Response to interpellation 2023/24:686 on the infrastructure in Kalmar County
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD prioritizes improving and repairing existing infrastructure as well as upgrading existing railways to facilitate commuting and freight traffic 1. KD argues that the government has canceled expensive investments in new main lines for high-speed trains in order to instead take responsibility for maintenance and strengthen the infrastructure that already exists 2. KD emphasizes that concrete projects are first investigated after the Riksdag has decided on a financial planning framework 1 2 3 and that upgrading existing railways is guiding for future assignments to Trafikverket 3. S considers that Kalmar län receives significantly less per inhabitant than the average in the country 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)
Madam Speaker! Tomas Kronståhl has asked me whether I and the government will in any way prioritize infrastructure measures and needs that exist in Kalmar län.
A well-functioning infrastructure is important to ensure a long-term sustainable transport supply for both the citizens and the business community throughout the country. For the government, it is therefore a priority to improve the infrastructure we have, repair where it is needed, and manage the common resources in the best possible way. The government prioritizes the upgrading of existing railways. Investments in the railway should primarily facilitate commuting and freight traffic.
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.
After the Riksdag has decided on the government bill, including how large the twelve-year economic planning framework shall be, the government will instruct Trafikverket to prepare a proposal for a new national plan for the period 2026-2037. It is only in this part of the process that concrete projects and measures are investigated and analyzed.
The needs within the infrastructure are great, and it is necessary to make thoughtful prioritizations between different measures. It is important that this is done in an orderly process with a sufficient basis.
Last month, I invited and participated in referral meetings regarding the Transport Authority's orientation document. Representatives for Region Kalmar participated and spoke within the framework of the cooperation in Regionsamverkan Sydsverige. In the work for a new national plan, it is valuable to take part of concrete needs, views, and input from actors in different parts of the country.
Tomas Kronståhl (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister Andreas Carlson, for the answer. Even though I may not be completely satisfied with the answer, it is nevertheless an answer.
My question concerns the very concerning situation regarding the possibilities for freight transport and also passenger traffic on both road and rail in Kalmar län in general and northern Kalmar län in particular.
I want to start by and will stay quite a bit on the freight traffic and passenger traffic on the railways Stångådalsbanan and Tjustbanan, which standardly are in a really poor condition. It would be good if the focus here for the state lies on renovating and modernizing these tracks in order to achieve significantly shorter travel time and higher standard.
It is also a matter of enabling more people to be able to commute across county borders and further out onto the main line to various destinations around the country. This is a very important issue, not least when it comes to trying to hold this whole country together.
The condition today, including among other things old wooden sleepers, no track stabilization, and diesel locomotives, implies a very limited speed as well as that the tracks do not hold up for freight traffic and not particularly often for passenger traffic. This results in a very large number of cancelled trains.
The government has, in its declaration, cancelled several major investments in new infrastructure, and in connection with that, has announced that a portion of these withdrawn resources will now be used to refurbish existing infrastructure. We in Kalmar county now have strong desires and hopes that both road and railway will be refurbished.
What we unfortunately see now is that Trafikverket, in its planning for a new station location for the new Ostlänkens connection in Linköping, has no station location planned for the Stångådals- and Tjustbanan.
Madam Speaker! Trafikverket has, in its investigation proposal, placed a station location for these tracks in Tannerfors, which is several kilometers away from the planned central station.
My question is: Is it the Minister's and the Government's intention and thought to proceed and implement this proposal? This would likely mean the definitive death for these tracks. This has also been put forward by several responsible politicians from all parties, both from the region and the municipalities that are affected by these tracks.
We have many industries and companies, both small and medium-sized, in central and northern Kalmar län that are in great need of both freight and passenger transport on both road and rail. Today, hardly any of this functions, at least not the railway. Only the roads are available for freight transport. Even there, there are major deficiencies, not least on national road 35 - and this in a region where maintenance and investments in infrastructure have been conspicuously absent for a very long time, ever since the Öland Bridge was built.
My next question to the Minister is therefore very important. Will this government and the Minister ensure that the assignment to Trafikverket regarding a new central station in Linköping for Ostlänken will also include a new junction and a station location for the Stångådals- and Tjustbanan at the same station? Or will the Minister let Trafikverket carry out this fateful planning where, as a consequence of their proposal for a station location, they will contribute to ending commuting and freight transport possibilities by rail across these county borders, probably forever?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! I would first like to thank the member for the commitment to infrastructure and specifically the infrastructure in Kalmar län, in this case. The needs are great across the entire country, and there are indeed many needs that those the member here enumerates. They resemble many of the needs that exist in large parts of the country.
