Response to interpellation 2023/24:385 on double track on the Ostkustbanan
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that the government is working at a high pace with the plan revision to strengthen the infrastructure and facilitate freight traffic and commuting 1 2 3. KD emphasizes the importance of an orderly process, cost control, and co-financing from the EU and Nato 1 2. KD wants to improve and repair existing infrastructure as well as manage the resources in the best possible way 1 3. KD has developed orientation documents which are now being sent out for consultation 4. KD believes that the upcoming bill will set the conditions for infrastructure and hopes for broad consensus for more infrastructure for the money 4. S argues that the Gävle-Härnösand stretch is a bottleneck where double-tracking would quadruple the capacity and halve the travel times 5. S believes that the government has promised that the double-tracking shall be completed by 2035 and demands clear announcements and assignments to Trafikverket 5 6 7.
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! Peder Björk has asked me how I am working to ensure that a fully expanded double track on the Ostkustbanan, the section Gävle-Härnösand, can be completed by 2035 at the latest.
Ostkustbanan is an important railway route for both freight and passenger traffic. It is, as the interpellor points out, also heavily trafficked. On June 7, 2022, the previous government adopted the national transport infrastructure plan across all modes of transport for the period 2022-2033. The plan includes two objects for the expansion of double tracks on Ostkustbanan, on the sections Gävle-Kringlan and Sundsvall C-Dingersjö.
The Government has begun the work towards a new national plan for the planning period 2026-2037 by, in a first step, commissioning Trafikverket to submit a directional basis for a new planning period. This assignment was presented on 15 January and is now being prepared within the Government Offices. The basis will form the foundation for an infrastructure bill with new economic frameworks and direction for a new plan. The needs within infrastructure are great, and it is necessary to make deliberate prioritizations between different measures. It is important that this is done in an orderly process with a sufficient basis.
The government's priority will continue to be to improve the infrastructure we have, repair where it is needed and manage our common resources in the best way. It is therefore both about safeguarding what we have already built and about investing in new infrastructure where it is needed.
Peder Björk (S)
Madam Speaker! The railway section between Gävle and Härnösand is Sweden's longest bottleneck with 27 miles of single-track railway. Yes, you heard correctly: 27 miles of single-track railway.
Just as the Minister highlighted in his answer to my question, this is a very heavily trafficked stretch. There is both a great need for and great demand for being able to increase transport of both goods and people on this stretch. But it is simply full on the track, so it is not possible to run more railway traffic than what is done today.
Madam Speaker! If one were to establish a double track on this section, one would suddenly quadruple the capacity and halve the travel times. Between Sundsvall and Stockholm, the travel time would become just over two hours, and the travel time between Stockholm and Umeå would become barely four hours.
During the 2022 election campaign, the party leaders Ulf Kristersson and Ebba Busch were present in Sundsvall. At that time, both of these party leaders promised that if they were to win the election and form a government, they would ensure that a double track would be fully built and in place by 2035 at the latest. This promise, which was given during the election campaign, has since also been confirmed by Ulf Kristersson after he had become Prime Minister. It was done in an SVT interview where, on a concrete question, he said that the promise stands: The double track shall be ready by 2035. Thus, it is now also the government's policy to ensure that a double track is put in place on the Ostkustbanan by 2035, Madam Speaker.
All of us who have in some way been involved in large infrastructure projects know that it takes time. The year 2035 is only eleven years away. It may seem like a very long time, but in an infrastructure context, it is a very short time. It needs to be planned, decisions must be made and - not least - it must be built. Even though 2035 seems far away, it is therefore urgent to ensure that the necessary decisions and necessary funding are in place so that the double track that the Prime Minister and the government have promised will be in place by 2035.
My question to the Minister for Infrastructure is quite simply whether the government is prepared to ensure right now that this process gets moving for real and to task Trafikverket with doing the necessary preparatory work and ensuring that the completion of double-tracking begins by 2035.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking Peder Björk for the commitment to this pressing issue. Just as the member is pointing out, and as I also said in my response, this is a heavily trafficked road. It is important for freight traffic as well as for work commuting, and the stretch is, as stated, heavily trafficked. I am well aware of the needs and requests that exist.
