Boden – Haparanda railway line

Ground – Haparanda
Haparanda train station
Route number :	29
Course book range :	Haparanda – soil over Karungi: 32 (1982)
Route length:	169 km
Gauge :	1435 mm from Haparanda: also 1524 mm
Power system :	15 kV 16 2 / 3 Hz  ~
Top speed:	Bandel 120 Buddbyn – Boden central – Bodens södra: 120 km / h Bandel 137 (Buddbyn) –Morjärv: 160 km / h Bandel 132 (Morjärv) –Bredviken: 200 km / h Bandel 133 (Bredviken) - (Haparanda): 250 km /H
Operating points and routes
Legend from Luleå and Stockholm 1144.375 ground 1148.262 Buddbyn to Narvik 1163,421 Hundsjö 1170.561 Degerselet Råneälven 1176,360 Niemisel (formerly a person stop ) 1182,000 Mjöträsk 1183.762 Bjurå 1193.257 Avafors (formerly Person Stop ) 1196,364 Gåsträsken 1211,694 Sågbäcken 1217.673 0.000 Morjärv (formerly person stop ) 37.1 m.ö.h. Morjärvträsket old route out of order Kalixälven 1222,800 Övermorjärv Räktjärv 46.0 m.ö.h. 1235.200 Östra Flakaträsk 54.3 m.ö.h. Tunnel (92 m) 1246,809 Vitvattnet 108.1 m.ö.h. 1250,700 Bodträsk 77.5 m.ö.h. Storträskälven Kukasjoki 1263.772 Lappträsk Haukijoki 1271,600 Karrbäck 40.0 m.ö.h. Karresjoki Vuomajoki 1279,600 Karhuvaara / Tossa 37.5 m.ö.h. from Övertorneå 1284.749 Karungi 27.1 m.ö.h. 1285.700 Stop stables (only students, until May 26, 1963) 1288.500 Övre Kukkola (stop stalls only for schoolchildren, 1949-15. June 1951, then "hpr" until May 26, 1963) 1291.260 Lomkärr (December 1, 1918– May 30, 1976) 28.4 m.ö.h. 1292,043 Stop stables (at times only students 1949–12 May 1968) 1294.270 Kukkolaforsen (1928-15 Sept. 1980) 1298,600 Övre Vojakkala 13.7 m.ö.h. (1936–1948 Vojakkala, then "hpr" until May 12, 1968) 1300.374 Bäverbäck (December 1, 1918– June 12, 1968) 1301,900 Nedre Vojakkala ( "hpr" 1948–31 May 1987) 1304,200 Mattila (December 1, 1918–1958) 1306.990 Granvik 1310000 Gravel pit 8,353 Bruksberget 19.734 Kosjärv 28.092 Rian Falkberget Tunnel (332 m) Kalixälven ~ 37.5 Kalix Kalix industriområde 38,560 Kalix 42.120 Bredviken Karlsborg Karlsborgsbruk 50.283 Stensundberget 66.113 Vuonoskogen 74.733 Keräsjoki 1310.671 old route out of order 85,783 888,100 Haparanda (formerly person stop) 11.4 m.ö.h. Haparanda hamn (1915 to 1919) 887.236 Torne älv , Sweden / Finland 1312.3 Röyttä (Torneå ironworks from 1930) 884,700 Tornio / Torneå (formerly a person stop) to Oulu to Kolari
Legend “Hpr” = Rälsbusshållplats / stop for rail buses only

The Boden – Haparanda railway is an electrified railway line in Sweden . It leads from Boden to Haparanda and is only operated in freight traffic . In 2012, a new route was opened between Morjärv and Haparanda, which almost completely includes the route of the former branch line from Morjärv to Karlsborgsbruk .

Since 1919 there has been a connection from Haparanda to Tornio in Finland by means of four-rail tracks on normal and Russian broad gauge .

history

Original route

The first line was built in sections from 1900 to 1919 between Sweden and the then Grand Duchy of Finland , part of the Russian Empire . It is a so-called Mellanriksbana . These were routes connecting Norway and Sweden or Sweden and Finland .

