A derailment near the Swedish town Bollebygd has taken a railway out of operation. The location is rather unfortunate, just south of the Gothenburg-Stockholm railway. That line is closed for renovations, the line through Bollebygd served as a detour route.
Just yesterday, RailFreight.com published an article highlighting Sweden’s less risky approach to major railway renovations compared to Germany. Sweden has spread out works across many weekends, with a single eight-week prolonged closure taking place now. It didn’t take long, however, for problems to occur there too.
The Swedish rail infrastructure manager Trafikverket says that there is a stop to train traffic between Gothenburg and Borås, as well as from Gothenburg to Stockholm and Kalmar.
The derailment at Bollebygd was likely caused by a sun kink: a curve in the tracks caused by overheating. A 600-metre long freight train ran over it and derailed. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the tracks sustained extensive damage.
No forecast for reopening
Trafikverket will assess the damage in the coming days. The difficult terrain and the large number of wagons that have railed make this difficult. Restoration work can take time, says the infrastructure manager.
“A very rough estimate at such an early stage is that clearance and restoration work is expected to take about two weeks”, said Hanna Ekberg, Railway Maintenance Section Manager at Trafikverket. There is no forecast for a reopening of the tracks.
Trafikverket tells RailFreight.com that there are other detour routes for the Gothenburg–Stockholm route available, but that these are longer and take a lot of time.
