Rapid transit
Taking the sting out of the “wasp’s waist”
An SL commuter service passes the northern portal of the tunnel at Tomteboda as it heads towards Stockholm Central.
Deep beneath the streets of Stockholm, a new railway is taking shape which will solve a decades-old railway capacity problem in the Swedish capital. As construction approaches the halfway stage Keith Barrow looks at the City Line project and how it will transform the region’s rail network.
30 F
OR passengers arriving in Stockholm from the south, the city’s island geography is plain to see as the train sweeps across the Årstaviken and Riddarfjärden, offering panoramic views across the water on the approach to Stockholm Central station. But this environment also creates challenges for railway operations. The line is the busiest double-track railway in Sweden, and every weekday infrastructure manager Trafikverket squeezes up to 24 trains per hour in each direction through the so-called “wasp’s waist” between Stockholm South and Stockholm Central
with commuter, regional, long-distance and freight services vying for paths. Eight out of 10 train journeys in Sweden begin or end in Stockholm, and all services to and from southern Sweden, the most populous part of the country, must negotiate this section of line. Furthermore, the city’s commuter rail network carries 250,000 passengers per day and ridership continues to rise as Stockholm’s population grows. With freight and long-distance passenger traffic also on the increase, the wasp’s waist is not just a headache for commuters but a weak link in the entire region’s rail network.
IRJ February 2013
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