(cont.) Answer to interpellation 2022/23:155 on the Norrbotniabanan
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The Government safeguards the potential of the industrial revolution with green investments in Norrbotten and Västerbotten and understands the infrastructure needs that follow 1. The Transport Administration shall carry out measures according to the national transport overarching plan for the period 2022-2033 1. The planning to build the Norrbotniabanan in its entirety shall be intensified 1. The Government handles appeals in the customary manner by preparing them 2. It is important to have a high speed in the work of handling these matters 2. The Government will return to the Riksdag when they are to work on the revision of the national plan 2.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! I shall return to some of the questions we discussed just before the break. Let me first repeat what I said earlier: The Government safeguards and sees the potential in the new industrial revolution with green investments taking place in Norrbotten and Västerbotten and has a great understanding of the infrastructure needs that follow from the investments. Therefore, the message remains clear: Trafikverket shall carry out the measures that follow from the Government's decision on the establishment of the national transport-wide plan for the transport infrastructure for the period 2022-2033.
I know that the member wants a yes or a no as an answer. Yes, the three constituent parts that already exist in the plan are time-bound, and Trafikverket is working on the plans for these parts. And yes, the wording that exists in the decision applies – a continued expansion of the railway in northern Sweden shall take place, and the planning to build the Norrbotniabanan in its entirety shall be intensified.
There is no reason for concern. These words are in the plan and have not been changed, Madam Speaker. We see, on the contrary, given the potential and the needs that exist, that it becomes even more urgent that the work and planning to build the Norrbotniabanan in its entirety is intensified.
Åsa Karlsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you very much for the answer, Minister - I appreciate it. It is truly appreciated that you are so positively disposed towards the Norrbotniabanan.
I am now going to take a slightly different angle on the question. The construction of the Norrbotniabanan is currently underway between Umeå and Dåva. The next section is between Dåva and Skellefteå. This section has now become an issue for the newly appointed right-wing government. In fact, seven appeals have been received regarding the Dåva-Skellefteå section. These appeals land directly on the government's and thus the minister's desk to be processed.
Madam Speaker! I wonder how the Minister intends to act so that these appeals do not affect the schedule for the completion of the Norrbotniabanan. What tools are available to keep the schedule? The development is happening now, and the Norrbotniabanan should already have been in place. It must not be delayed even further, because the need exists here and now.
How do the government and the Council of State view the timeline? Will the government and the Council of State work to ensure that the construction is intensified? How does the Council of State view the possibility of maintaining the timeline?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! Thank you very much, Member, for the commitment! I do not wish to go into detail when it comes to appeal cases. The Government handles them in the usual manner when they come to the Government's table, that is to say, we process them. It is, of course, in every such case important with a high speed in the work of handling them in the order in which it is to take place. Otherwise, I neither can, should nor want to go into detail on the handling of appeal cases that are on the Government's table.
Regarding the question of intensifying the work, we will, as I have said earlier in the debate, return to the Riksdag when we are to work on the revision of the national plan. In other respects, I have given clear statements regarding the provisions that already exist concerning the intensification of the planning and the distances that are included in the current plan.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.