Sweden Night trains to Arctic Circle

[gordonthemoron]

It apears that trains north of Umea, including Night Trains, will no longer be run by SJ from 13/12/20. Who is going to be operating them from this date?

 

[Iskra]

Where have you got this information from?

SJ announces new route and timetable for Umeå overnight trains

Swedish state-owned operator SJ has announced the introduction of a new route and timetable for its Umeå overnight services.

www.railjournal.com

I think someone may be misinterpreting the following announcement, which doesn't say anything about the Arctic Circle Express;

SJ announces new route and timetable for Umeå overnight trains​

Oct 21, 2020
Written byOliver Cuenca
SWEDISH state-owned operator SJ has announced the introduction of a new route and timetable for its Umeå overnight services, which will shorten travel times and benefit residents of the Västerbotten and Västernorrland regions.

Related Posts​

Île-de-France orders 13 more tram-trains
Nov 16, 2020 | Fleet
ÖBB and Westbahn secure Austrian government support
Nov 16, 2020 | Financial
UIC to roll out new pan-European tariff distribution platform
Nov 15, 2020 |
VDV predicts €3.5bn revenue loss in 2021
Nov 14, 2020 | Metros
LA and Long Beach port railway purchases battery locomotive
Nov 14, 2020 | Locomotives
Under the new timetable which will begin on December 13, overnight trains from Umeå will depart at 19.40, reaching Gothenburg at 08.50, around 1h 35min earlier than under the current timetable. On weekends, the service will reach Gothenburg at 08.10, compared with 09.35 at present.
The Umeå – Stockholm service will depart at the same time, and will reach the capital at 05.15, with the opportunity to stay on the train.
The Umeå – Gothenburg and Umeå – Stockholm overnight services will operate as one train until reaching Sundsvall around midnight, where it will divide.
SJ says that the new route will offer towns between Umeå and Sundsvall an overnight service for the first time in years.

Operating loss​

The news comes as SJ reports an operating loss of SKr 289m ($US 33m) for the third quarter of this year, falling from an operating profit of SKr 198m for the same period in 2019. Net sales also declined by around a third, to SKr 1.36bn, compared with SKr 2.05bn for the third quarter of last year.
Although coronavirus travel restrictions were removed in June, SJ says that passenger numbers are yet to recover. The operator reports that journeys remain far below pre-pandemic levels, with footfall for the third quarter of this year around 52% lower than during the same period last year.
However, SJ also reports that punctuality during the third quarter has improved slightly compared with the same period last year. The improvement was driven by a 4% rise in punctuality for SJ’s long-distance services, to 86%.
SJ says that the results are primarily due to the low number of passengers currently travelling on its network due to the coronavirus pandemic. In particular, government recommendations to work from home have led to a significant reduction in commuter and business travel on the network.
Despite this, SJ says that in the long term it expects interest in climate-sensitive travel to continue to grow, and says that it will increase the frequency of several conventional services from November, due to higher demand.
SJ also has plans to launch an international overnight service from Stockholm, via Malmö, Copenhagen and Hamburg, to Berlin from 2021.
The operator also began operation of passenger services on six lines in central and northern Norway at the end of the second quarter. The contract is SJ’s first operation outside Sweden, and covers five regional routes and long-distance trains and overnight trains on the Trondheim – Bodø Nordlandsbanen and Oslo – Trondheim Dovrebanen routes.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Forget that, it's being taken over by Vy Nattåg

 

[Gloster]

The operator will be Vy Tag AB, which is the old Tagkompaniet, a subsidiary of Vy, which was Norwegian State Railways. [The a in Tag an the first a in Tagkompaniet should have a circle over them.]

Vy Nattag [again, there should be a circle over the second a] seems to be the brand or trading name.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Forget that, it's being taken over by Vy Nattåg

The operator will be Vy Tag AB, which is the old Tagkompaniet, a subsidiary of Vy, which was Norwegian State Railways. [The a in Tag an the first a in Tagkompaniet should have a circle over them.]

Vy Nattag [again, there should be a circle over the second a] seems to be the brand or trading name.

Vy (NSB) won the four-year package to run state-supported night trains from Stockholm to Luleå (north-east Sweden) and Narvik (north-west Norway), as well as a daytime train pair between Luleå and Narvik.

