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Track errors on the Helsingborg-Lund railway will have major consequences for all train traffic in western Skåne over the next week. These are the most important changes.
At Landskrona station, the distance between trains is shorter when the rails of the West Coast Line need to be repaired.
On Friday morning, a large part of the train traffic on the west coast line between Malmö and Helsingborg stopped due to a fault on the track. In addition, the speed of trains traveling at 70 kilometers per hour was limited.
The Swedish Transport Administration later announced that it had decided to apply severe restrictions on train traffic after analyzes showed the damage was extensive and would take a long time to repair. In total, just over 7,000 meters of rails between Lund and Ramlösa station will be replaced in a project that will run both during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
For Skånetrafiken, the message meant a hectic weekend, where they had to re-plan much of the train traffic to avoid chaos.
– It should be clear that this is a very difficult position, says Mats Olsson, Senior Business Developer at Skånetrafiken. People have been sitting all night and entering new information into our systems so that customers get the best information possible.
Here are the main measures:
• Trains between Helsingborg and Malmö passing through Teckomatorp and Eslöv run as usual on a regular schedule.
• Once an hour, a commuter train runs in each direction between Helsingborg and Lund, via Landskrona. The train runs at a reduced speed of 70 kilometers per hour and takes about ten minutes longer than usual. The train stops at all intermediate stations.
• Skånetrafiken also places replacement buses that carry shuttle traffic between Helsingborg and Lund and stop at intermediate stations. They are also trying to get a bus that can go directly from Landskrona to Lund and Helsingborg, so that passengers from there are not greeted by full buses. However, according to Mats Olsson, the trains are preferable as they correspond in location to 10 replacement buses.
• There are no Öresund trains on the Helsingborg Malmö route, but Öresund trains use direct buses between Helsingborg and Malmö.
• The commuter train running between Helsingborg and Ystad, via Eslöv, will make additional stops in Burlöv and Åkarp, as the regular northern train already turns in Lund and the southern train turns in Malmö.
• Traffic between Lund and Malmö, the busiest section of Skånetrafiken, is also affected by fewer Öresund trains running on the route and more Pågatåg canceled.
– There we can follow the development and see if we need to do something else, says Mats Olsson.
• Skånetrafiken is also trying to get a bus that can operate on the Kävlinge-Lund section, but it was not ready on Sunday afternoon.
Why can’t you run more than one train per hour?
– Because the Swedish Transport Administration contractors are on the road and working. They will probably need to close a road, and then there is a good road for traffic to flow in both directions. It’s like walking from a highway to a narrow gravel road with meeting places.
Can’t they put more trains on the route via Eslöv?
– No, there is some space there, but it must be reserved because some freight trains and Öresund trains may need to slide that way. But we will investigate this further next week, says Mats Olsson.
There are usually a lot of people where replacement buses stop, what are you going to do to secure those spots?
– We will have staff in Helsingborg, Lund and Malmö. We already have people in place. But we also have diseases and it is difficult to get as many as we need together, so we will also request that the Swedish Transport Administration send informants. We also call on clients to keep their distance and follow the recommendations of our staff.
According to Mats Olsson, the situation that has arisen is very serious.
The only thing that could have been worse, he says, is if it had happened in a normal year without a pandemic reducing traffic pressure.
– So this would have happened when we are faced with one of our most important travel weekends when many people go to visit family and friends. It had been a complete disaster. But that this could happen, on the West Coast Line in 2020, is completely inconceivable.
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