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The money is not enough for the maintenance and construction of roads and railways, according to the new plan of the Swedish Transport Administration for 2022-2033, reports Svenska Dagbladet.
Managing Director of the Swedish Transport Administration, Lena Erixon. Stock Photography.
Today, maintenance and construction cost more than SEK 50 billion a year.
– In the framework of the money we have today, we do not have a single crown left for new investments, says executive director Lena Erixon to the newspaper.
As traffic increases, the infrastructure wears down more. Additionally, the sections from the 1950s and 1960s have reached their technical life and need to be rebuilt rather than simply renovated.
Maintenance has been neglected for years. To restore roads and railways to the condition they were before, an additional SEK 60 billion is needed – money that does not exist.
Another conclusion of the plan is that the crash prices of gasoline and diesel (50 SEK per liter) could become a reality if Sweden does not meet the 2030 emission target for cars, trucks and buses. Vehicle emissions will be reduced by 70 percent compared to 2010.
Since investment in electrification is not expected to have a significant effect from 2030 onwards, biofuels must be used to an increasing degree. And to meet Sweden’s climate targets, the price of gasoline and diesel must rise very steeply at the same time for road traffic to be reduced enough, the Swedish Transport Administration reasons.
– An increase in the price of fuel has a number of negative effects, mainly for the field, and of course, 50 SEK per liter is not realistic, says Lena Erixon.