SJ retained the other state-supported night train package, from Stockholm to Duved in Jämtland, western Sweden (on the line towards Trondheim).

Both contracts start 13 December 2020.

In response to losing the Norrland package, SJ decided to launch a new un-subsidised night train to/from Umeå, which is on the route of the Norrland trains, about four hours south of Luleå. It’s now the largest city on the north-east coast, with 130,000 citizens in the municipality and a significant number of students too. This train will work in two portions, and in Sundsvall it will be marshalled into two trains with the night train to/from Duved in Jämtland for service to both Stockholm and Gothenburg.

(When they held both of the two state-supported night train concessions, SJ additionally offered through carriages on both trains to/from Gothenburg on a purely commercial basis. Losing the Norrland package jeopardised that arrangement, and caused some upset in Umeå and Norrland).

SJ's move could cause Vy some headaches, because SJ is the established provider in the north, and has a generally positive association with travellers here. SJ Prio points and credit cards have done a good job of engendering loyalty to SJ, and the new commercial trains between Umeå and Stockholm/Gothenburg offer slightly more attractive departure and arrival times in Umeå and Gothenburg, as well as a new late evening connection that goes from Umeå to Sundsvall before midnight.

Importantly for Vy, Trafikverket is now in a race to refurbish a large number of the rolling stock owned by the state for the subsidised services. This fleet is old and many carriages were taken out of service over the years due to problems with damp, notably around the showers. SJ was able to use their own stock to make up for this shortfall, pocketing compensation from Trafikverket in the process, hence the characteristic mix of black (SJ) and grey/white/red (Trafikverket) carriages in the current Norrland sleepers.

Järnvägar.nu has a detailed article about this published a few months ago. They are confident they can refurbish enough rolling stock for Vy to start their services next month with enough carriages, but only time will tell. Google Chrome on desktop (but not mobile) can translate it quite well: https://jarnvagar.nu/project/tre-manader-till-start/

(Edited a couple of times to add links and photos)

 

[Gloster]

In the tre-manader-till-start article the comments about the state of the coaches hardly does credit to Trafikverket’s stewardship of them.

I am unsurprised that they did not go ahead with the proposal to start from Karlstad or Oslo. Karlstad is only the twentieth largest place in Sweden and, although it is the centre for a large area, Varmland [two dots over the a] is fairly sparsely populated. And who would travel from Oslo? Norwegians heading for Narvik or the far north would be more likely to fly.

 

[jamesontheroad]

And who would travel from Oslo? Norwegians heading for Narvik or the far north would be more likely to fly.

Vy and Hurtigruten are apparently working on plans for circuits of Norway without any domestic flying: cruise up the coast and return by train via Sweden.

 

[JonasB]

Importantly for Vy, Trafikverket is now in a race to refurbish a large number of the rolling stock owned by the state for the subsidised services. This fleet is old and many carriages were taken out of service over the years due to problems with damp, notably around the showers.

Trafikverket has also asked the ministry of Finance for the necessary funds required to buy new vehicles for the night trains.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Varmland [two dots over the a]

Linguistic thread drift alert... I know there is at least one native Swedish speaker in the forum, so I offer these points only as an amateur of Swedish who wants to help English speaking visitors.

Since I now work in Sweden I have the slightly odd experience of using a Nordic keyboard, which has ä, å and ö buttons (and new places for almost all the grammatical characters). If you’re using iOS or Mac OS, pressing and holding the a key will reveal all the related characters.

Fun fact: these three are not accented versions of the letter a. They are entirely separate characters which are added to the end of the Swedish alphabet (and the back of dictionaries). Along with the letter y, Swedish has nine vowels, many of which have multiple sounds and lengths.

This video is a great explainer - and the good news is that it is nowhere near as complicated as Danish

In the context of this thread, ä is lighter and more “open” sound that a, so Jämtland sounds like YAMMT-lannd.

(Emphasis almost always on the first syllable in Swedish)

Umeå and Luleå are two of many coastal northern cities which end with å, suggesting the flow of a river out into the sea. They sit on the Ume and Lule rivers respectively. The å sound is made with a wide open mouth and a kind of very slight “orrr” closure. To an English ear: OOO-mey-or / LOO-ley-or. Locals will often drop the last syllable.

