Swedish West Coast mainline upgrade to hinder freight trains for years

As part of its 2025 rail plan, Sweden will start upgrading its Western mainline. Notably, the catenary between a suburb of Gothenburg and Alingsås will be replaced, taking three years in total. During that time, freight traffic on the route will be significantly disrupted.

“It looks like we will get most of the trains through in 2024, but in 2026 and 2027 it looks very difficult,” Stephan Ray, communications manager at Swedish rail freight operator Green Cargo, tells Swedish rail publication Järnvägar.nu.

The Swedish Transport Agency will allow four trains to run on the route during construction works every hour: an express train, a regional train, a commuter train and a freight train. To make matters worse, during the afternoon, there will be three freight train-free hours.

“It will be difficult to be forced to run most of the freight trains during the night,” Stephan Ray comments. “Loading and unloading of the trains in the port takes place around the clock and requires a continuous flow of trains from and to the port if the logistics are to work and the railway yard does not become clogged.”

Reduced operations

Green Cargo is forced to reduce its operations around the key port city of Gothenburg. There will be fewer freight trains servicing the port, and operations at the Sävenäs marshalling yard are to be halved. But, the company says, it will compensate with more trains on other routes north, east and southbound.

Another company, CFL Cargo, tells Järnvägar.nu that they are sceptical about the proposed scheduling solutions. “We have been quite worried, but we have received train schedules that are perfectly fine,” the company’s CEO says. “But we wonder how column driving will work in practice. How it looks on paper is one thing, and how it will look in reality is usually another.”