When the government has established our priority that all of Sweden shall function, it is important that the priorities that are needed are made to strengthen the infrastructure, and above all that the maintenance of the infrastructure is strengthened and that reinvestments are made and measures are taken to ensure that we get more out of the infrastructure we already have.
Transport and infrastructure lay the foundation for both the green transition and our preparedness, which needs to be strengthened given the security policy situation we are in. We therefore need more transport, and it must be able to take place in a reliable way with a high degree of accessibility and sustainability.
Roads and commuting are what the government prioritizes in the upgrading of the infrastructure. I note that the member mentions, also in the written interpellation that I am answering here today, Madam Speaker, that the government has offered several large investments in new infrastructure.
What we have primarily done is to cancel the plans for new main lines for high-speed trains and the central parts that were planned in the previous national plan between Borås and Linköping and down to Hässleholm. It was the previous government that made the decision on this, and it was an important measure that our government took when we cancelled the planning for this.
The Swedish National Audit Office has reviewed the decision and concluded that this does not reduce the commitments in upcoming national plans by a full 163 billion kronor. This is important given that the needs are very large. The maintenance debt on the railway side alone amounts to 91 billion kronor. The Government takes responsibility so that we can upgrade the infrastructure, take care of the infrastructure we have, and reinforce it where needed before we make promises about very large and expensive investments that risk crowding out other important measures.
What measures we will make decisions on remains to be seen. We have not yet submitted the bill to the Swedish Riksdag, but it will come during the autumn. After that, Madam Speaker, the government will, as I said in my response, task Trafikverket with preparing a proposal for a new national plan. After that, the government will make a decision.
That is how the planning work and infrastructure planning looks in Sweden. When the member here notes that he is not entirely satisfied with the answer, Madam Speaker, that disappointment is therefore directed rather towards the previous government and the current national plan that the member's own party was involved in developing.
I can guarantee that we will not be able to afford all the investments that are needed, because the needs are much greater than the measures that we will be able to accommodate in the framework. Much is already pledged, considering that there are large projects that are not funded which were included and announced in the previous national plan.
It is therefore all the more important to take this in context, and I appreciate Region Kalmar län, which has joined with several other regions and points out which measures they collectively see need to be prioritized. There we agree: The needs are great, and the priorities will be necessary.
But I hope and believe that the member understands that in today's debate in the chamber I cannot point out any individual projects. It is too early in the process we are in.
Tomas Kronståhl (S)
Madam Speaker! It feels even more urgent that we have this debate and discussion today so that we truly clarify what the needs are. It becomes very clear.
It feels extra urgent to get an answer in the near future to the question I have already asked, as it truly affects much of the municipalities' and the region's other planning and initiatives for the future. It is absolutely crucial how this will look.
Madam Speaker! I have also taken note of the investigation that Trafikverket was commissioned to conduct in 2022. It concerns whether the Tjust- and Stångådalsbanan has had any significance for regional development.
In the investigation, Pär-Erik Westin states that of the nine municipalities located along the two lines, only Linköping and Kalmar have had a positive population development from the mid-90s until today. Given the condition of the lines, Madam Speaker, it would have surprised me very much if the answer to such an investigation had been different. Kalmar and Linköping have quite good connections today. Linköping has good connections with Stockholm. In Kalmar, one never takes the Stångådalsbanan as an alternative to Linköping, but instead travels on another railway where it goes significantly faster. One thus has different alternatives, but the other seven municipalities actually have no other alternatives.
The question that I and surely many others with me ask ourselves is whether an investigation with this purpose can yield any other answer than the one we have received, given the condition that these tracks are in. It is, therefore, not surprising.
The purpose of such an investigation should well have been to highlight what regional impact a substantial upgrade with fully welded rails and electrified tracks that can seriously compete with, for example, road traffic, in terms of both time, punctuality and frequency, would have for regional development.
My conviction is, Madam Speaker, that the regional benefit would be very great, if not decisive, if real investments in the Tjust and Stångådal lines were actually made. But merely keeping the lines alive in their current state obviously does not contribute to any regional development, but rather to a continued regional decline. This applies at least to these municipalities in northern Kalmar län, which would benefit enormously from faster connections with Linköping and thus with the rest of the country.