Join me next week for Skellefteå and Örnsköldsvik!

 

[Gloster]

As I have a reasonably good knowledge of Swedish and Danish (and a reading knowledge of Norwegian), I am aware that the various Scandinavian letters are proper letters, not just accents. I have only just gravitated to a small iPad and this does not appear to have any alternative key board. Previously I sent all my Scandinavian correspondence using my local library’s system, but they have just upgraded it and haven’t incorporated the alternative alphabets. When I used a normal typewriter, after finishing a letter I used to have to go through it with a fine black pen adding the various dots, circles, oblique slashes and bits of the letter e.

it could be added that these letters are to be found at the end of the alphabet after Z in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish, the last of which is very different to the other three.

 

[JonasB]

Join me next week for Skellefteå and Örnsköldsvik!

There is a reason Örnsköldsvik is also known as Ö-vik

I have only just gravitated to a small iPad and this does not appear to have any alternative key board.

Have you tried to press and hold "A" for example? That should give you Ä, Å and other letters.

 

[bspahh]

As I have a reasonably good knowledge of Swedish and Danish (and a reading knowledge of Norwegian), I am aware that the various Scandinavian letters are proper letters, not just accents. I have only just gravitated to a small iPad and this does not appear to have any alternative key board.

This explains how you can change the keyboard layout on an iPad

Add or change keyboards on iPad

On iPad, add keyboards for different languages and change the layout of your keyboard.

support.apple.com

 

[HamworthyGoods]

I would suspect reduction in demand bought by the Pandemic will help any temporary shortage of vehicles.

 

[rf_ioliver]

As I have a reasonably good knowledge of Swedish and Danish (and a reading knowledge of Norwegian), I am aware that the various Scandinavian letters are proper letters, not just accents. I have only just gravitated to a small iPad and this does not appear to have any alternative key board. Previously I sent all my Scandinavian correspondence using my local library’s system, but they have just upgraded it and haven’t incorporated the alternative alphabets. When I used a normal typewriter, after finishing a letter I used to have to go through it with a fine black pen adding the various dots, circles, oblique slashes and bits of the letter e.

it could be added that these letters are to be found at the end of the alphabet after Z in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish, the last of which is very different to the other three.

Ä and Ö occur in Finnish, Å doesn't but due to Finland being part of Sweden for a very long time and Swedish being an official language here Å is part of the Finnish alphabet (kind of like J has now found its way into the Welsh alphabet). Sometimes outside of the Nordic countries you might be ae and oe substituting ä and ö in names - this is getting rarer now as a) people know how to make accented characters and b) UTF is a lot more common than ASCII

As for pronounciation, Finnish Swedish is a lot clearer than Swedish as spoken in Sweden. My Swedish cousins think Finnish Swedish sounds like "properly pronounced 1950s Swedish"

As for Finnish - completely different language family, not even Indo-European and a great one to learn.

 

[Gloster]

As for Finnish - completely different language family, not even Indo-European and a great one to learn.

Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language and is closest to Estonian, Karelian and some dialects from the westernmost parts of Russia. It is more distantly related to Hungarian, some central Russian dialects and Sami. The split between the two main parts took place several thousand years ago (2,000?), although an English translation in one of the Helsinki museums described this as recently (which it is in linguistic terms).

I hope I am remembering what I learnt many years ago: l never studied Finnish, but needed a bit of background to Swedish economic and cultural history. Besides, having used my last batch of BR international free passes to visit Imatra, I had acquired an interest in Finland, although not enough to learn the language.

 

[JonasB]

I would suspect reduction in demand bought by the Pandemic will help any temporary shortage of vehicles.

On the other hand, night trains has some advantages. A private compartment is probably one of the best ways to travel during a pandemic.

 

[jamesontheroad]

It should be noted that SJ has not operated night trains north of Boden (or daytime trains north of Kiruna) since the late spring / early summer, due to Norwegian border restrictions and the drop-off in traffic. As far as I know, Vy are planning to resume service all the way to Narvik from the start of their concession on 13 December.

 

[JonasB]

I would suspect reduction in demand bought by the Pandemic will help any temporary shortage of vehicles.

It seems that while all kinds of public transport have seen reduced passenger numbers, the night trains have seen the smallest reduction. And they have in fact been fully booked for large parts of the summer. (Note that they haven't sold all beds and seats, so fully booked still mean fewer passengers than a normal year.)

