Response to interpellation 2025/26:8 on the management of the New East Coast Line
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 with cost control and budget discipline to get more infrastructure for the money 1. KD emphasizes that the need for upgrading is great and that the government allocates funds for the maintenance debt 2. KD underlines that it is too early to respond to specific objects as they are waiting for Trafikverket's proposals 1 2. KD argues that Trafikverket is responsible for localization studies and that the government lacks a general position on station locations 3. KD emphasizes that the need for infrastructure exceeds the budget framework 4 and that they have prioritized Norrland through construction start decisions 4. V considers it socio-economically questionable to place stations outside city centers 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.
Infrastruktur- och bostadsministern Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Samuel Gonzalez Westling has asked me if I intend to have a dialogue with Trafikverket regarding the implementation of the expansion of the Ostkustbanan, for example concerning station locations and speeds. He has also asked how the government intends to ensure that cost-effective and feasible alternatives are investigated well in advance before decisive decisions are made, as well as how I view the risk that this could complicate or delay the continued double-track expansion along the Norrland coast.
I want to begin by saying that the expansion of the section of the Ostkustbanan that Samuel Gonzalez Westling addresses in his interpellation, that is, the section from Enånger via Hudiksvall up to Stegskogen north of Hudiksvall, is not included in the current transport-wide national plan for transport infrastructure for the period 2022–2033.
Trafikverket has, however, investigated how the capacity along Ostkustbanan could be developed through expansion to double track. Based on this strategy, Enånger–Stegskogen could be a future stage for a potential continued expansion.
Trafikverket has continued to work on a so-called localization study for the section, where the authority has now made the decision that Samuel Gonzalez Westling refers to, that is, the decision on which corridor is relevant for continued investigation work.
Before further planning can take place, the project however needs funding. This means that the government needs to make decisions that the project shall be included in a future national plan for the transport infrastructure. Trafikverket is the authority that works with the investigation and planning of any future works.
Regarding Samuel Gonzalez Westling's question concerning ensuring that cost-effective alternatives are investigated, I want to emphasize that the government takes it seriously that large cost increases occur in infrastructure projects. The government is actively working with cost control to get more infrastructure for the money.
Before the upcoming national plan, the government has, in the directives to Trafikverket, for example, emphasized that it is of the utmost importance that early cost estimates are as well-substantiated as possible and that the projects are characterized by good budget discipline so that the cost estimates are not exceeded.
The economic framework for the next planning period, 2026–2037, amounts to 1,171 billion kronor. It is a historically large investment where we have increased the infrastructure framework by over 200 billion kronor compared to the previous planning period. Even though it is a historical investment, I also want to point out that the needs within infrastructure are large and that it will be necessary to make deliberate prioritizations between different measures.
It is important that this is done in an orderly process with a sufficient basis. It is therefore too early to answer the question of which objects will be included in the new plan.
The government is now awaiting Trafikverket's proposal for a national plan for the new planning period. This is to be submitted no later than September 30. The plan proposal will then be referred out broadly until December 30. The government intends to make a decision on the adoption of the new plan during the spring of 2026.
Samuel Gonzalez Westling (V)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer, even if it was perhaps not, in practice, an answer to the specific questions I asked. It was more of a general reasoning about cost control and priorities, and perhaps also a pat on the head regarding what is included in the current national plan.
This does not, however, affect the actual management of the new Ostkustbanan, and above all not the alternatives that Trafikverket has recently made decisions on regarding the alignment and station location in just Hudiksvall – which happens to be located in Gävleborgs län where I live. There, they are now advocating for a proposal that would place the station outside the city center – where the station is located today. They are to move it outside the center.
This is exactly what is the core here. To place a new station outside the city center is not just a bad decision from a traveler's perspective. It is a socio-economically questionable decision. We know that central station locations provide a higher passenger base, better accessibility, and greater potential for urban development. Choosing a more peripheral location would also reduce the utility of the entire investment. Is this how the government intends for us to build new railways in Sweden?
I also want to raise the issue of the dialogue with the local and regional level. There is a broad consensus in the region – where even the minister's own party, Kristdemokraterna, is involved in the governance – that the central location is the best in just Hudiksvall. This applies from both a cost and a utility perspective.