We can take some examples and compare them with other regional railways where investments have been made in the form of tree protection, fully welded rails, and electrification. Blekinge kustbana is one example, where travel has increased tenfold after the investment. This also applies to the regional line between Ystad and Simrishamn, Madam Speaker, which has increased by just as much.
These are investments that have been made and which, from a societal perspective, are very inexpensive. It is significantly cheaper to upgrade railways that already exist in relation to the great benefit it means for both municipalities' and regions' opportunities for development. But it also, of course, benefits the environment and climate when more journeys become fossil-free.
We can take an example. The cost to upgrade an existing railway is approximately 200 million for a mile. That may sound expensive, but we can compare it with building a new railway, for example on Ostlänken. That cost is estimated to be 5.7 billion per mile, which is horribly much more expensive. Then the question is: Is it not wise to also invest in regional lines?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! I hoped for some understanding that I cannot anticipate the process involving the government setting the framework, with decisions in the Riksdag, in the bill that we will submit during the autumn. After that, we will task the Transport Administration with preparing proposals for a national plan. The member is well aware of this.
Note, however, what I said, Madam Speaker, already in the second paragraph of the response: "For the government, it is therefore a priority to improve the infrastructure we have, repair where needed and manage the common resources in the best way. The government prioritizes the upgrading of existing railways. Investments in the railway should primarily facilitate commuting and freight traffic."
This will be guiding for the assignments we give to Trafikverket. I look forward to returning in the next step of the plan revision.
I can understand the frustration that exists because the needs are so great. When it comes to Stångådalsbanan and Tjustbanan, however, these are included as named objects in Kalmar län in the current national plan. Trafikverket states that during 2024 the authority will start a separate planning process for the connection of Stångådals- and Tjustbanan in Linköping, which will continue until 2026. In the work with the railway plan, Trafikverket continuously invites those who are particularly affected to contribute with knowledge and views.
Let me also add, Madam Speaker, that Trafikverket's work with the physical planning in this case is governed by the Act on the Construction of Railways.
Tomas Kronståhl (S)
Madam Speaker! It is good that we have a discussion and can observe how the situation looks. I must admit: I am frustrated, and it has not happened for a very long time. We now have a situation where we see that several municipalities along these routes in Östergötland and in Kalmar län, such as Västervik, Vimmerby, Kisa and Åtvidaberg, would have great opportunities to become growth municipalities if they had better infrastructure. That is the reason why we really want to have this discussion and get these investments made.
I have delved a bit into this because it feels very urgent. When it comes to investments in infrastructure in the regional pot that the state distributes to all regions in the country, I can state that Kalmar län always ranks almost worst. Ever since we built the Ölandsbron, we have been among the last three regions.
The average amount allocated to infrastructure investments in the country is approximately 30,000 kronor per inhabitant - except in the Stockholm region and the larger cities, which are significantly higher. In Kalmar län, we are at approximately 9,000 kronor per inhabitant in our regional pot.
What it means, Madam Speaker, is that if at some point we were to receive the average of what all regions receive, it would be enough to refurbish these tracks with both tree protection, electrification, and fully welded tracks. It would mean that we would actually get a fair chance to invest in a regional development that can contribute to keeping the whole country together.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank the members for the debate. I also want to emphasize what I said about that our decision to cancel new main lines for high-speed trains reduced the funding of existing plans for a long time by 163 billion kronor. It is clear that otherwise we would have had a different debate today. We would have had poorer conditions to prioritize important measures in Kalmar county and in other parts of the country if the government had not made that decision. I perceive that we can probably agree on that in the chamber today, and I appreciate that in that case.
There is also another important part that we need to take responsibility for now. At the end of the previous planning process, the previous government halved the expansion of ERTMS, the digital signaling system that Trafikverket says is highly system-critical and which Riksrevisionen has also audited. Here, the previous government chose to halve the proposed funds and put the money on other projects.
With the plan that is now in place, this system will be expanded until 2070. The old system we have is from 1970. This will not work. It is an important part that we now need to take responsibility for.
Here I too am pleased that Region Kalmar län supports Trafikverket's reasoning regarding a rapid and comprehensive implementation of ERTMS for the entire country's railway system. They also point to Stångådalsbanan and Tjustbanan and that preparations are being made for a partial implementation of ERTMS. A deficiency investigation has been conducted.
So, it is about great needs across the whole country, also in Kalmar län. That is why the priorities and the direction we have now established are important to enable an upgrade. This has been neglected for a long time, not least the maintenance, and it will be necessary to make priorities. Therefore, I am pleased with the commitment that the member shows in these pressing issues.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.