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From: TT
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Photo: HENRIK MONTGOMERY / TT
The trains will begin winter testing on a line between Jörn, north of Skellefteå, and Arvidsjaur. Stock Photography.
A single test track will be opened on a railway section between Västerbotten and Norrbotten where trains will be tested and tested in winter weather.
The government has given the green light to the facility, local media report.
– The train test track will be very important locally, regionally, nationally and for train traffic in Europe, says Skellefteå city council chairman Lorents Burman (S) to Norran, who was the first to report the news.
The track will be operated by the Skanska company and the purpose is for the tests to improve the capacity of the train traffic to withstand cold and snow storms.
– Today in all of Europe, there is no facility that can perform realistic winter testing. It’s completely missing, so that’s the most unique thing about this imagined installation, says Martin Bucht, commercial developer for Skanska, on Swedish radio Ekot.
Seventy miles long crossroads
It is a railway about 70 km long that connects the Northern Main Line, in Jörn, just north of Skellefteå, with Inlandsbanan, in Arvidsjaur. The section will be upgraded by SEK 4 billion to allow for train and rail equipment testing.
The hope is that the facility will be ready in five years.
The Swedish Transport Administration gave the green light to the test track a year ago, but Inlandsbanan AB appealed the decision, wanting to have the opportunity to use the rail section for freight traffic and develop the Inlandsbanan.
– In view of the lack of capacity, it is wrong to close a working railway, says Peter Ekholm, CEO of Inlandsbanan AB, to SVT Västerbotten.
Denies the appeal
But the government has now rejected the appeal with its decision.
“The government does not consider that the appealed decision should be considered a decision on the closure of part of the rail network in the manner indicated by Inlandsbanan,” the government writes, reports Norran.
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