The opening of the individual sections took place:

• Boden– Niemisel (32 km) on October 1, 1900 (prov. Freight traffic since winter 1899/1900)
• Niemisel – Morjärv (41 km) on August 1, 1902
• Morjärv- Lappträsk (46 km) freight service on December 1, 1910 / passenger on December 15, 1910
• Lappträsk– Karungi (21 km) on July 1, 1913
• Karungi – Jylhäkoski (12 km) prov. Freight traffic on April 27, 1915
• Jylhäkoski – Vojakkala (4 km) prov. Freight traffic on May 5, 1915
• Vojakkala – Haparanda (10 km) prov. Freight traffic on May 17, 1915
• Karungi – Haparanda prov. Passenger traffic on June 18, 1915
• Haparanda – Haparanda hamn (1 km) prov. Freight traffic on June 18, 1915
• Haparanda – Haparanda hamn (1 km) prov. Passenger traffic on January 21, 1916
  • The train operation on the section from Karungi to Haparanda hamn was handled by the construction company Statens Järnvägsbyggnader (SJB), and SJ did not operate the train until December 5, 1915
• Karungi – Haparanda official start of operations on December 1, 1918
• Haparanda– Tornio on October 6, 1919

Karungi train station

Because of the border control and because all travelers had to change because of changing lanes, the reception building in Haparanda was one of the largest in Sweden.

Second World War

During the Second World War , the volume of traffic on the route was highest. Volunteers traveled to the Winter War , Finnish children came to Sweden and the Swedish military monitored traffic. The railroad was important for supplying Finland during the war as it was the only rail link to a neutral country.

Cessation of traffic

On August 17, 1992, the SJ stopped passenger trains on the route between Boden and Haparanda. The route of the old Haparandabahn should be kept operational for another two years from 2012. In official Swedish sources, however, there is a reference to the fact that maintenance of the route has ceased and operations have ceased.

At 93 km, the section between Morjärv and Haparanda is the longest trolley line in Sweden. The starting point is Vitvattnet train station. From there the 30 km to Morjärv or the 63 km to Haparanda can be driven.

Morjärv – Karlsborgsbruk junction

Morjärv train station

Kalix train station

The woodworking industry in Karlsborg south of Kalix with the complex of sawmill and paper mill originally called Karlsborgsbruk required higher transport capacities in the 1950s in order to remove raw wood. In addition, there was high unemployment in Norrbotten , so that the construction of the branch line from Morjärv to Kalix was also decided as a labor market project. The route of this branch line had already been a variant in the planning for the Haparanda line, but it was ultimately led via Karungi . The extension from Kalix to Karlsborg was originally built as an industrial connection by the later AssiDomän AB (today Sveaskog ), a state-owned manufacturer of corrugated cardboard and packaging material, to which the paper mill belonged at that time, at its own expense.

The most important engineering structures along the route are the 332-meter-long Falkberget tunnel and the 186-meter-long bridge over Kalixälven . The inauguration of the 30-kilometer route took place on November 20, 1961 for general freight traffic. At the same time, traffic on the nine-kilometer siding to Karlsborgsbruk began.

In connection with the formation of Banverket , the management of the private connection to Karlsborgsbruk was transferred to Banverket in 1988. On January 1, 2007, general freight traffic ended on the route. Since then, only block trains have run here . The operation had already been carried out by TGOJ since 2005 , which hauled the trains with locomotives of the T66 and TMZ series. The end point of the route was now called Karlsborgsbruk Norrbotten , in the meantime it was also known as Karlsborgsverken and Karlsborgsbruk .

Special events

The route was used by Lenin in 1917 to get from his exile in Switzerland via Germany to Russia with the help of the central powers of the German Reich and the tolerance of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , where he came to power in the October Revolution .

→ Main article : Lenin's journey in a sealed car

Nya Haparandabanan

Redevelopment

The new Haparandabahn was inaugurated on August 29, 2012. Your route is single-track , electrified throughout and designed for an axle load of 25 tons. Since it was funded by the European Union , the railway line has been prepared for operation with ETCS Level 2 . However, the route was initially equipped with conventional signaling technology that only allowed speeds of up to 90 km / h. ETCS Level 2 went into operation on December 16, 2013.

Almost all of the new line uses the Morjärv – Karlsborgsbruk line. Shortly before its southern end in Bredviken , it branches off to the east on a 42 km long new line and only reaches the old Haparandabahn again shortly before Haparanda. In contrast to this, the new route is less steep and winding. In the new section, crossing stations were built in Bredviken and Vuonoskogen . This section is designed for 250 km / h, the expansion section between Boden and Bredviken for up to 200 km / h.

