Public transport in Stockholm

A red city bus to Ropsten in the centre of Stockholm.

There is a vast number of bus lines in Stockholm County. There are three different kinds of bus lines that differ from regular bus lines.

• Inner-city blue bus lines
• Suburban blue bus lines
• Service bus lines

The blue bus are in the inner city variant trunk lines traversing large parts of the Stockholm inner city, and in the suburban variant acting as important feeder lines between the suburbs and public transport hubs in central Stockholm, or providing crossway connections between suburbs. These are called blue bus lines because the buses that operate on them are painted blue, in contrast to the red color of the regular buses.[2] The service bus lines are especially adapted for elderly people, and are found in certain residential areas. Along some parts of these lines instead of regular bus stops there are areas where one can halt the bus just by waving at them.

The Stockholm Metro consists of three groups of lines, which are each referred to as a singular line.

The Stockholm metro has been called 'the world's longest art gallery',[3] with most of the network's 100 stations decorated with sculptures, mosaics, paintings, installations, engravings and reliefs.

There are three suburban rail systems, with eight lines. Roslagsbanan uses an 891 mm narrow gauge, the others use standard gauge.

There are regional and InterCity trains going on the mainlines between Stockholm and cities outside the county. These cities include Uppsala, Gävle, Eskilstuna, Linköping, Västerås. These train are run by SJ on their own, and SJ tickets or special combination tickets called TiM (SJ+SL) are valid. The trains are run for a profit by SJ, without tax support.

There is one heritage tram line operational, Djurgården line.[4] The infrastructure is owned by SL, but the cars are owned and operated by the Swedish Tramway Society. All SL fares are valid.[5]

There are three regular light rail lines and one inner city tram line in Stockholm and only two of them, Nockebybanan and the new Tvärbanan are connected and share depot and rolling stock. The LRV primarily used on these lines are a localized version of Bombardier's Flexity Swift; Urbos trams have also been ordered.[6]

There are several Stockholm archipelago boat lines in Stockholm County, run by Waxholmsbolaget. Some of them operate year around.

As of August 2018 there are four water bus (pendelbåt) lines in Stockholm, where SL fares apply.[7]

The rapid public transport to and from the airports in Stockholm are handled a bit separately than the regular land based public transport as handled by SL, thus they have their own tickets and pricing structure. It is also possible to take regular public transport to and from the airports, but that typically means one has to change between some buses or trains and the trip takes more time.

Arlanda Express provides an airport rail link service to and from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport.

Flygbussarna provides an airport bus service to and from all four airports associated with Stockholm: Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Stockholm-Bromma Airport, Stockholm-Skavsta Airport, and Stockholm-Västerås Airport.

Arlanda is since 2012 served by the commuter train (Pendeltåg) to Stockholm and Uppsala. The trip takes 38 minutes to Stockholm Central Station and 18 minutes to Uppsala.[9] As of 9 January 2019 there is a supplemental fee of 120 SEK for passing through the railway station at the airport.[10]

SL has two main forms of tickets. Both are used for all SL public transport within Stockholm County.[10]

• Travel card — valid during a specified period of time, from 24 hours up to a year, depending on the card.
• Single journey ticket — valid for 75 minutes from activation, within Stockholm County. Single journey tickets are mainly purchased with credits loaded onto an SL Access card.

In either case, the ticket is loaded onto an SL Access RFID card that is scanned at the start of the first journey.

Regardless of the ticket used, journeys by the Stockholm Commuter Rail Pendeltåg to Arlanda Airport, or crossing the county border to Uppsala and Knivsta, incur additional costs. As mentioned above, the additional cost for using the railway station at Arlanda airport is 120 SEK (can be paid upon arrival). Travelling to Uppsala or Knivsta with SL from Stockholm County requires a valid Uppsala County (UL) ticket in addition to the usual SL ticket.

• Note: Applies to SL Stockholm Commuter Rail (Pendeltåg) train only. Other operators have their own tickets including Arlanda Express. (SL Stockholm Commuter Rail (Pendeltåg) as well as National and Regional trains stop at Arlanda Central Station (Arlanda C) while Arlanda Express stops at Arlanda South (first stop): Terminal 2, 3 and 4 and Arlanda North (second and last stop): Terminal 5.)

SL Access RFID card used to hold tickets.

As of 9 January 2019, the prices for the most common tickets are as follows.[10] The discounted fare is for persons under the age of 20, or over the age of 65.

In addition, there are tickets available for school students under 20 years old, as well as tickets valid both for SL and UL.

With the Waxholmsbolaget archipelago boats the ticket structure is essentially

• Cash ticket paid on board, price dependent on trip length
• 30-day period cards

On the Djurgården ferry line (Djurgårdsfärjan) between Slussen and Djurgården, only the SL travel cards are valid.

The Arlanda Express train between Stockholm central station and Arlanda airport has its own relatively expensive tickets. As of January 2019, the normal price is 295 SEK one way. Tickets can be bought in vending machines near the platform, or electronic tickets on the internet. They can be bought on board the train for a 100 SEK surcharge. There are discounts for children, students and retired people. There are multi-journey tickets, and a one-year tickets for unlimited travel.[12]