Response to interpellation 2023/24:119 on tree securing of the Viskadalsbanan
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 KD considers that the maintenance of the railway is neglected and that the government prioritizes improving the infrastructure to strengthen jobs and growth 1. KD argues that tree protection is a priority area and that Trafikverket is making considerations to reduce disruptions 1 2. KD emphasizes that maintenance should be based on socio-economic efficiency 1 and that the government has tasked Trafikverket with strengthening the robustness of railway traffic 1 2. KD considers that the transport infrastructure is crucial for military mobility and host nation support 3. KD emphasizes that maintenance of roads and railways is prioritized 3. 4 C considers that the holistic thinking within Swedish railways is an important kitchen-table issue 4.
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! [He] has asked me if I intend to work for the tree clearing of Viskadalsbanan and other railways to be prioritized so that train traffic does not have to be suspended. Mikael Larsson has also asked me if I believe that more holistic thinking is needed regarding Swedish railways in order to increase accessibility, so that it does not become like in the case of Viskadalsbanan.
The needs within the Swedish transport infrastructure are great, and maintenance has been neglected. For many years, sufficient railway maintenance has not been carried out, which has contributed to the accumulated need that is now at hand. Investments in the railway shall primarily facilitate for work commuting and freight traffic, which strengthens jobs and growth. For this government, it is a priority to improve the infrastructure we have, repair where it is needed, and manage our common resources in the best way.
Regarding the first question, Trafikverket continuously clears trees along railways every year to reduce disruptions and damage caused by trees falling on tracks or overhead lines. Closest to the railway, Trafikverket has its own land and can carry out tree clearing. But sometimes it is required that Trafikverket is granted access to someone else's land. This occurs via easements formed through property formation measures at Lantmäteriet. It is a formal process that often involves several actors and includes meetings with the affected co-owners. I assume that Trafikverket, as the responsible authority for the maintenance, makes the considerations that are needed and takes appropriate measures regarding the tree clearing of the railway to reduce disruptions. It is not up to the government or an individual minister to micro-manage the agency's work in individual matters.
The Government considers that the planning and implementation of maintenance measures in both the railway and road networks shall be based on socio-economic efficiency and a long-term sustainable transport supply. When maintenance measures are carried out, they need to be done in such a way that traffic is disrupted as little as possible and with short lead times. The Government assesses that an important factor for efficient maintenance is that market actors work with development and innovation and invest in the operations. In this way, the working methods can be improved and the maintenance can be made more efficient.
Regarding the second question, I agree with Mikael Larsson that it is important to take a holistic approach to railway maintenance. Planning and implementation of maintenance measures in the railway infrastructure must be carried out in an orderly process and with a sufficient basis. On June 19, I held a meeting with actors in the railway industry due to the problems that have existed with the planning of train traffic and the challenge of maintenance that has been postponed for a long time. There, Trafikverket informed about the problem situation and provided an update on the ongoing work to improve the situation. Shortly thereafter, on August 24, 2023, the government tasked Trafikverket with reporting on measures to strengthen the implementation of railway maintenance and the robustness, reliability, and punctuality of railway traffic (LI2023/03037). The assignment will be reported in February 2024. After that, a couple of follow-up reports will also take place during June and October 2024. I will continue to follow the issues closely in my dialogue with Trafikverket and other actors in the railway industry.
Mikael Larsson (C)
Mr. Speaker! I will begin by thanking the Speaker. I saw on his Instagram post today that he had observed and mentioned the interpellation regarding the tree clearing of the Viskadalsbanan which was to be answered here in the Riksdag. I thought that was a nice initiative.
Then I would like to thank the Minister for the answer. I want to move the issue forward and highlight it with this debate, because I see that it is an issue that people talk about at home at the kitchen tables and that the business community talks about. It is an issue that is truly in demand.
Once again - the question has received a lot of attention in my home constituency, southern Västra Götaland County. In Västra Götaland in general, there is a lot of single-track railway: Bohusbanan, Viskadalsbanan, Älvsborgsbanan. They are located in a landscape with very many trees.
The Viskadalsbanan is a completely renovated line. Sleepers, rails, and overhead contact lines have been replaced on the entire line between Borås and Varberg. It is pleasing for many that the line has reopened.
As a result of the major infrastructure investment that is now being made in Gothenburg, much of the traffic from Gothenburg has in previous years been diverted via, among other things, the Viskadalsbanan, which makes it an even better object to use, both for the traffic that runs on a daily basis and for diversion.
Unfortunately, however, many of the trains have been cancelled recently, something which, among others, Västtrafik and Hallandstrafiken have reacted strongly to, because a large part of the newly renovated track was not prioritized for tree securing when the upgrade of the track was carried out.
Banan is important as a commuting route. It is about being able to work, live, and reside in the entire country. I believe that the Minister and I share the view that we must be able to live, work, and reside in the entire country, both in the countryside and in the cities.
The question of tree-proofing also has to do with the robustness and redundancy of the entire railway network. It concerns both passenger rail traffic and, of course, freight traffic.