The new connection cost 3.6 billion Swedish kronor (approx. 420 million euros ). In relation to the costs, the equipment as a high-speed line and the double signaling, the traffic is modest: passenger traffic should not be included. There is currently a pair of freight trains every working day that covers the entire route. In addition, there is freight traffic between Boden and a large paper mill at Kalix. Increased traffic with Russia and Swedish and Finnish industrial companies with heavy traffic, such as Stora Enso and Outokumpu (formerly Avesta), are expected as future customers. The Chinese owners of Volvo are examining the export of future Chinese-made vehicles through Russia, Finland and Sweden via the Norwegian port of Narvik to the USA . This connection would use the Boden – Haparanda railway line.

The freight traffic is carried out by Green Cargo with locomotives of the series Rd .

Passenger train traffic

The Swedish company Norrtåg has been planning to resume passenger traffic on the Swedish section of the route since 2011 . For this purpose, the Luleå – Haparanda section is to be used by five pairs of trains a day, for which a travel time of 1:45 hours is planned. The values ​​for the X62 multiple unit were used for the calculation . The start of passenger traffic on the route would have been realistic at the beginning of 2014 if the route had been completely electrified by then.

Further investments on the route would be necessary for passenger transport. According to a letter of intent from 2013, 20 million crowns would be required annually for the operation, of which the state would take over half. The region would have to bear the rest. In addition to the construction of platforms at least in Haparanda, Kalix and possibly Morjärv, the remaining parts of the line would have to be electrified.

On October 1st, 2016, Norrtåg, in collaboration with Tågkompaniet , carried out three test drives open to the public. The Finnish side does not want to resume passenger traffic on its three-kilometer non-electrified section. Norrtåg hoped that after the new Boden – Luleå shuttle train line opened in August 2017, a continuation to Haparanda 2018 would be realistic. Since March 31, 2019, Norrtåg has been using the section between Luleå and Boden with shuttle trains. Six pairs of trains run from Monday to Friday. Through a collaboration between 14 municipalities in Norrbotten and the regional transport authority, it is planned to drive the entire Luleå – Boden – Kalix – Haparanda route continuously from 2021 onwards.

It should also be noted that Tornio and Haparanda are in different time zones : Eastern European time applies in Finland , while the clocks in Sweden are set to CET .

The regional transport authority in Norrbotten, in consultation with the Norrbotten region and the municipalities concerned, decided to resume passenger traffic on the Luleå – Haparanda section, probably in spring 2021. For this, new platforms have to be built in Kalix and Haparanda. In Haparanda, the platforms will be built at the previous station, while in Kalix a new travel center will be built closer to the center, where the new bus station will also be set up. A new stop will be built at this transfer point by the end of 2020. The municipality of Kalix is ​​investing SEK 14 million for the expansion, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth ( Tillväxtverket ) is providing support amounting to SEK 12.8 million and Trafikverket is contributing SEK 5.2 million for the measures in Kalix.

Finnish connection

Four-rail track on the bridge over the Torne älv

A Swedish, standard-gauge train is just leaving the railway bridge over the Torne älv , only to enter the Haparanda train station immediately afterwards.

Railway infrastructure

The line is the only rail link between Sweden and Finland. The Finnish railway network is built in broad gauge (1524 mm), while the Swedish one uses the standard gauge (1435 mm). Between the Swedish border station Haparanda and the Finnish border station Tornio there is a four-rail track that runs over the railway bridge over the Torne River .

history

The station in Tornio was opened on October 16, 1903, when the line from Oulu reached its terminus here. The Torne älv between Haparanda and Tornio was crossed by boat for people and luggage. The traffic increased enormously in the war years of the First World War , especially when the provisional railway operations were started on the Swedish side. At that time, the river crossing for goods and people from Karungi was relocated here. Postverket built a cable car over the river in 1916 to transport mail . The Haparanda – Charlottenberg – Bergen line was for a time the main link between England and Russia. Between May 1916 and February 1917, a direct sleeping car ran between Haparanda and Bergen with a connection to the Bergen – Newcastle ship connection .