Regarding the planning processes, the government has taken the first step. We have already received the orientation basis from Trafikverket and sent it out for consultation, and we are now awaiting and gathering views from different parts of the country. My ambition is that we will have a high momentum in the work, given how great the needs are for the Swedish infrastructure.
During the spring, we will, in parallel with this, negotiate the direction and overall principles within the framework of the Tidö Agreement. In the autumn, we will then present a proposal in a government bill before the Riksdag, which will mean that the Riksdag can make decisions on the frameworks.
In this, it is important to see how one can work to implement infrastructure measures faster than before. This is something that I work with, and that we work with at the department. We work on increasing the speed to get the necessary investments in place and at the same time get maintenance measures in place faster than today.
This leads to a major challenge given the cost increases that are occurring. It is therefore important that Trafikverket works with cost control so that we can afford the measures that need to be implemented. There is also an opportunity for co-financing from the EU since Ostkustbanan is part of the Scanmed corridor in the TEN-T network. The government is and will be very active in securing co-financing from the EU. We can, of course, also review the possibilities of obtaining co-financing from Nato when we become members there.
The work is proceeding step by step at a high pace. We are now at the stage where the orientation basis is ready and out for consultation. The Government is working at full capacity with a focus on strengthening the Swedish infrastructure to facilitate freight traffic and commuting, which strengthens jobs and growth throughout the country so that all of Sweden can function.
Peder Björk (S)
Madam Speaker! In order to be able to do this effectively and with high momentum, clear mandates to Trafikverket and clear decisions in this matter are also needed.
The municipalities and regions along this stretch have already done their job. There is a high level of planning readiness, and almost everything that needs to be done before the government and Trafikverket take over is already done. Here, the minister has every opportunity to get a construction and a project started quickly, which is how I perceive that the minister wishes to develop the Swedish infrastructure.
Now it is only a section and a bottleneck that we are talking about. It concerns a 27 mil long single-track railway, but it is part of a much larger system, not least the railway system along the Swedish Norrland coast where the Botniabanan was completed a long time ago. The result was successful, not least for the regional labor market and labor market commuting but also for the freight traffic.
Norrbotniabanan is being planned, and when these parts are in place, it is absolutely necessary that the 27-mile long single-track railway is in place. Otherwise, Sweden as a nation will not get anything out of the investments being made to the north, at least not the full potential, as further south there will be a stretch where it is still single-track. We know how vulnerable it is if problems arise along such a stretch.
This becomes especially important in light of the hundreds or thousands of billions that are now being invested in northern Sweden in the new green industry. Infrastructure solutions are obviously required to transport goods, but they are at least as important to ensure the supply of competence. A larger catchment area is needed, and there, rail traffic specifically provides an opportunity to secure the supply of competence through a good system for commuting along the Norrland coast. It is therefore about both freight transport and passenger transport.
What worries me when the government cannot provide any clear messages on this issue is that those who are prepared to invest in the new green industry, of course, wonder whether the railway system will actually be in place within a reasonable timeframe. This also does not send particularly good signals to those who are considering moving north to take all the new jobs and who wonder if they will be able to commute in a sensible way in these regions. Will people, once they have moved from southern Sweden, be able to use the trains to travel south and visit relatives and friends?
There are many perspectives in this. According to the Prime Minister's promise, the whole thing should be in place by 2035, and therefore it is important that we get some kind of announcement from the government on how they intend to get it in place.
Madam Speaker! I repeat my previous question: Can the Minister say today whether all of us who are following this issue can receive some form of notification before 2026?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! I have given an update on how the planning work and the revision of the national plan look. We have already received the orientation basis, and we are working at a high pace with the plan revision. My ambition is, as I said, to come to the Riksdag this autumn with a proposition with proposals on frameworks.
What we are discussing now to a large extent is the current plan, which the previous government developed. At the last plan revision in 2022, no additional double-track stages were added beyond the two objects that are now included in the current plan and which have been included since before. Now, Trafikverket is working on the implementation of these objects.
