Southern Main Line
Södra stambanan ( German The Southern Main Line ) is a railway line in southern Sweden, which runs from Malmö to Katrine Holm. It is one of the most important rail connections in the country.
The term Södra stambanan is a concept of art for today's route. Historically the Södra stambana the route Malmö Nässjö - Falköping, the stretch Nässjö - Katrine Holm was built as Östra stambanan.
History
In the mid-19th century, the Swedish Parliament decided to build a railway network consisting of trunk routes. It was above all to expand the rail lines coming from Stockholm to Gothenburg and Skåne. For Södra stambanan there were some conceivable termini: Ystad with the then-largest port in Sweden, Helsingborg by its proximity to Denmark and Malmö. The choice on today's route was, therefore, as the port of Malmö was closest to Copenhagen and since therefore the university town of Lund could be connected to the railway network. On 1 December 1856 of first section of Malmö to Lund was inaugurated in 1858 followed the route Höör. Two years later the route to Hässleholm and 1862 eventually led to Älmhult.
The next step was to determine the further route to the north in the direction of Småland. The fact that in this region prevails arduous terrain with many lakes and vast swamps, the track was not built by the city of Växjö, but a few miles west of the city, completely undeveloped area. This was also advantageous, since one one, as far as possible, just wanted to reach route with the building in order to overcome the Småland highlands with minimum effort. 1864, the then- shortened track was completed.
Norrköping begun - From the mid- 1860s was the Nässjö section. The section was completed in 1874 and tied in to the existing railway to Katrine Holm. In Katrineholm the Västra stambanan joins from Gothenburg to Stockholm.
Already from the beginning there was a lot of traffic on the new route. In order to meet the increasing number of passengers justice, some sections have been expanded to double track. This happened in 1901 between Malmö and Lund and 1904 between Lund and Hässleholm. It took until the end of World War II until further extensions could be realized. In 1958, the route to Norrköping was doppelspurig, 1964, the entire web to Katrine Holm. The electrification was already at the end of the war for the entire route.
Since 1995, the high-speed train is running on the X2000 Södra stambanan, thus shortening the travel time for the trip from Malmo to Stockholm on 4 1/ 2 hours. The section between Malmö and Lund heard today, according to number of passengers to the most traffic in Sweden. The trunk is used by Statens Järnvägar, regionally but also by other operators as Skånetrafiken and Östgötatrafiken.
Future
The following configuration options can be realized already by the Swedish Rail Administration Banverket or yet to be tested.
- In Alvesta the Södra stambana and the westbound Kust -till- Kustbana meet. An expansion of the station and the railway facilities should ensure a better connection of the two tracks.
- Between Arlöv and Malmö, the expansion from two to four tracks pairs is driven, as on this track the number of moves has doubled in the last five years primarily due to the Øresund connection. For the same reason, the Malmö Central Station is being rebuilt and dug the City Tunnel in Malmö.
- In Eslöv is an additional lane under construction, so as not to slow down passing trains by slower moving freight trains.
- Plans to increase the top speed between Gripenberg and Lund to 250 km / h
- The Vislanda station should be reopened to passenger traffic in 2014, a new passing loop to be built at Vätteryd.
- With a planning horizon to the year 2030, the Ostlänken is planned. It is a 150 km long two-lane railway line is to be realized between Järna and Linköping. He should better connect the regions of Östergötland and Södermanland with the Mälardalen and the Greater Stockholm area. In addition, it is hoped that an additional time savings between the cities of Malmö and Gothenburg and Stockholm, about one hour.