Sweden’s Iron Ore Line, also known as Malmbanan, has been plagued by frequent train derailments and closures heavily affecting the line’s industrial users, such as mining giant LKAB. A recent analysis shows that 40 per cent of the line’s infrastructure is outdated and should have already been replaced.

Data from the Swedish Transport Administration’s (Trafikverket) maintenance system prove the pressing need for significant upgrades along the Iron Ore Line. The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter analysed Malmbanan’s maintenance data and found that 40 per cent of the line’s length is over 30 years old, meaning it operates beyond its lifespan.

Considering the heavy industrial cargo traversing the line, tracks are more heavily impacted, meaning their lifespan also becomes shorter than the 30-year rule of thumb. As a result, a big part of Malmbanan should have been replaced and modernised years ago.

LKAB keeps bleeding

The line has been the subject of controversy in Sweden due to the frequent derailments and restrictions, which admittedly occur due to the old infrastructure. Only in the past half year have there been three derailments on the line and respective closures.

Understandably, this situation strains the line’s users, like mining company LKAB, which faces increasing capacity and loading restrictions, resulting in a financial bleedout. A spokesperson from the company remarked to Dagens Nyheter that LKAB is “considering closing one of their pellet plants” due to inadequate rail capacity resulting from the vicious circle of old tracks, leading to derailments, resulting in closures.

The lack of available rail capacity along the Malmbanan has already forced LKAB to halt production at the Konsuln production mine. Although this drastic measure did not directly affect LKAB’s employees, it caused a few deals with contractors to be cancelled, costing roughly 60 people their jobs. To create more capacity along the Iron Ore Line, the mining giant claimed to be ready to purchase buses to transfer passengers from the rail to the road in specific sections of the railway.

Upgrade on the way

Some positive developments seem to have surfaced since Sweden joined NATO in March this year as a consequence of the war in Ukraine. A couple of weeks after this, the Swedish government decided to speed up the upgrade of the Malmbanan, as the line needs to be functional at all times for mining and military purposes.

Currently, Trafikverket is working on prioritising and preparing the upgrades along the Iron Ore Line. Most of them should focus on facilitating the traffic of trains with an axle load of 32,5 tonnes compared to the current 30.