That the Swedish Transport Administration is going against the collective local knowledge is remarkable – but in this case, one is also going against established research. If the government is concerned with keeping costs down in the long run, it should also be concerned with listening to those who have the best knowledge of the site in question.
It is true that Trafikverket's proposal for a new national plan will be coming soon. I understand that the Minister would like to refer to that, but it is now that we must get answers on whether the government is prepared to take responsibility for ensuring that this project is carried out in a way that is both cost-effective and socially beneficial, and whether the government is prepared to reconsider a decision that risks weakening the entire project's utility.
Does the government – despite the fact that there are better and, in the long run, cheaper alternatives that have support both locally and regionally – consider it reasonable to build a new railway with station locations that actively hinder travel and urban development?
Isabell Mixter (V)
Mr. Speaker! My county, Västernorrland, was hit in early September by heavy rainfalls. This led to a major impact on the county's infrastructure. Trains derailed, and a man died after a road collapsed.
We have long known that Sweden's infrastructure is lagging and requires upgrading. I want to emphasize, however, the urgency of this. We cannot have a rural area that becomes cut off from the rest of Sweden.
Today we are discussing the Ostkustbanan, which stretches between Stockholm and Härnösand. Most of this railway is single-track, which leads to travel times becoming unnecessarily long. It also leads to problems if trains become stationary somewhere along the way. In that case, no trains can pass. The new Ostkustbanan would mean double-track all the way and enable faster travel times, which is extremely important both for industry and for people who travel.
Samuel Gonzalez Westling has asked the minister important questions regarding the station location in Hudiksvall, where Trafikverket has proposed a station location outside the town. This would be deeply unfortunate. If we are finally to get a modern railway, it needs to be accessible to people.
The minister's answer is that the government takes the various cost increases seriously. I also want to emphasize that the new Ostkustbanan, according to Trafikverket, is cheaper to complete per kilometer than many other sections. They estimate that it will cost 200 million per kilometer. Ostlänken would, for example, cost 600 million per kilometer and the Göteborg–Borås section 700 million per kilometer. With that reasoning, the government should be very eager to prioritize Nya Ostkustbanan, which thus has a lower cost per kilometer.
It is also the case that the old Ostkustbanan constitutes the longest bottleneck in the Stockholm–Umeå corridor. It also does not live up to the EU's requirements for a modern railway. The average speed is too low; the EU requires that the speed shall be at least 160 kilometers per hour, and on the section we are talking about today, the speed is only 120 kilometers per hour – or as little as 70 kilometers per hour, which is the speed between Sundsvall and Härnösand. It is therefore very urgent that this is resolved.
Both Kristersson and Busch have promised that the New East Coast Line (Nya Ostkustbanan) will be completed by 2035. At the same time, the Transport Administration (Trafikverket) says that the start of construction for a new station location in Hudiksvall would not occur until in twelve years, so the question is what applies. How will the government ensure that the New East Coast Line can be completed by 2035? I would like to have an answer to that question from the government. Will the expansion to double tracks on the East Coast Line be prioritized so that it is completed by 2035?
Infrastruktur- och bostadsministern Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the members very much for their commitment to the issue.
It is clear that the needs regarding Swedish infrastructure are great across the entire country, also in Västernorrland. Isabell Mixter points out the situation that followed from the very heavy rain – the downpours – that fell over parts of the region a short while ago. I was there myself the day after and saw parts of the damage, even at the site where a man unfortunately perished as a result of a road and a culvert simply being washed away. It was very strong forces meeting a vulnerable infrastructure.
This sheds light on the fact that we need to upgrade Swedish infrastructure, even though all circumstances surrounding the infrastructure itself and its management will also be investigated by both Trafikverket and the Accident Investigation Authority. I view it positively that one truly investigates and gets to the bottom of this. At the same time, we in the government are not resting on our laurels in our upgrade work, but we are allocating funds to upgrade both the Swedish railway and the road network, where there is a significant maintenance debt. It is therefore why we know that the needs are great.