Source: https://jarnvagar.nu/project/battre-tider-for-sjs-nattag/ (In Swedish, but Google translate will do a decent job.)

 

[jamesontheroad]

This week's winter storm caused a lot of disruption to the Norrland night trains. SJ decided to cancel their trains completely, but on Tuesday night Vy pressed ahead, diverting trains away from the Västernorrland coast but still ending up with three out of four trains becoming stranded in sub-zero conditions.

Unrelated to this, complaints are now being raised by passengers about what they perceive are dramatic increases in prices since Vy took over the Norrland sleeper from SJ. This article was published on SVT Norrbotten (the northernmost local news in Sweden, around Luleå etc) about high prices for sleeper compartments, and the decision of Vy to allow six-berth couchettes to be fully occupied throughout coronatimes. Vy has responded here, saying prices fluctuate with demand.

 

[Gloster]

This week's winter storm caused a lot of disruption to the Norrland night trains. SJ decided to cancel their trains completely, but on Tuesday night Vy pressed ahead, diverting trains away from the Västernorrland coast but still ending up with three out of four trains becoming stranded in sub-zero conditions.

Unrelated to this, complaints are now being raised by passengers about what they perceive are dramatic increases in prices since Vy took over the Norrland sleeper from SJ. This article was published on SVT Norrbotten (the northernmost local news in Sweden, around Luleå etc) about high prices for sleeper compartments, and the decision of Vy to allow six-berth couchettes to be fully occupied throughout coronatimes. Vy has responded here, saying prices fluctuate with demand.

Nice of the well wrapped up reporter to keep the train staff talking while they are out in the cold.

If I remember correctly, there was a case a year or two ago on the Malmbanan where passengers on a delayed train were given ice-cream by a local shop. The ice-cream would have been thrown away otherwise as the freezer had broken.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Starting 1 April 2022, one of the two Norrland night trains operated by Vy (NSB) will use the wye-track off the main line at Bastruträsk to serve Skellefteå.

Provisional times are

Northbound: Stockholm 20:44, Umeå 06:03, Skellefteå 08:40, Luleå 12:54.
Southbound: Luleå 17:00, Skellefteå 21:10, Umeå 23:45, Stockholm 08:40.

Skellefteå is the largest Swedish city without passenger rail service, although the branch line is still used for freight. The first phase of the Norrbotniaban from Umeå to Luleå will reach Skellefteå around 2031. Skellefteå is the site of a new EV battery factory being built by Northvolt which will supply components to companies in the Volkswagen group and others. As a result the city has grown very rapidly in the last few years. Vy will compete with SAS who serve the small airport about 20km south of Skellefteå.

SVT Västerbotten report on the news here: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasterbotten/nattaget-borjar-kora-till-skelleftea

Nattåget börjar köra till Skellefteå i april 2022​

Nattåget börjar köra via Skellefteå i april nästa år. Staden har inte haft persontrafik på rälsen på många år.
– I väntan på Norrbotniabanan tar vi och Skellefteå kommun saken i egna händer, säger Dag Lokrantz-Bernitz, vd för Vy Tåg.

PS. If you need help pronuncing Skellefteå, may I recommend (cued up from 9:23)...

 

[Gloster]

Starting 1 April 2022, one of the two Norrland night trains operated by Vy (NSB) will use the wye-track off the main line at Bastruträsk to serve Skellefteå.

Provisional times are

Northbound: Stockholm 20:44, Umeå 06:03, Skellefteå 08:40, Luleå 12:54.
Southbound: Luleå 17:00, Skellefteå 21:10, Umeå 23:45, Stockholm 08:40.

I presume that the northbound train will take the south to east curve south of Bastuträsk and run directly to Skellefteå, run around there and then take the east to north curve before serving Bastuträsk (and v.v, for the southbound service). If it was England there would be howls of outrage from the inhabitants of Bastuträsk about the extra journey time.

 

[JonasB]

I presume that the northbound train will take the south to east curve south of Bastuträsk and run directly to Skellefteå, run around there and then take the east to north curve before serving Bastuträsk (and v.v, for the southbound service). If it was England there would be howls of outrage from the inhabitants of Bastuträsk about the extra journey time.

