It rolled out just two years ago as a fast and environment-friendly alternative to flying between Oslo and Stockholm, but now Swedish train company SJ says it may need to shut down its high-speed service. SJ is unhappy over delays in infrastructure improvements on the Norwegian side of the border.
Norway’s own railroad, now called BaneNor, was supposed to replace overhead power lines starting around New Year, but the work was put off until October 2018. BaneNor also now expects the work will take three years instead of just two. That’s a major blow to the high-speed train line that’s been popular with passengers.
It all means a reduction of service over a longer period “and that’s not sustainable,” SJ boss Crister Fritzson wrote in a letter to both BaneNor and Norwegian Transport Minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen. Unless the plans can revert to what BaneNor and the former Jernbaneverket had informed him earlier, “I’ll have to decide that the high-speed Oslo-Stockholm service be shut down.” A response from the transport ministry was pending.
newsinenglish.no staff