In the answer, it is mentioned that the minister should not intervene and micro-manage too much. I actually agree with that – we need to distinguish between what the policy and what an agency should do. But the minister, through the tools in the form of assignments and regulatory letters that the government has at its disposal, has the possibility to still, in the way one can govern as a minister, point out such things as could be done.
Tree protection is not an issue only for Västra Götaland. It can just as easily be an issue in Norrbotten, Stockholm County, Kalmar, or wherever we are in the country. When it comes to how this shall function, there is a priority order.
I therefore want to develop the first question I asked the Minister in my interpellation. Does the Minister intend to, via regulatory letters or other assignments, task Trafikverket to look at how one can work in a different, better way with the prioritization of tree securing, so that tree securing is included in connection with new railways being built and one obtains a holistic perspective regarding our railway in Sweden?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I also noted the Speaker's announcement of the interpellation debate we have today. It is actually my fiftieth interpellation debate in the chamber, so it is somewhat solemn. It concerns an important and pressing issue regarding railway maintenance.
I have given my answer and would like to elaborate a bit regarding tree securing on a general level. I can state that tree securing is a priority area within railway maintenance and has been since the storm Gudrun in 2005. At that time, over 300,000 households were left without power. Millions of cubic meters of forest fell, and the road network and the railway network were knocked out. It took a month before all train routes were in operation again. The affected roads could be opened for traffic one day after the storm.
After storm Gudrun, Trafikverket decided in 2006 that at least 450 miles of strategically important railway would be cleared of trees. The work of felling trees that can fall on overhead contact lines or in the track area was initiated and continues as part of Trafikverket's maintenance.
Maintenance work regarding the railway is a priority issue for the government. We have tasked Trafikverket with sharpening that work.
When it comes to the order of priority for tracks to be secured, Trafikverket applies three criteria. The first criterion is how many tree incidents, that is, when trees have in some way disrupted traffic, a track has had in recent years. The second criterion is how important a track is for the transport system as a whole. Is the track an important node for travel, or does a lot of passenger and freight traffic run along it? The third criterion is whether an upgrade of a track is planned within the coming years. The installation work at signaling changes is facilitated by recently completed tree securing. In this way, the risk is reduced that falling trees will shorten the lifespan of new installations.
Regarding the replacement of the tracks and overhead lines of the Viskadalsbanan, I have been informed that this was time-critical because the Viskadalsbanan was to be used as a diversion route in connection with the construction of Västlänken. The measures were therefore planned with relatively short notice when it was decided that extensive freight traffic would be diverted onto the line. There was then no possibility to coordinate level crossing measures with the track and overhead line work because such measures are time-consuming to plan and implement due to land survey proceedings and negotiations with landowners, which I touched upon in my answer, Mr. Speaker.
With that said, this is how it happens today, and it is the information I have received regarding specifically the Viskadalsbanan. I have great respect for the fact that the member shows understanding that I, as an individual minister, cannot comment on individual cases and that it is not the government's role to micro-manage the authority. But it is important that the railway maintenance becomes even better, that new technology and new innovations are used to be able to plan the maintenance, and that one also has preventive maintenance that comes in earlier to ensure that we have a robust, safe, and reliable infrastructure in Sweden.
I met this morning one of the maintenance contractors, who use drones in their railway maintenance to be able to obtain images from above and get better information on what is needed and what measures can be taken.
It is part of Trafikverket's mandate, which they have received from the government, to both strengthen their own capacity and, in cooperation with other actors, ensure that maintenance becomes better.
Mikael Larsson (C)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister again for the answer. In that context, I want to point out that the Minister seems to have been recently briefed on the issue of the Viskadalsbanan and the renovation. What the Minister says about the short time to carry out the renovation, the many crossings, and the diversion is completely correct. I want to thank the Minister for being so well-informed on this.
I had one more question in my interpellation; it concerns the holistic approach to the Swedish railway. Of course, as I see it, one can include the tree protection in that holistic approach.
A lot has been happening with the railway for many years now. Upgrades and tree protection are taking place. Replacement roads and new residential areas are being built, and ever higher demands are being placed on the railway.
As the Minister says, many different parties are involved in this. We have the national plan, which Trafikverket is responsible for. But we also have the regional plans around the country, where primarily our regions are involved and also make a considerable number of investments.
For example, in Västra Götaland, station areas are included in the regional plan. It is very good that this is included, but one can still think that the holistic approach means that work on a line encompasses everything, including the station area.
The maintenance debt, which the Minister refers to, is very large across the entire country. It is not possible to point out any part of the country where it is larger or smaller, but this is truly something we are lagging behind on.
The investments that we want to make in the railway must, in order for us to have a holistic perspective, be for the inhabitants of Sweden and so that they can travel as smoothly as possible. The investments must fit into our state or public systems, but we naturally want it to go as well as possible for the individual citizen to get where they need to go.
