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.