Response to interpellation 2022/23:359 on disruptions in the railway system
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD considers that the current situation on the railway is not acceptable 1 and that it is concerning that railway companies are having difficulty planning their operations 2. KD argues that the railway is an important part of the Swedish economy and future 2 and that the decision to reduce maintenance was based on Trafikverket's data 3. KD expects Trafikverket to work at a high pace to ensure progress 1 2 3. MP considers it a catastrophe that the new planning system has reduced capacity 4 and that the government withdrew 700 million kronor from maintenance without sensible reasons 4. MP argues that the government should have stopped the rollout of the system 4 5.
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)
Mr. Speaker! Daniel Helldén has asked me if I intend to take any further measures so that the Swedish railway functions without recurring disruptions.
I would like to begin by emphasizing that the current situation characterizing the Swedish railway is not acceptable. Tickets must be able to be booked in advance. Both passengers and transport buyers must be able to rely on arriving on time and that deliveries can be made according to agreement. It is a fundamental prerequisite.
Daniel Helldén and I discussed the issue as recently as March here in the chamber. I then described the railway system's problems, for example, the introduction of a new planning system and Trafikverket's problems with meeting tight deadlines in the revision process for train locations and that railway maintenance is neglected.
My answer today will be the same as last time, that I expect Trafikverket to continue working as hard as they can to resolve the situation. In the dialogue with Trafikverket, I have assured myself that they are doing what is required to deal with the problems. According to the agency, it will unfortunately take time to completely resolve the situation.
Trafikverket's task force to address the problems continues. The agency and the supplier of the new planning system are working to improve the system's performance. Trafikverket is also reviewing internal working methods and is reinforcing with staff. Furthermore, the agency has an ongoing dialogue with the railway industry regarding progress and the various measures being taken. I will continue to follow the issue closely.
Daniel Helldén (MP)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer. Unfortunately, it says nothing about what the Minister or the Government is doing to ensure that Sweden's railways function. This makes me extremely concerned. We are talking about critical infrastructure that is now plagued by so many problems that one can question whether we have a railway system.
The new planning system, which was intended to give the trains running space on the track and which was supposed to increase capacity, has now lowered the capacity and caused problems. Passengers who want to book their journeys cannot get information on whether any trains are running, and the freight companies lack the possibility to offer Swedish entrepreneurs freight deliveries by train.
We have seen escalating strike warnings from the unions as the staff no longer know when they have to work, and there is a lack of foresight as the timetables are never completed. The time today can be down to as little as a few days before one knows if trains will run, if the timetables can be finalized, and if the train staff can work. This, I would say, is a catastrophe. It concerns critical infrastructure that must function.
In the autumn budget, the government withdrew money from railway maintenance, 700 million kronor. We in the opposition asked ourselves why they removed vital railway maintenance. The answer was that the maintenance work that was to be done could not be done because the industry and those who were to do the work could not manage it. The problem lay with the maintenance industry.
When we investigated the matter and spoke with industry representatives, we received the answer that it is not true, but rather that they had the capacity to maintain the railway. Based on this, we could conclude that there were no sensible reasons to remove 700 million from the railway maintenance for this year.
Mr. Speaker! Today it appears more logical, at least from the Transport Authority's perspective. The Transport Authority must have known all along that the planning system they wanted to roll out would not work and that one of the consequences would be that railway maintenance could not be maintained. What we are seeing now is suspended maintenance, that it is still not possible to book tickets, that freight transports are coming to a standstill, and that passengers and freight are leaving the railway.
I assume that the department and the government received correct information from Trafikverket regarding why they wanted to postpone the railway maintenance and remove 700 million kronor. The question then arises as to why Minister Carlson did nothing and why Trafikverket was allowed to roll out the new planning system.
Mr. Speaker! Why did the Minister for Infrastructure not stop the rollout of the new train planning system when it must have been obvious to the government that it would not work?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I have great respect for Daniel Helldén's commitment, and I share it. I am extremely frustrated by the unacceptable situation prevailing in the railway market. It is not acceptable. It is concerning that the railway companies have found it difficult to plan their operations, with negative consequences for both passengers and transport buyers.
I also view the risk that the problems negatively affect trust in the train as a means of transport seriously. We have great challenges in our transport system as a whole. All modes of transport are needed.
The railway is an important part of our history in Sweden and an important part of our future and future travel, not least for enabling increased freight transport as a result of investments in, for example, battery factories and land reclamation with new technology and unusual minerals that can be an important part of the green transition.
