The Stockholm City Line ( sv, Citybanan) is a commuter

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

beneath central Stockholm in Sweden which is used by the Stockholm Commuter Rail. The line is long, double track and

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

. It has two stations: Stockholm City Station is located directly below

T-Centralen T-Centralen (Swedish for "The T-Central"; T being an abbreviation for "tunnelbana", the Swedish word for "underground" or "subway") is a metro station that forms the heart of the Stockholm metro system, in the sense that it is the only station ...

, the central station of the Stockholm Metro. The Odenplan station is the other station, and is also served by the Green Line of the Metro. The line opened on 10 July 2017.

Route

The tunnel significantly improves the traffic throughput to and from south of Stockholm as there are only two tracks in that direction from

Stockholm Central Station Stockholm Central Station ( sv, Stockholms centralstation) is a railway station in Stockholm, Sweden. It is situated in the district of Norrmalm at Vasagatan/Central Plan. The station opened on 18 July 1871 and it had over 200,000 visitors da ...

, the same number that were in place in 1871 when the railway was originally built. It has 24 scheduled trains per hour in each direction. The commuter trains pass Stockholm with up to 16 trains per hour per direction. The other eight are regional and long-distance trains. The tunnel takes all commuter trains, allowing more regional and intercity trains to operate along the old line. Placing the commuter rail traffic into a tunnel of its own thus allows increased capacity for other national rail traffic through Central Station via

Centralbron Centralbron (, "The Central Bridge") is a major bridge in central Stockholm, Sweden, connecting the northern district Norrmalm to the southern Södermalm. It is 1,200 metres long and consists of two viaducts passing over Söderström ("Southern ...

. The entire system for long-distance passenger railways in Sweden suffers from this bottleneck, since 80% of train rides in Sweden start or stop in Stockhol

As a result, there is no room to increase the frequency of commuter, regional, and long-distance trains despite their heavy usage. Seen from south to north, the route of the Citybanan tunnel branches off the after Stockholm South Station on

Södermalm Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is a district and island in central Stockholm. Overview The district covers the large island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''). Although Södermalm usually is considered an island, wa ...

, and continues beneath the bay bottom of

Riddarfjärden Riddarfjärden (, "The Knight Firth") is the easternmost bay of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in central Stockholm. Stockholm was founded in 1252 on an island in the stream where Lake Mälaren (from the west) drains into the Baltic Sea (to the east); to ...

at Söderström, beneath the islet of

Riddarholmen Riddarholmen (, "The Knights' Islet") is a small islet in central Stockholm, Sweden. The island forms part of Gamla Stan, the old town, and houses a number of private palaces dating back to the 17th century. The main landmark is the church Riddarh ...

, beneath Riddarfjärden at

Norrström Norrström is one of the shortest rivers in Europe in central Stockholm. It connects Lake Mälaren with the Baltic Sea. It runs from Riddarfjärden, north of Gamla stan, to Stockholms ström (the western part of Saltsjön). Two islands lie within ...

, to the new City Station. From there, it continues beneath

Norrmalm Norrmalm is a city district in Stockholm, Sweden. History Norrmalm is part of the larger borough of Norrmalm (''Norrmalms stadsdelsområde''). The southern part of the district, Lower Norrmalm (''Nedre Norrmalm''), also known as City, cons ...

to Odenplan Station, then beneath Vasastaden to join with the East Coast Line at Tomteboda.

History

as part of the Stockholm City Line." The project was proposed by the

Swedish State Railways The Swedish State Railways ( sv, Statens Järnvägar) or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board ( sv, Kungl. Järnvägsstyrelsen), was the former government agency responsible for operating the state-owned railways in Sweden. It was created i ...

in 1988 and, after initially being disregarded as too expensive, was seriously considered again from 2002. In 2006, the Swedish Rail Administration agreed with the city and

Storstockholms Lokaltrafik Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, or more formally Aktiebolaget Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (Greater Stockholm Local Transit Company), is the organisation running all of the land based public transport systems in Stockholm County. It was previously k ...

on the financing of the project, and the last step in the planning process was scheduled for 2006–2007. The cost of the tunnel and stations was estimated at 16.3 billion Swedish kronor. After the general elections of 2006, the new Alliance government called the project into question. Representatives of the government announced on October 1 of that year that they were scrapping Citybanan in favor of building a third railway track through the city. In December 2006, however, the government's appointed expert, recommended building the tunnel following a renewed assessment of the project. In May 2007 the government finally decided to build the tunnel. In September 2014 the tunnel reached its full length. Coordinates: *Southern tunnel entrance: *Northern tunnel entrance:

References

External links

Swedish Transport Administration – The Stockholm City LineDagens Nyheter – Citybanan börjar byggas i sommar
{{in lang, sv Railway lines in Sweden Railway lines opened in 2017 Rail transport in Stockholm Underground commuter rail 2017 establishments in Sweden