They will probably not be too happy about it. But the 320 inhabitants in Bastuträsk will struggle to be heard over the 36000 in Skellefteå.

PS. If you need help pronuncing Skellefteå, may I recommend (cued up from 9:23)...

Once you've mastered Skellefteå, you can try västkustskt

 

[30907]

Starting 1 April 2022, one of the two Norrland night trains operated by Vy (NSB) will use the wye-track off the main line at Bastruträsk to serve Skellefteå.

Provisional times are

Northbound: Stockholm 20:44, Umeå 06:03, Skellefteå 08:40, Luleå 12:54.
Southbound: Luleå 17:00, Skellefteå 21:10, Umeå 23:45, Stockholm 08:40.

That seems a very good move, though the inhabitants of Luleå might grumble at the extra 2 hours on the journey - perhaps if this is successful the track authority might be persuaded to increase the line speed on the branch?
I'm also struck by the extra hour on the northbound time from Stockholm to Umeå.

 

[JonasB]

That seems a very good move, though the inhabitants of Luleå might grumble at the extra 2 hours on the journey - perhaps if this is successful the track authority might be persuaded to increase the line speed on the branch?
I'm also struck by the extra hour on the northbound time from Stockholm to Umeå.

There is a bit of maintenance planned on the branch line that will increase the speed a bit, but not much. With only freight trains one the line there has not been any reason for the speed limit to be more than 100 km/h, but that might change with a bit of luck.

For those who want to see how it looked like the last time the night train stopped in Skellefteå there are some images here: https://www.postvagnen.com/sjk-forum/showthread.php/12723-T44-med-sovvagnen-från-Skelleftehamns-övre This was before the line was electrified and the wye track was built, so a diesel loco pulled the coaches from Skelleftehamn and Skellefteå to Bastuträsk where they were coupled to a southbound sleeper.

 

[jamesontheroad]

For those who want to see how it looked like the last time the night train stopped in Skellefteå there are some images here: https://www.postvagnen.com/sjk-forum/showthread.php/12723-T44-med-sovvagnen-från-Skelleftehamns-övre This was before the line was electrified and the wye track was built, so a diesel loco pulled the coaches from Skelleftehamn and Skellefteå to Bastuträsk where they were coupled to a southbound sleeper.

These photos are lovely; thanks for sharing that link. I didn't know that the Skellefteå portion went all the way to Skelleftehamn (Skellefteå Harbour). Since Northvolt's vast factory and associated campus of peripheral suppliers is east of town, one cannot help but daydream that there might be passenger traffic east of Skellefteå Central.

 

[30907]

For those who want to see how it looked like the last time the night train stopped in Skellefteå there are some images here: https://www.postvagnen.com/sjk-forum/showthread.php/12723-T44-med-sovvagnen-från-Skelleftehamns-övre

Interesting that the journey to the junction took nearly an hour then as well.

 

[ainsworth74]

I was just having a poke around on the Vy Nattåg website for Stockholm to Narvik and it seems to be totally sold out on whatever day you look at? Or have I missed something obvious...

 

[jamesontheroad]

I was just having a poke around on the Vy Nattåg website for Stockholm to Narvik and it seems to be totally sold out on whatever day you look at? Or have I missed something obvious...

One of the few "hard" restrictions imposed by the Swedish government is that long distance trains cannot be booked more than 50% capacity. Vy did not interpret this consistently at start, and there were some public grumbles around the start of their concession because in the transition from SJ to Vy, the COVID-19 mitigation procedures still led to strangers sharing couchette compartments. I think things are now more smoothly applied, and therefore the trains will "sell out" at 50% of their actual capacity much sooner than usual.

PS. Here is an article, in Swedish in Göteborgs Posten about this week's extension of the 50% rule: https://www.gp.se/nyheter/sverige/färre-platser-på-långresor-även-i-sommar-1.44720291

My translation:

The government introduced the so-called 50% rule on 14 February. This means that only half of the seats on long-distance trains and long-distance buses may be sold.

That rule would have applied until 31 May, but in a proposal that is now being sent out for consultation, the government proposes that it be extended over the summer until 15 August.

 

[ainsworth74]

Aha thank you that probably explains why I'm struggling to find any trains that aren't sold out!