Transport will be important, and rail freight transport is crucial. They are a backbone of the Swedish economy. They have been that historically and will be in the future. I am therefore extremely concerned. I view this very seriously, and that is why I say that this is not acceptable.
When it comes to the planning system, it is an operational matter for the agency. What I did already during the first week when I took office, when we received information about the MPK system during the regular dialogue we have with the agency, was to ask if more resources were needed and if there are decisions that need to be made by the government for the implementation to work. The agency's answer was no to both of these questions. We took measures - I took measures - already during the first week by asking these questions.
After that, it was the authority's responsibility. But the government - I - follows this very closely. It should not be the case that the planning happens from day to day. We are not satisfied with the system as a whole being ready by December, but until then, the planning horizon needs to go from at least day to day to weeks so that the conditions become progressively better.
Here we see that it has become somewhat better. There are now tickets available to buy for the summer trips, and the lead time for the freight is improving. But I am not satisfied in any way and look forward to this being further improved in the coming weeks. That is what I expect, and I am following this closely in the dialogue with the authority.
The authority has announced that this will take time, but they shall comply with the law. The legislation is clear on what applies, and this is what Trafikverket is now focusing its efforts on – both to follow the law and to ensure that the confidence in rail passengers and rail transport is not negatively affected. We see that this may have already occurred to some extent. But therefore, it is extremely important that Trafikverket works at a high pace to ensure progress.
When it comes to maintenance measures, we had the basis that Trafikverket provided us. And in this situation, it is a delicate task for the authority to balance the great maintenance need. If the maintenance is to be rolled out, it will have an impact on the capacity of the railway network. I am also following this issue very closely. And it is no surprise to anyone in the chamber that maintenance of railway and road is a priority issue for the government in order to facilitate commuting and freight traffic throughout the country.
Daniel Helldén (MP)
Mr. Speaker! The Government has, in a number of interviews, spoken about that more cars should be driven, that there should be more freight on the road and that there should be more aviation. The alternative to them is primarily the railway, and it simply does not work.
I and the Minister have spoken about these issues several times, and the Minister asserts that this is something that is closely monitored.
But I am still concerned that we have a Transport Administration that is implementing a system that everyone except the Transport Administration said would not work. It should have been done in a different way. One should have either pushed it through or had double systems so that one had the old manual system in parallel with this, so that one knew there was redundancy and it didn't cause problems. Still, they rolled out the system.
Trafikverket has successively stated throughout the year that this will be resolved. The latest claim, which the Minister also mentioned, was that it would work in December. Looking at Trafikverket's plans, I think it looks more like it is not until March next year that the system can be fully operational, if they can get it started, which we do not know. They are not meeting the legal requirements that have existed for a long time. For a long time, they have not managed to deliver slots for the trains on the tracks on time. It is 18 weeks that applies according to law. Now the planning is down to a couple of days.
Of course there are trains to book. One can book trains during the summer. But a large number of train connections are still missing. This means that people who, for example, are going up to hike in the mountains can book a trip there, but they do not know if they will get home. They cannot do this, because they have a life on the side that must function.
We expect the railway to be the system that follows a timetable that one can plan for and rely on. The trains should run on time. I think that is a self-evident matter. They do not. They do not run on time, and the freight does not arrive. And now we stand here and do not get the railway maintenance that we need.
The Minister said that he had private discussions with Trafikverket at the beginning of the mandate period about how this would work and be ensured. Nothing has worked. Still, they proceeded to, if I may put it that way, withdraw 700 million kronor from railway maintenance. Trafikverket said that they could not do without these funds. The government bought it, and placed the money on roads.
What we are seeing now is that a lot of railway maintenance is being scaled back because this planning system does not work. This suggests that Trafikverket knew that this would not work. They are therefore doing certain parts of the railway maintenance, those that they believe they can fit in. Then they pull back a lot of other things, which means that we will get long follow-up effects as problems will arise - overhead lines will break, signal systems and rails will break. This will cause the public to completely lose confidence in this mode of transport, which we know the Swedes want to use. They want to be able to plan to travel by train, they want to be able to leave the car, and they want to be able to avoid flying to Gothenburg, which people are now almost starting to do when the trains stand still.
