East Link Project

Railways in Sweden, with the planned Ostlänken indicated in orange.

The East Link Project (Swedish: Ostlänken) is a planned high-speed rail project in Sweden, intended to run from Södertälje (just south of Stockholm) to Linköping.

The time plan is to start building by 2017, with the goal of trains becoming operational in 2033-2035. The construction cost for the new 160-kilometre railway was calculated to be 30 billion SEK in 2012. A detailed plan from the Swedish rail administration was published in December 2008; the Swedish government gave the go ahead in August 2012.[1]

As of March 2018, the maximum speed of the railway has not been determined. The railway is planned for speeds up to 320 kilometres per hour (200 mph).[2] However, the Swedish Transport Administration has in its proposed National Plan for the Transport System 2018–2029 instead proposed for the line to be designed for speeds up to 250 km/h (160 mph).[3] This would reduce the cost by 11 billion SEK (from 65 billion to 54 billion), but would also require two years of adjusting the existing plans.[2]

Long-distance trains would call at Stockholm Central Station and Södertälje Syd before joining the new line, on which there would be an intermediate stop at Norrköping, and reach Linköping about 40 minutes faster than by the existing line. Between Södertälje and Norrköping, regional trains would make additional stops at Vagnhärad and Skavsta Airport, and make a brief detour onto the existing line to Nyköping.

In a little more distant future, a new railway connecting Linköping-Göteborg via Jönköping is planned, called Götalandsbanan. Together, the Ostlänken and Götalandsbanan railways would allow trains to travel between Stockholm-Göteborg in under two hours.

References

  1. ↑ Swedish high speed lines to go ahead, Railway Gazette International, 29 August 2012.
  2. 1 2 Augustsson, Tomas (4 March 2018). "Långsammare tåg kan försena Ostlänken två år" [Slower trains may delay the East Link by two years]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  3. ↑ Förslag till nationell plan för transportsystemet 2018–2029. Remissversion 2017-08-31 (PDF) (Report) (in Swedish). Swedish Transport Administration. 31 August 2017. p. 15. ISBN 978-91-7725-250-4. Retrieved 11 August 2018. Trafikverket föreslår att Ostlänken dimensioneras för hastigheten 250 km/tim och med ballasterat spår ... [The Transport Administration proposes that the East Link is designed for a speed of 250 km/h and with ballasted tracks ...].
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.