upgrade, by contrast, looks like it will be an easier pill to swallow.
The Swedish Western Main Line between Gothenburg and Alingsås will be closed off for a total of eight weeks, until 16 August. Traffic on the railway has grown explosively and capacity needs to be expanded, according to rail infrastructure manager Trafikverket. At the same time, the line needs an upgrade for the purposes of defence.
Sweden’s planned timeline is much more favourable than the German equivalent — good news for the rail freight industry in the country, because the impact will be limited to the summer months only.
Similar, but not quite the same
However, the Swedish project is also much more limited in scope. Trafikverket is renovating four tunnels, replacing sixteen switches, modernising several bridges and removing level crossings. Other maintenance works, such as measures on station platforms, vegetation removal, track upgrades (an overtaking zone) at Lerum station, and new fibre communication infrastructure are also part of the project.
By comparison, Germany replaced 249 switches and a single bridge, renewed 165 kilometres of tracks and repaired another 61 kilometres. 47 kilometres of overhead lines were replaced and six overtaking areas were added. This was much-needed, since infrastructure maintenance had been neglected for too long.
For all its flaws, the German renovation did manage to upgrade an entire key railway. Sweden is only doing a part of the Western Main Line, so it will not be as demanding as it otherwise would have been. Still, Sweden is purposefully spreading out its project over a longer period of time. The German rail freight industry also advocated for such an approach, but infrastructure manager DB InfraGO did not go along with it.
In contrast to DB InfraGO, Trafikverket has opted to execute its works across 16 weekends in 2025, 15 weekends in 2026, eight summer weeks in 2026 and a similar number of weekends in 2027. This approach will (probably) cushion the impact of the Gothenburg–Stockholm closure for the rail freight industry.