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When the Arlanda Express was inaugurated in November 1999, it signalled a major step forward for air and surface travel in Sweden. It was suddenly possible to easily and comfortably travel from Stockholm Central Station to Arlanda Airport in just 20 minutes.
A vision with stringent demands |
A rail link between Stockholm Central Station and Arlanda Airport was an old idea. During 1990s, it had become increasingly evident that the number of air travellers would be dramatically rising. Additionally there were increasingly stringent demands for lessening traffic on the roads to the airport by building a rail link. These demands were due to an emissions ceiling regulating the amount of environmentally harmful pollutants that could be released into the athmosphere. To build a third runway at the airport and still comply with the demands, a new alternative was necessary for travelling to and from the airport.
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Photo: Swedavia/Daniel Asplund
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Financing
The Arlanda line was the first major infrastructure project in more than 100 years to be largely financed with private funds. The majority of the money would traditionally have come from the taxpayers, but Sweden's economy demanded a different solution. A number of major international banks were persuaded to provide loans with future ticket revenues as their only guarantee, in what became a unique - for Sweden - joint project between the public and private sectors. |
Photo: fotoakuten.se |
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Who did what?
The Swedish Rail Administration was commissioned to handle the expansion from two tracks to four on the stretch closest to Stockholm, between Ulriksdal and Rosersberg. For the actual Arlanda link - between Rosersberg through Arlanda and back to the mainline at Odensala - a bidding contract was announced.
The competition was finalised in August 1994. The winning consortium ALC consisted of the Swedish companies NCC, Siab and Vattenfall, as well as the British companies Mowlem and GEC Alsthom.
Work began in 1995. NCC and Siab were resonsible for all construcion, civil engineering and overhead power lines. British Mowlem supplied the track including points, and GEC Alsthom built the trains and supplied the signalling and telecom systems.
A-Train AB has been owned by the Macquarie Group since 2004.
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Icing on the cake
The assignment for designing the light and stylistically clean stations - which together with the yellow and grey, streamlined trains have given the Arlanda Express its familiar profile - went to the architectural firm, White. The basic concept was that the underground stations should have the same feel as the air terminals above ground. |
Photo: Niklas Alm |
The icing on the cake for this story, filled with creative collaboration and unconventional solutions, came on 24 November 1999 when the first train left the platform at Stockholm Central Station during the official royal inauguration.
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Some facts about the project
• 400 000 m3 of soil were excavated
• 100 000 m3 of railway embankment were built up
• 820 000 m3 of rock was removed
• 300 000 m3 of track ballast were laid out
• 29 points were installed
• 8 660 metres of tunnel were blasted
• 3 stations were built under Arlanda Airport
• 21 structures (such as bridges and concrete tunnels) were constructed
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Photo: Sven Tideman
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Our trains
The first Arlanda Express train arrived in Sweden in June of 1998, more than one year before the start of regular service. The streamlined express train, with its bright yellow, tapered ends, had been built by Alstom Transport Ltd of Birmingham and was especially adapted for the Arlanda-Stockholm line, with everything this entails in terms of speed, punctuality, comfort and safety.
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Photo: Tim Jansson |
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Now it was time for an exhaustive series of test runs. A very extensive programme was to be completed before rail service could begin. It wasn't enough that the trains themselves performed flawlessly. They also had to interact with the line's automatic safety system, the signalling system and be adapted to the electrical power conditions.
No less than three government agencies were on site to monitor the test runs - the Swedish National Electrical Safety Board, the Swedish National Rail Authority and the Swedish Railway Inspectorate.
After a year-long trial by fire, the first Arlanda Express trains began operation on the line i November 1999.
Facts about the trains
- Manufacturer: Alstom Transport Ltd, Birmingham, England
- Total trains: 7 train sets
- Configuration: Each train set consists of two powered units and two mid-train carriages
- Maximum speed: 200 km/h
- Total seats: Each train set has 190 seats
- Baggage racks: All carriages have spacious baggage racks at each door set
- Comfort: The trains are air-conditioned. Boarding is directly from the platforms with no steps
- Accessibility: In one of the mid-train carriages, there are special spaces for passengers in wheelchairs, as well as a WC for the physically impaired with a nursing table.
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