{"id":201029,"date":"2025-04-16T19:55:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=61655"},"modified":"2025-04-16T19:55:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:55:24","slug":"a-better-iron-ore-line-comes-closer-this-year-with-large-scale-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=201029","title":{"rendered":"A better Iron Ore Line comes closer this year with large-scale improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sweden is going ahead with significant investments in the Iron Ore Line (Swedish: Malmbanan). The far-north railway is crucial for the logistics operations of mines in the area. A lot of improvement projects on the line are starting this May.<\/strong><br \/>\n<span id=\"more-61655\"><\/span>The railway made headlines when three trains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/railfreight\/2024\/07\/03\/yet-another-derailment-on-the-iron-ore-line\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">derailed<\/a> in short succession in late 2023 and early 2024. As a consequence, the strategically important mines in the area suffered significantly from the reduced transport capacity. A better Iron Ore Line is vital for them.<\/p>\n<p>Much change is coming with the start of significant projects in May. For example, the tracks between G\u00e4llivare and R\u00e5tsi, near Kiruna, will be replaced. It is a long strength of rail (almost 80 kilometres as the crow flies), so the track renewal will continue beyond 2025. Part of the aim here is to strengthen the rails&#8217; substructure to allow for heavier trains.<\/p>\n<h2>More upgrades<\/h2>\n<p>Between Boden and G\u00e4llivare, the Iron Ore Line will get a catenary upgrade. A continuous 21-kilometre track replacement is also ongoing both in the northern and southern section of the line. Rail connections to the Peuravaara mining zone north of Kiruna and to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2024\/07\/05\/boden-industrial-park-to-get-connected-to-malmbanan-despite-already-scarce-capacity\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">industrial zone Svartbyn<\/a> in Boden will also be built.<\/p>\n<p>Besides a long list of minor projects relating to maintenance, drainage, fencing and environmental integration starting this year, some major works are already underway. For example, Sweden is working to roll out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/technology\/2024\/09\/09\/the-iron-ore-line-is-now-the-first-line-in-sweden-to-have-ertms-partially-installed\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">ERTMS<\/a> by 2029. It is also working on a new track connection to the LKAB mine in Kiruna, directly supporting one of the most important freight flows in the country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-map\" data-src=\"visualisation\/22684499\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/22684499\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"map visualization\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Intensive planning is ongoing for more projects to further boost capacity. For example, Sweden intends to extend various rail yard to allow for longer trains.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It feels incredibly important that we can continue with the necessary investments on the Iron Ore Line. This is to ensure that the railway works for today&#8217;s needs, but also to be able to meet an even greater future need for transport and passenger traffic on our artery here in the north,&#8221; commented Staffan \u00d6kvist, a department lead at the Swedish Transport Administration.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2024\/08\/07\/sweden-40-of-iron-ore-line-obsolete-upgrade-pressure-keeps-adding-up\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/LKAB-train-Abisko-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2024\/08\/07\/sweden-40-of-iron-ore-line-obsolete-upgrade-pressure-keeps-adding-up\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">Sweden: 40% of Iron Ore Line obsolete, upgrade pressure keeps adding up<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sweden is going ahead with significant investments in the Iron Ore Line (Swedish: Malmbanan). The far-north railway is crucial for the logistics operations of mines\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[343,5339,5730,47,1968],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-201029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-infrastructure","category-iron-ore-line","category-malmbanan","category-rail-news","category-sweden","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201030,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201029\/revisions\/201030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}