Regarding these 700 million kronor, I assume that Trafikverket explained to the government why they were removed. The connection is, in fact, so obvious between installing a system that will not work and therefore having to remove track maintenance. Trafikverket obviously knew this already in the autumn. I think the government should have stopped the entire rollout of this system.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! There is no evidence to suggest that Trafikverket would have known that this system would not work as part of the government's decision to prioritize and change the maintenance budget and take from railway maintenance and allocate it to road maintenance. The reason this decision was made was Trafikverket's data, which pointed exactly to the fact that it was not possible to convert these funds into operational activities during this budget year. These funds would have risked being wasted, while at the same time we see a large maintenance need also on the roadside. This maintenance need can be expected to increase given a higher degree of electrified vehicles that weigh more and place higher demands on road maintenance so that we can achieve the best possible travel. These vehicles do not produce any emissions, which is the advantage of electric cars. That is why the demand for this type of transport is high. But it is also why we need to see that every mode of transport in the transport system works. It does not in all parts around the railway today.
I can agree with Daniel Helldén in all essential matters regarding the fact that one should be able to rely on the train running. That something "goes as the train" (goes smoothly), Mr. Speaker, should not be an expression of historical character, but it should be something that is actually in accordance with the truth – that the train runs on time. It should not be an expression that is allowed to be converted into something other than what it originally meant. That is why I follow the issue very closely and have a very close dialogue with Trafikverket and expect them to do everything they can to ensure that the train can run on time and that they also resolve the problem that is now palpable.
Trafikverket has activated its crisis management. They have reallocated resources. I have also received information that it is getting better in some parts. It looks somewhat brighter regarding at least the freight traffic in terms of not ending up in a planning from day to day. As I said in my previous post, I expect that one should at least be able to speak about weeks and not days successively until one reaches what the legislation requires. It is, of course, the basic prerequisite that our authorities follow Swedish law. Thus, I believe, Mr. Speaker, that I have answered Daniel Helldén's questions.
Regarding just the intermodal travel and that one should use the mode of transport that is best suited for the purpose of the journey, there are also good examples in the industry where the Swedish road haulage industry cooperates with the train companies and Swedish shipping to see how they can work together to have a transport system as efficient as possible, so that the transports that are best suited to go by rail do so, but that one can also use the shipping capacity and that the last mile of the transports goes with vehicles that have zero emissions, in the best case, and are electrified.
Work is underway here, and this is the approach the government has regarding the design of a transport system that functions. But a basic prerequisite is, of course, that one must be able to rely on the train and that the railway shall be a supporting part of future travel and the transport system. Therefore, it is very important that Trafikverket rectifies these deficiencies - and does so quickly.
Daniel Helldén (MP)
Mr. Speaker! The Minister and I are in complete agreement that the expression that something is running like a train should not be old but also function today. I also believe that the entire Swedish people expect the train to follow a timetable; it is well almost from the train that the idea of timetables comes.
We are, however, standing here with a railway system that does not work. I am still surprised by Andreas Carlsson's answer regarding the 700 million kronor. We could not find any sensible reason why they were removed, and the industry doing the work could not find any sensible reason why the money was removed. Now, however, it is obvious that the money was removed because a system is being rolled out that even Trafikverket did not believe would work. Everyone else said that it should be done in a different way - not Trafikverket.
In hindsight, I think the Minister and the government as a whole should have acted on this. It is, after all, obvious that the money was removed because it was a crappy system that was being rolled out. I think this is serious. Now it has passed, and we can hope that Trafikverket solves the problem in some way. But with a look in the rearview mirror, I would have wished that the Minister had asked deeper questions about why the money was being removed. Was it that it felt great to be able to put them on road maintenance instead? What I wonder in this context is why the relevant questions have not been asked about why Trafikverket acted in this way.
In addition to that, one might wonder - that discussion exists, and I must ask the Minister - whether Trafikverket really should be an agency in the way it is now, or if we should perhaps ensure that we once again split Trafikverket into a banverk that focuses on the right things when it comes to trains and a trafikverk that focuses primarily on roads and other means of transport. In that way, we could get functioning agencies.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Daniel Helldén makes a number of assumptions and interpretations of various things which I will leave to him.
When it comes to whether it is time for a very large state reorganization of Trafikverket, Daniel Helldén is, of course, responsible for how he believes such a reorganization would improve the situation here and now regarding doing everything that can be done to rectify the problem. That is my focus when I have an ongoing dialogue with Trafikverket. I follow the issue very closely and ensure that efforts are being concentrated. They have initiated their crisis management, which is working intensively on the issue. This is my focus, not a large state reorganization that it might take several years to investigate how it should proceed and so on.
We may have to return to this in another debate if the member believes it is an important issue, but today's matter concerns disruptions in the railway system. There, we must move from days in the planning to at least weeks, and it must happen very quickly. That is what I expect from Trafikverket, and I have also conveyed that in the dialogue I have with the agency's management.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.