The members of the committee point to good arguments for part of the infrastructure, but there are great needs across the entire country. Therefore, we need to await Trafikverket's proposal for a national plan, which will arrive as early as Tuesday next week. I will receive that, and then it will be sent out for consultation broadly to the entire country. Then regions and the business community can provide comments on the proposals that Trafikverket has developed, and during the first half of next year, the government will make decisions on which projects shall be included in the new national plan.
I do not want this information to be perceived as a slap on the head, as the interpellator expressed it, but it is a factual clarification of where we are in the infrastructure planning process. I hope that the members of the Riksdag respect that. It does not mean that we are devaluing any object compared to another in this situation. On the contrary, we have tasked Trafikverket to produce proposals, and we will receive comments on those proposals. It will give us a good basis to make a well-balanced decision on what should be prioritized moving forward.
We do this against the background that we are now making a historically large investment in infrastructure. If one calculates in the same way as in the current plan, the increase is 27 percent, 1,171 billion kronor, and it is important to facilitate travel. It is about commuters – people who depend on being able to get from A to B by car and people who want to know that the trains run and arrive on time. As a freight buyer, one wants to be able to rely on the railway holding up and having capacity for the important freight transports that are crucial for the business sector's competitiveness, which is also important from a preparedness perspective.
That is why I cannot go into detail on different objects in this situation, Mr. Speaker. It is Trafikverket that has the responsibility to work with a so-called localization study, and now a proposal has been developed regarding which corridor is relevant for continued investigation work. I welcome views and discussion regarding that, but it is Trafikverket that produces that type of proposal.
Before further planning can take place, the object in question needs funding, and the proposal in the national plan is a step in that discussion. Then, the referral comments will of course provide a good basis. As a minister, I cannot, however, anticipate the planning process and comment on what is an appropriate design of individual objects.
Samuel Gonzalez Westling (V)
Mr. Speaker! It is clear that the Minister should not comment on individual objects before anything is finalized. That was not my question either. My question was whether the Minister considers it appropriate to move an existing, currently centrally located station to a location outside the city center. It could be about Hudiksvall, and it could be about Fagersta. It could be about Gothenburg, Malmö or Stockholm. It is, therefore, a general question: Does the Minister consider it appropriate to do so?
This is, in fact, the very core of the issue when Trafikverket – due to savings requirements from the government, it is said – produces this type of proposal. It is quite serious that, in this case, short-term savings are being made that risk damaging the societal infrastructure and societal planning in the long term.
As the minister says, this is something that will come up in the plans ahead. Decisions will be made about it in the spring, but as we have heard here, the government has promised that it will not be ready until 2035. Hopefully, the railway will be used for at least a few decades; the current railway has, after all, been there for almost a hundred years. Therefore, perhaps one should keep in mind that the most appropriate option might not be to place a station outside the city center.
That is my question to the Minister, and I would very much like to receive an answer to it. Does the Minister think it is reasonable to build a new railway with station locations that actively hinder travel and urban development, even though there are better alternatives that are cheaper if one looks at it in the long term?
Isabell Mixter (V)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
I would like to follow up on Samuel's point that this is a matter of principle. Does the government think it is appropriate to place stations outside of cities? Is that a position that the government thinks is good? Could we move the station in Stockholm to Märsta or to some place that is completely peripheral? I simply believe that it would be very unlikely.
This once again sends a signal that northern Sweden and sparsely populated areas are not particularly important, and I think that is a very unfortunate way to look at it. If one wants to facilitate commuting and for people to travel, the accessibility to, for example, the railway is important.
With regard to what I spoke about in my previous post – that the infrastructure is incredibly vulnerable and that we have now seen what happens when there are heavy rainfalls and so on – I want to say that it is not the first time our region has been affected by this. Already in 2023, a passenger train derailed outside Hudiksvall, and there was a major impact on train traffic even after that. It took a long time before one could travel on the regular railway.
This is a problem that we who travel on these routes experience all the time. It can be trains that come to a standstill due to electrical faults or other things, and then no trains can pass. It is extremely urgent that we get a double-track expansion now, and I would very much like to know if the government will stick to what Kristersson and Busch have said about the New East Coast Line being completed by 2035.
