Major rail freight money in largest Swedish transport budget ever

The Swedish government has presented a new transport budget for the period of 2026-2037. It will be spending over a trillion Swedish crowns, or more than a hundred billion euros on transport infrastructure. The government highlights rail freight as a priority area.

“The government has decided on a bill with historically large investments in the transport infrastructure in Sweden. The starting point is that the maintenance of the Swedish road and rail network must be strengthened while investments in new infrastructure are needed”, the Swedish government says on the investment.

The main focus of the investment for rail is catching up with overdue maintenance. For that reason, the government has proposed an investment of 210 billion Swedish crowns (18,5 billion euros) in rail infrastructure maintenance. Road infrastructure can count on an even bigger maintenance boost, with a grand total of 354 billion Swedish crowns (31,2 billion euros) in maintenance expenditures over the next 11 years.

Nevertheless, the 210 billion crown budget for rail maintenance is about as much as the Swedish Transport Agency can spend during that time frame. “With the proposed investments, all deferred maintenance on the road side can be recovered during the plan period. On the railway, it takes longer to deal with the backlog of maintenance, but the funds are sufficient to recover as much maintenance as the Swedish Transport Administration deems possible to catch up with during the period”, the Swedish government explains.

Infrastructure expansion

There will also be infrastructure expansions. The main points of attention are commuter traffic and rail freight transportation. “At the same time that extended maintenance is prioritized, investments in new and economically efficient infrastructure are required. Conditions for travel to work and education as well as business transport must be prioritized for new investments in roads and railways”, the government stated. It will spend 607 billion crowns (53,5 billion euros) on infrastructure expansion, which covers both the road and rail sector.