A special and unprecedented transport in Swedish railway history was carried out at the beginning of 1917, when the court train of the Russian Tsar's widow Maria Fjodorovna was brought over the Torne älv to Tornio. After carefully measuring the ice thickness, rails and sleepers were laid and then two wagons were brought from Sweden to Finland with a shunting locomotive. The car had changeable wheel flanges so that they could drive on both gauges. When the First World War broke out in 1914, the court train was in Denmark, the empress' country of birth. Maria Feodorovna traveled home via Karungi , while her train had to stay in Denmark, as the only rail connection to Russia was through the territory of the Russian enemy, Germany. The court train consisted of a total of eight cars: saloon and sleeping cars, a kitchen, power supply and staff car.

On April 1, 1919, the Haparanda – Torneå line was provisionally opened for freight traffic and on October 7 for general traffic.

Today's operation

Freight wagons are usually not rescheduled in the border stations , but the freight is reloaded. Today this is done separately by type of goods, either in Haparanda or Tornio. The reloading facility for covered goods wagons (especially for paper and cellulose ) and a large free-loading facility are located in Haparanda . In Tornio there is a container terminal and a transfer facility for liquids. One pair of freight trains has been traveling the route every day since 2016.

On May 29, 1988 the Finnish State Railways (VR) terminated the passenger train service between Tornio and Haparanda. On the Swedish side, it was discontinued on the old route in 1992.

literature

• The Haparandabahn has a future . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 6/2004, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 268 f.
• Christoph Grimm: "New Haparandabahn" inaugurated in Sweden . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 11/2012. ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 539.

Web links

Commons : Haparandabanan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• History of the route (swedish)
• New Haparandabahn (swed.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ JNB 2020 Bilaga 3 E STH per sträcka. (PDF) Utgåva 2019-06-26. trafikverket.se, June 26, 2019, p. 146 , accessed on July 21, 2019 (Swedish). 
2. ^ Boden-Morjärv-Haparanda-Torneå. (Haparandabanan). In: jarnvag.net. Retrieved August 15, 2015 (Swedish). Karungi – Haparanda / Torneå. Bandel 14, SJ district V. banvakt.se, accessed on August 15, 2015 (Swedish). 
    
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Nya tågplattformar banar väg för personal graphics mellan Luleå och Haparanda. In: kalix.se. Retrieved August 11, 2020 (Swedish). 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} opening and closing dates at historiskt.nu (swed.)
5. ↑ Grimm
6. ↑ Järnvägsnäts beskrivning 2013 Chapter 3 - Infrastructure. (PDF) trafikverket.se, accessed on April 2, 2018 (Swedish). 
7. ↑ Trampa dressin. riipibo.se, accessed August 28, 2018 (Swedish). 
8. ↑ This and the following information according to: Grimm.
9. ↑ ETCS goes live to Haparanda. railwaygazette.com, accessed August 15, 2015 . 
10. ↑ jst: Currently no norrbotiabahn . In: Eisenbahn-Revue3 / 2013, p. 143
11. ↑ Personal graphic med tåg Luleå-Uleåborg / Rovaniemi. (PDF) Norrtåg AB, September 2012, accessed November 3, 2016 (Swedish). 
12. ↑ Olle Tiderman: Norrtåg AB - Haparandabanan. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Norrtåg AB, September 22, 2011, archived from the original on November 4, 2016 ; Retrieved November 3, 2016 (Swedish). 
13. ↑ Olle Tiderman: Norrtågstrafik. (PDF) utmaningar och möjligheter för spårbunden trafik i kollektivtrafikens framtid och utveckling. Norrtåg AB, 2013, accessed November 3, 2016 (Swedish). 
14. ↑ Josefin Silverberg: Då kan första persontåget rulla på Haparandabanan. Norrbottens-Kuriren, April 6, 2015, accessed November 3, 2016 . 
15. ↑ Ny linje mot Finland? Norrtåg AB, accessed November 3, 2016 (Swedish). 
16. ↑ Tåg Luleå-Haparanda-Finland - verklighet eller dröm? Norrtåg AB, September 29, 2016, accessed April 2, 2018 (Swedish). 
17. ↑ Norrtågstrafik har fått tillökning - pendeltågstrafik mellan Luleå – Boden har startat. (PDF) In: norrtagab.se. P. 3 , accessed on July 20, 2019 (Swedish, Kvalitetsrapport kvartal 1/2019). 
18. ↑ Haparandabanan, Nya platform i Kalix och Haparanda. In: trafikverket.se. Retrieved August 11, 2020 (Swedish). 
19. ↑ Description at historiskt.nu (swed.)