Snälltåget

Snälltåget[lower-alpha 1] is an open access railway company in Sweden with long-distance trains along the Southern Main Line in Sweden from Malmö to Stockholm as well as sleeper trains between Stockholm and Berlin and Malmö to the ski and hiking resorts in Jämtland county.

Snälltåget
Veolia train at Åre station before rebranding
Main Route(s)Southern Main Line
Other Route(s)Western Main Line, Öresund Line, Central Line & East Coast Line
Stations called at27
Parent companyTransdev
Other
Websitewww.snalltaget.se

History

Snälltåget was set up in 2006 (first departure January 31 2007) as Veolia Transport after partial deregulation of the Swedish rail network running ad hoc services. Regular weekend services began in 2009 (expanding to weekdays in 2010), after the network was fully deregulated, running in direct competition with the state-owned operator SJ. The summer night train extension to Berlin was launched in 2012 with the network rebranding as Snälltåget in 2013.[1]

From September 2016, a brand new fleet of Class 193 Vectron locomotives were added to replace the hired commonly used Hector Rail Class 242 Taurus and the Class 241 Traxx. Together with coaches from Germany, they started operation at 200 km/h, the first time for locomotives and railcars in Sweden.

Route

The main route is operated from Malmö to Stockholm via Lund, Hässleholm, Alvesta, Nässjö, Linköping and Norrköping throughout the year.[2] In hiking and skiing seasons, Snälltåget operates night trains to Åre and Storlien.

During the summer months a night train also operates from Malmö to Berlin. Until 2019 it operated with train ferry via Trelleborg to Sassnitz.[3] In 2020, this train and the ferry route was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. From June 2021 a modified night train over the Great Belt Fixed Link without ferry was launched, between Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin.[4][5][6]

In January 2022, a new overnight service from Malmö to Zell am See and other ski resorts in the Austrian Central Eastern Alps along the Salzburg-Tyrol Railway commenced.[7] It's (as of 2022) the longest train service within the European Union.

Owner

Snälltåget is owned by Transdev.

Notes
  1. The name is cognate to German Schnellzug, meaning fast train, although using an archaic meaning of snäll (the word means kind/nice in modern Swedish).

References
  1. "Snälltåget - About Us". Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  2. "Destinationer - Snälltåget". Snälltåget (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-01-26.
  3. "Ta Nattåget och upplev Berlin!" (in Swedish). Veolia Transport. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  4. "Night train Berlin - Stockholm". Snälltåget. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  5. Transdev: Launch on June 27 of the first Snälltåget night train linking three European capitals Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin Transdev 23 June 2021
  6. Snälltåget launches night train between Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin International Railway Journal 28 June 2021
  7. Snälltaget launches overnight train from Malmö to the Alps International Railway Journal 1 February 2022
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.