Infrastruktur- och bostadsministern Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank Samuel Gonzalez Westling for the understanding that I, as a minister, cannot comment on the appropriate design of individual objects. Then I think we differ slightly in the view on the meaning of this. The localization of an individual object is indeed part of the design. It is Trafikverket that has the mandate to work with localization studies, produce proposals, and make decisions on corridors and design.
The government has no general position on whether there should be station locations in the city center or with a certain proximity to the city center. There are different solutions, not only in northern Sweden, which the members refer to. Different assessments and different solutions have been made along the Västkustbanan, for example. It is not just an issue that affects northern Sweden.
It is Trafikverket that does the work of producing localization studies. It is also the case that the planning is governed by the Act on the Construction of Railways. It is therefore a statutory responsibility that Trafikverket has. The legislation implies that several different trade-offs must be made and contains requirements for consultation with the County Administrative Board, affected municipalities and, obviously, the affected regional public transport authorities as well as the individuals who are particularly affected. I assume that the statutory planning process is followed.
When it comes to which objects should be included in the new national plan, it is exactly as I said, Mr. Speaker – we will receive a proposal on the table next Tuesday. It will not lie on the table for particularly long before it is sent out directly to regions and the business community on a very broad referral so that we can receive comments from all parts of the country and then be able to make decisions on the way forward in the national plan during the first half of 2026.
Samuel Gonzalez Westling (V)
Mr. Speaker! If I understand the Minister correctly, he does not want to comment on whether he thinks it is better if a station is located in the center of a city, where people live, or outside. I find it very difficult to understand that. The research is clear regarding this. It is better for it to be located inside the city, because that is when traffic and travel increase. It is not a question where one can discuss what is better or worse.
I understand that the minister does not want to take a stand. If he were to say now that he thinks it is better for the station to be located inside the city center, he would namely risk contradicting himself, given that he may subsequently have to make a decision regarding moving the station in Hudiksvall. It is such a move that would be the effect of this, and I think it would be deeply unfortunate. When we plan such extensive matters as infrastructure investments – investments in Sweden's future – we should take into account what is best for those who live on the site.
I do not believe that Trafikverket would at all raise the question of moving the station in Gothenburg outside the city center or moving the station in Stockholm outside the city. No, it is being done here because it concerns Norrland. It is somewhat telling that this government does not have any minister who comes from Norrland. It speaks clearly when one sees what policy is being formulated. But I hope from the bottom of my heart that the government will come to its senses and make a decision that means that they will not place stations outside the city center, especially not the one that is to be built in Hudiksvall.
Infrastruktur- och bostadsministern Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! When it comes to which statements I can make in individual cases in the infrastructure planning, it is not a matter of will but of where one is in the process and where the responsibility lies. The localization studies lie with Trafikverket. I cannot anticipate the planning process and comment on the appropriate design of individual objects. It is not a question of will but of what lies within my mandate to comment on.
If we had a budget that was not only as historically large as ours but was unlimited, it is clear that one could have met more requests in different parts of the country to optimize the utility. But just as I said in my opening answer, Mr. Speaker, we are in a situation where the needs will still be greater than the framework we have, despite a very powerful increase in the infrastructure framework. That is what Trafikverket takes into account when preparing the various proposals. But it will, of course, be a process where all views on the proposals are noted and discussed. It will form the basis for the decisions that the government makes regarding the design moving forward.
Then I want to comment on the hint that Samuel Gonzalez Westling makes that we would not prioritize Norrland. We have, Mr. Speaker, made a construction start decision for the Norrbotniabanan. Before that decision could be made, we handled a number of administrative matters that had been lying on the government's desk for quite some time. We have also accelerated investments on the Malmbanan and moved forward meeting tracks and passing tracks that increase the capacity in the southern loop by a full 30 percent in the current national plan when they are fully completed. We have also given a very pleasing announcement to large parts of northern Sweden – and the rest of the country – that we will catch up on all the overdue maintenance on the roadside. We know that it is a great challenge for many, not least in the north. We will close that gap.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.