When it comes to the holistic thinking, we come across robustness and redundancy. This is something that will come more, and I know that the Minister has been alerted to it. It is about the fact that robustness, redundancy, and everything included in the holistic thinking should exist in everyday life but also in crisis and war. We are looking at this right now, of course; it concerns the connection to Nato and also the Defence Investigation, where I myself sit, where we are looking at this, among other things, in connection with civil defense and the transport infrastructure, which will be included there.
I believe that the Minister also has a good grasp of those issues.
In the previous answer, the Minister mentioned that many are involved. It could be Trafikverket, municipalities, regions or Lantmäteriet, and it could also be other authorities. I am pleased that the government nevertheless sees that a greater holistic perspective is needed. But when it comes to the large maintenance debt, one also needs to achieve some form of coordination between different authorities precisely so that one can achieve the holistic perspective and so that all shall work towards the same goal.
Just regarding this section, I wonder: Can the Minister work to ensure that a holistic approach with more coordination between different agencies, municipalities, and regions is achieved? And does this include coordination in a clearer way than today in the inquiry that has now been launched?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Let me begin with what Mikael Larsson was touching upon regarding robustness and redundancy. It is an urgent issue. In the security policy situation we are currently in, it is important to realize that it is the transport infrastructure that will enable military mobility, host nation support, and other things required of us due to NATO membership or because the security policy situation is as it is.
The Defence Preparation Board has pointed out that it is primarily in the east-west direction that the needs are great. I have already acknowledged those observations as we have now initiated the work on a new national plan. The Swedish Transport Administration is tasked in the first step to present a directional basis, which they will return with in the middle of January next year. In that work, the total defense's needs are much more clearly identified than before.
Parallel to this, we are also reasoning at the EU level and preparing as much as we can for a NATO entry. I have good contact with my colleagues in the Nordic countries – my Norwegian, Finnish, and Danish colleagues – who are already in NATO. At the infrastructure and transport minister level, we need to have an even closer cooperation. It is not enough just for us to strengthen our infrastructure in Sweden; it is many times, just as the Defence Preparation Board is pointing out, about transports from Norwegian ports across Swedish land to Finland. Here, it is important to have a strategic perspective.
The maintenance and standard of the Swedish road and railway network is an important issue in that regard. Many times there are synergies to be gained here because it concerns the same flows where there is a need to strengthen freight capacity.
When it comes to the holistic thinking that Mikael Larsson requests, it is pointed out very clearly in the assignment that Trafikverket shall cooperate with other actors. At the meeting that I invited to, there were also goods buyers present. They explained that if they know that a track work is needed and have lead time, they can plan how they produce within the industry so that the transports can go by rail, and they can then reduce the production pace slightly to enable the railway maintenance that is needed.
At the same time, it is important to say that the maintenance measures need to become more like pit stops in Formula 1, as the actors at the meeting described it. They need to be well-planned and quickly executed with as little disruption as possible. This now lies within the mandate of Trafikverket. When it comes to railway maintenance, it is about having a holistic approach.
Just as Mikael Larsson is, there are several actors involved. Lantmäteriet is an agency that also falls under my preparatory area. We are actively working to shorten the lead times at that agency by trying to digitize various processes, which enables a faster handling of different issues, which could possibly facilitate the type of issues we are discussing today. There is no doubt that the government prioritizes the maintenance of the Swedish railways and the Swedish roads.
Mikael Larsson (C)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, also for this answer! The holistic perspective within Swedish railways, including my first question regarding tree protection, is an important issue. As I have often said in previous interpellation debates with the Minister, these are issues that are close to people's hearts, and they are important kitchen table issues.
I think it is good that one pushes for things to be done faster and more quickly. But things cannot happen overnight.
I am still the first to sign on to the fact that we face major issues with the NATO membership, gang crime, environment and climate. These are major issues for Sweden to move forward. But in the big picture, it is very important not to forget the small things.
What I want to highlight with this interpellation debate is that these are important issues. As the Minister himself said, it is extremely important to include the business community and transport buyers in the conversations, so that one does not only listen to the authority as a whole. We also need to have a holistic perspective there: Who is it that will utilize the transports?
I will continue to follow the question regarding the holistic thinking in the transport system, especially linked to the discussion on the railway infrastructure. It is nevertheless pleasing that the Minister mentions precisely the defense policy aspects, which perhaps in the time we are in now become even more important. I am also pleased that Trafikverket has been given this mandate moving forward.
I will continue to follow the issue and look forward to more debates with the Minister. I also want to thank you for a good debate to shed light on this important issue.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! As I began by saying, this was the fiftieth interpellation debate for me. It is a form of landmark interpellation. I do not usually review different interpellation debates, but every interpellation debate is important. But it is important with the format of more consensus and dialogue, where one can highlight problems in the way that Mikael Larsson has pointed out. This is no small question, but it is an urgent question.
Securing a robust and safe infrastructure is not just an issue in the region we are speaking about now, but in the entire country. That is also why Trafikverket has prioritized this for nearly 20 years. Different inputs and suggestions to make it even better are always welcome in the debate. I thank you for this debate and look forward to more such dialogues in the interpellation benches here in the Swedish Riksdag.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.