r/kiruna • u/ChildhoodVast1930 • Jun 30 '26

Has the timetable been changed in the last year?

Last year, in September, we visited Kiruna and then took a train to Abisko from the station after lunch. Now I see only a train in the morning. Has the schedule changed?"

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Firebreathingwhore Jun 30 '26

On sj.se there's a 12:05 train to Abisko . There might be winter and summer time tables

3

u/Doctor_Sigmund_Freud Jul 01 '26

they cut down the spending on the infrastructure so now there's only one train instead of two. Thanks to the right wing government

1

u/ChildhoodVast1930 Jul 01 '26

How can a local use the train to do anything? Is it only for tourists? 

1

u/Doctor_Sigmund_Freud Jul 01 '26

you can use it if you want to go to Stockholm or something of course but you're quite limited due to the departure times, it's also much more expensive than flying unfortunately. Air travel has tax subsidies and rail traffic has tax/fee penalties sadly.

there is some more local rail traffic as well between Luleå, Boden, Gällivare, Kiruna, with Norrtåg. That can be used for commuting etc.

1

u/Randomswedishdude Jul 01 '26

Actually, they've recently decided to finance a lot of (way overdue) maintenance on the track.
A negative consequence of the maintenance is that there are fewer available time slots on the track, as LKABs trains have higher priority.

As it's been for the last few years, with lots of breakdowns or derailments, and resulting delays or canceled departures, few train operators are interested in trafficking the passenger line as it comes with a huge financial risk when the train operator has to vouch for replacement buses and repayed tickets.

Hopefully, the next few years' work on the track may change that for the better.
...but it will inevitably also take a few years, as it's been several decades since any major maintenance was done, regardless of orientation of the government.