Minister visit at Train Alliance in Rosersberg
On Monday 23 October, Minister for Housing and Infrastructure Andreas Carlson visited Train Alliance Sweden AB in Rosersberg. Also present on the visit were the Chairman of the Municipal Executive Board of Sigtuna, Olov Holst (Moderate Party), Jens Sjöström (Social Democratic Party), Investment Regional Councilor Stockholm and Chairman of the Mälardalen Council, as well as other representatives of the municipality, the company and its invited guests.
Some of the 30 or so guests who participated in the visit to Train Alliance.
Joakim Weijmer, CEO of Train Alliance, talks about development plans and challenges.
Train Alliance’s CEO, Joakim Weijmer, presented the development plans and challenges for the railway infrastructure and associated railway terminals in Brista and Rosersberg.
The biggest challenge in increasing rail freight traffic and thereby reducing emissions, is the well-known capacity shortages in the main system. Joakim Weijmer particularly highlighted that the capacity shortages for the western main line extend all the way from the quay at the Port of Gothenburg to Stockholm. There are several shortcomings on the route, including the fact that the port line is still single-track despite that Gothenburg is the largest port in the Nordic region, and the Gothenburg-Alingsås section has been congested for many years. He called for vigorous efforts to eliminate capacity shortages as soon as possible and urged the government to also consider alternative financing options to kick-start much-needed investments.
Joakim Weijmer also expressed concern about the public transport authorities’ plans to run more commuter and regional trains in and around the big cities, which effectively eats up the little capacity that exists for additional freight traffic. He underlined that the concern about a lack of capacity is shared by many in the business community.
During the meeting with Andreas Carlson, Joakim Weijmer also developed Train Alliance’s plans to increase freight capacity in Sigtuna. These include a new handover yard in Brista to complement the existing handover yard in Rosersberg, which is undersized for both capacity and needs in the Rikskombi terminal. The terminal is currently forced to serve as a “parking lot” for trains while waiting for train paths. The new handover yard will be built with or without government funding.
He also informed that Train Alliance, together with the Swedish Transport Administration, is working on a functional investigation of more tracks to cope with the expected volume growth. A lack of resources at the Swedish Transport Administration has contributed to the investigation dragging on, so that it has currently taken twice as long as planned.
Andreas Carlson, Minister for Housing and Infrastructure, speak to the participants about the Government’s work on railways and transport.
Both the chairman of the Mälardalen Council and the chairman of the municipal board shared the view that the railway must be developed in order to deliver what citizens and businesses expect from the transport system. Here, a great responsibility rests on the Swedish Transport Administration to realize the task it has been given by the Government and the Parliament.
The meeting concluded by looking at the Rikskombi terminal and its terminal area, as well as talking about its development potential. The terminal is now being prepared for 1,000 m trains, so that they can be handled when the main system is adapted to this new standard length.
Janne Persson Kilenkrysset, Andreas Carlson, Minister for Housing and Infrastructure, Joakim Weijmer Train Alliance and Olov Holst (Moderate Party), Chairman of the Municipal Executive Board, Sigtuna Municipality.
The main message of the meeting was that cooperation between parties and stakeholders is very important for the totality to work well.