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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 31 May 2006 /
In 1994 at the KTH (Swedish Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm, an interdisciplinary project group was set up to develop the regional rail vehicle concept of the future as part of an overall concept designed to improve the operational efficiency of rail transport services in Sweden.
The initial impetus came from the need to meet the increasing demands of passengers and operators for a more comfortable and more economic vehicle for Sweden’s regional services. In view of the varying levels of passenger volume throughout the day, the operator must be capable of responding with a vehicle that can be deployed flexibly to meet the change in demand. In this respect, the trains should have high acceleration, operate at high cruising speeds and provide high standards of comfort for business travellers. The institute completed its survey in 1996 and submitted its report. The findings indicated that the vehicle should be a multiple unit that could be assembled into flexibly sized units. The use of wider carbodies that would permit a 2+3 seating arrangement would ultimately result in higher carrying capacities.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 31 May 2006 /
The Swedish government has clearly indicated its commitment to railways as one of the most important means of transportation for the future. As a consequence, Banverket has been provided with resources to carry out an enhancement program needed to fulfil the transport policy objectives.
Banverket has the responsibility to develop the railway system with the objective to fulfil primary customer needs such as; increased availability, higher capacity, improved safety and better cost-efficiency.All activities shall be carried out within the scope of lowering environmental impact and stimulating regional area development.
The EU has through directives and technical standards for interoperability requiring the development of a common and harmonised railway train control system, ERTMS, to be implemented on TEN railway networks in Europe. Sweden has accordingly implemented these requirements in a new national railway legislation and also extended the application of the law to cover, not only the TEN lines, but the complete railway network in Sweden.
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Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 31 May 2006 /
Politically inspired developments in the rail infrastructure environment in the 1980s and 1990s have led to varying degrees of privatisation of construction and maintenance activities.
Firstly, politicians and taxpayers realised that they were paying substantial amounts of money for something which was not patently efficient. Secondly, the (European) political strategy to introduce competition into the rail transportation market meant that the primary role of the railways as train operating companies had to put infrastructure availability at arm’s length. Thirdly, it was recognised that privatisation would bring out the best qualities in the infra management side. That is the legal and financial ownership, making safe and dependable slots available for train operating companies, communicating with local government and guaranteeing system safety. It would also allow the dynamics and the detailed local knowledge of the marketplace to optimise production, productivity, direct response and innovation. It would make both infra management and the contractor accountable and transparent in the balance between costs and the product quality rendered.
These developments led to the formation of separate infra management companies with a firm goal of transparent and preferably cheaper pricing.
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Issue 1 2006, Past issues / 14 February 2006 /
The X 2000 is one of SJ’s leading trains. Compared with other means of transportation it offers its passengers the possibility to use their travel time to work or be entertained. To extend this advantage, SJ have started to develop a system for seamless communication. It has two purposes: the possibility to use cell phones and to surf the Internet.
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Issue 3 2005, Past issues / 23 August 2005 /
An ambitious program of improved services is underway for Swedish State Railways as it squares up to face fierce competition from land, sea and air, including other rail operators in the regional market.
Sweden was the pioneer of the vertically-separated railway model that is now found throughout Europe. Banverket, the track authority, was split off from SJ, the railway operating company, in 1988. The idea was that Banverket would be like the roads authority, with operators paying for licences to run over the railways.
A crucial difference to the later British model was that, unlike Railtrack, Banverket was not expected to earn all its money from operators paying to use its tracks; it would instead be like the roads authority in that the state would pay to have an adequate rail network.
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Issue 3 2005, Past issues / 23 August 2005 /
From the LIREX Experimental to the CORADIA LIREX for Stockholm – how a new generation test vehicle became a series train.
In April 2002, SL (Stockholm’s Lokaltrafik), the authority for public transport in Stockholm, awarded ALSTOM a contract for 55 six-car CORADIA LIREX trains, with an option for 50 more. They will replace part of the Pendeltåg fleet operated by Citypendeln, which carries over 230,000 passengers daily. These trains have been developed from the LIREX Experimental train and adapted to fit the specific Swedish operating conditions. (more…)
Issue 3 2005, Past issues / 23 August 2005 /
Despite difficulties and eight years after its start, Banverket is about to finalise the Swedish GSM-R project SIR. Problems solved have included appeals against building permits for radio sites, interaction problems between phones and the Swedish GSM-R network and difficulties achieving full system functionality according to the EIRENE specifications.
When Banverket (The Swedish National Rail Administration) started the SIR (Swedish International Railway radio) project in 1997, it did so as the first railway operator in the world and was consequently a pioneer in the area.
The Swedish GSM-R network MobiSIR (Mobiles in SIR) is now practically built out with approximately 800 sites along the entire Swedish main-line railway network, which consists of almost 500 kilometres of railway (including tunnels) out of a total of approximately 10,000 kilometres. The remaining 2,500 kilometres are low traffic lines, due to be equipped with MobiSIR during 2006 and 2007. When this sub-project is completed, all communication for railway operations will run on MobiSIR. (more…)
Issue 1 2005, Past issues / 2 March 2005 /
There have been numerous projects over the years that have aimed at improving the punctuality of trains. Different levels of ambition have met with varying degrees of success. It can be concluded that the various campaigns and projects have frequently had a directly positive effect on punctuality.
However, when the campaign or project has come to an end, the work has failed to result in any really effective and sustainable procedures with which to retain the positive effects that have been achieved. During the period following the quality improvement work, punctuality has gradually deteriorated. Quality work aimed at an improved level of punctuality has instead largely developed into being a descriptive set of punctuality statistics with information on causes of disruptions and attempts to define the problem-owner. Activities aimed at actually solving systematic punctuality problems have been sadly lacking. Being able to work with punctuality matters on a deregulated railway market requires entirely different measures. Banverket has therefore initiated punctuality improvement work in cooperation with the major rail companies that are established in Sweden. This joint punctuality improvement work has been abbreviated to PULS.
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