Infrastructure for Northern Sweden's Green Shift: Planning Boden-Luleå Double Track
"We have previously looked at the possibilities for cutting lead times to speed up the work, and we believe that we can shorten the timespan with two years, meaning that we are facilitating a construction start around 2029," says Helena Eriksson, Regional Director for the North in the Swedish Transport Administration. (Photo: Peter Jonsson)
The Swedish Transport Administration has secured funds to develop railway plans for a double track between Boden and Luleå in Northern Sweden. The funding for the construction itself has not yet been secured. Still, the Transport Administration is now speeding up the work, which will be important to the major industrial projects planned in the region.
The Swedish Transport Administration has now secured funds to develop railway plans for a double track between Boden and Luleå, located west in Norrbotten, Northern Sweden.
"This means that we will soon start working on developing the plans. We have previously looked at the possibilities for cutting lead times to speed up the work, and we believe that we can shorten the timespan with two years, meaning that we are facilitating a construction start around 2029," says Helena Eriksson, Regional Director for the North in the Swedish Transport Administration, in a press release.
Developing the railway plans is estimated to cost about SEK 200 million. The total cost to build a double track on the line is estimated to be about SEK 5 billion.
The Transport Administration concurrently emphasizes that they lack funds for the construction itself.
Industrialization of Northern Sweden
Extensive industrialization is currently taking place in Northern Sweden, with many significant investments in fossil-free production and electrification.
Several of the major projects are located along the Iron Ore Line. Although the Boden-Luleå does not officially belong to this railway line, it attaches to the Iron Ore Line in Boden – and many of the industrial projects are connected to the Port of Luleå.
In Boden, H2 Green Steel, i.a., is planning the construction of a steel plant, where the company is estimating an annual production of five million tonnes of green steel by 2030. Many major projects are planned in Luelå, within the mineral industry, among others, as well as a large-scale port development, which will be significant for the shipping of products.
Estimates up to 91 trains every day
The Swedish Transport Administration emphasizes that the Boden-Luleå railway line is one of the stretches where capacity needs to be increased and points to the fact that the companies connected to the green shift see the development of railway infrastructure as a prerequisite for future operation.
A forecast for 2030 estimates that there will not be enough capacity on the single-tracked line for everyone who wants to operate on it. Several establishments will then be in the works, and the Swedish Transport Administration, therefore, assesses that there is a need for a complete double-track between Luleå and Boden, the press release reads.
When H2 Green Steel is in full production in 2030, traffic on the Luleå-Boden stretch is expected to increase to a whopping 91 trains per day, which requires further increased capacity, according to a report from the Swedish Transport Administration.
The report was commissioned by the government, in which the Transport Administration analyzed measures in the transport infrastructure in Norrbotten and Västerbotten in connection with the larger industrial establishments and expansions in the counties.