As Peder Björk was in, there are long lead times in this. It would of course have been even easier to have a high momentum if it had been included in the previous plan revision. Now it was not, but it lies on the table in the work with the orientation basis that we have now kick-started. This is part of the Tidö Agreement, and a direction and overall principles shall be negotiated during the spring in parallel with us gathering views from regions and other stakeholders around the country.
The government is working very purposefully with the infrastructure in our country. Let me remind you of the priorities that I raised in my response, Madam Speaker. The government will continue to improve the infrastructure we have, repair where it is needed and manage the common resources in the best way.
So, it is both about safeguarding what we have already built and about investing in new infrastructure where it is needed. I agree with Peder Björk that we need to have more holistic thinking, a holistic perspective, where the important thing, of course, is to see entire corridors. If there is too much focus on different stages over a long period, the benefit of the investments on those specific stages will not be fully realized before the entire corridor has been built out.
There are several such examples in other parts of the country. There, we need to look at the implementation and what opportunities the infrastructure provides, but also at what bottlenecks are potentially being built in.
Peder Björk highlighted several areas that are guiding for the government's work: the needs of the business sector, the possibility of commuting to work, keeping society together, and that regardless of which mode of transport one chooses, one should be able to travel safely and securely to visit loved ones in different parts of the country. Here there are, I want to be clear, obvious problems with the Swedish infrastructure.
Maintenance measures have been postponed for a long time, which means that the situation on the railways and the roads is now very strained. This leads to the fact that there will be tough priorities in the work with the plan revision, but as I said, the government's priority will continue to be to improve the infrastructure we have, repair where it is needed and manage our common resources. This means both protecting what we have built and building new infrastructure where it is needed.
Peder Björk (S)
Madam Speaker! I actually did not expect a concrete decision here today regarding the Gävle-Härnösand stretch and a new double track.
The Minister says that we should look forward to the bill that will arrive in the autumn. Normally, there are not specific projects identified in that type of bill, but the Minister is welcome to surprise me when it is presented in the autumn.
I believe that, now that the government has promised that the double track on the Ostkustbanan will be completed by 2035, it is incredibly important to send a clear signal to those who are investing in the new industry in northern Sweden, but also to those who are prepared to move there and all of us who already live there, regarding what the government intends to do to get the double track on the Ostkustbanan underway and have it completed by 2035.
If the Prime Minister had been here today and participated in this debate, I would have said: Where is the shovel, Ulf? Now I say the same thing to the Minister. Where is the shovel? A clear signal was needed.
I also want to add that I hope that the Minister and the Government consider giving a clear mandate in the near future to Trafikverket to speed up the realization of double tracks on the Ostkustbanan on the section Gävle-Härnösand. It is a promise from the Prime Minister and from the Government.
Even though it may seem like a long time until 2035, eleven years in an infrastructure context is a very short time. Therefore, decisions were needed now. A new clear signal from the government was needed so that we can have double tracks in place on the Gävle-Härnösand section by 2035.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank you for the interpellation and the opportunity to discuss this important stretch of the Swedish railway network.
I note that Peder Björk says that he perhaps did not expect a concrete announcement today. It is very true that it is rarely the case that we prioritize different parts of the infrastructure when we are in the middle of working on a plan revision or that a government minister on a Friday morning in the Swedish Riksdag would point in different ways, but it is an orderly process.
We have at a fast pace developed and received a basis for direction from Trafikverket. It is being sent out for consultation to gather comments. Parallel to this, we will have the infrastructure, the long-term planning, and the direction for that as part of the Tidö Agreement to address overarching principles. It was also in this context that I said I will return to the Riksdag with a government bill later this year.
It is quite right, as Peder Björk is pointing out, that it is in the next step, after the bill and when the measures are decided, that different measures are usually weighed against each other. But important parts of the bill will concern the framework. It is the framework that in many ways sets the conditions.
Other parts that are on the table for discussion are, of course, the possibilities of financing infrastructure in other ways than previously. It is a question that will be discussed. There I hope that we will also be able to achieve a broad consensus in the Swedish Riksdag, so that we get both more money for infrastructure and more infrastructure for the money.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.