Railway History - Later Developement , Bo Justusson
Railway Network In 1853 the Swedish parliament decided to build a state-owned national railway network. The line from Stockholm to Göteborg was ready in 1862, and to Malmö 1866 etc. Many private railways were built as connections to the national one and were often narrow gauge.

Maximum length in 1938. Most private railways then got economical problems and were bought up by the state till 1950. Many lines were closed, especially narrow gauge ones.

TABLE 1. SWEDISH RAILWAY NETWORK, KM
Year  Total  State  State    Private
        km   stand. narrow stand.narrow
1856     66     32     0     34      0
1860    527    303     0    176     48
1870   1727   1118     0    376    233
1880   5876   1956     0   2686   1234
1890   8018   2613     0   3730   1675

1900  11303   3850     0   4832   2621
1910  13829   4418     0   6133   3278
1920  15160   5506     0   6081   3573
1930  16810   6641     0   6386   3783
1940  16756   9226   436   3997   3097

1950  16640  12436  2730    728    746
1960  15399  12203  2255    665    276
1970  12203  11279   265    501    158
1980  12006  11195   182    440    189
1990  11211  10801     0    334     76
1994  10798      .     0      .     66

Data from Statistics Sweden.

Iron Lines Important iron mine railways were the TGOJ line from Grängesberg to Oxelösund, and Malmbanan from Malmberget to Luleå (1887) and to Kiruna and Narvik (1902). All three for iron ore transports. The Bergslag railway from Bergslag region down to the port in Göteborg was for iron goods. Malmbanan is to-day the only iron ore railway in Sweden. It is a very fascinating line in northmost Sweden.

- You find more info about Malmbanan on next page!


Structural Changes Although the many small mines and iron works got better transportation facilities, the net result was that the larger ones gained more, since transports could be made to large, efficient factories. The number of mines and industries was successively reduced and to-day there are only 2-3 mines (zinc) left in the Berslag area (Garpenberg and Zinkgruvan). Swedish mining industry is now concentrated in northern Sweden around Skellefteå and around Kiruna.


For more information use links at: Railways - Start Page