SK989

Yes, you're right. The concession was extended until 2050 a few years ago it seems. So yes - we're stuck with this for a long time. The only change likely to happen, however not very likely, is the building of new tracks in narrow gauge (3 Swedish feet or 891 mm) which is used by the surburban trainsystem Roslagsbanan. There have been studies to extend the narrow gauge system Roslagsbanan to Arlanda airport and to build a new station (above ground I think) next to the parking garage close to terminal 5. The main purpose for such an extension would be to make travel easier between the northeastern suburbs like Täby and Vallentuna and Arlanda, however the trains would run to central Stockholm with a total journey time from Arlanda of about 40-45 minutes. The terminus of Roslagsbanan is today at Stockholm östra station (Stockholm East) at Valhallavägen, there are however plans to close the east station and change the terminus of Roslagsbanan to Stockholm Central by building new underground tracks via Odenplan station. But it's unlikely it would be build a long time before 2050 anyway. The normal SL fare system would apply to that line as it does to the entire Roslagsbanan system.

GUWonder

Thanks for the info SK989.

jamesbrownontheroad

The cost of the entire project was probably inflated by the nature of a public-private partnership. The 19km Arlandaban includes 5km of tunnels blasted through the rock below the airport, including a complex grade-separated crossover for northbound Arlanda Express trains to branch off the Arlandaban south of Arlanda Central then cross over to Arlanda South and Arlanda North. You can see the arrangement in plan view (albeit without grades) on OpenStreetMap here.

Building three completely separate stations, one for mainline and commuter trains and two just for the premium Arlanda Express was an absurd decision given then size of Arlanda. A single tunnel with one station (perhaps with south-facing terminating platforms for the express trains) would have been cheaper, but it would also have brought the mainline, commuter and premium trains into more obvious competition. Easier to charge a premium if you don't realise that there are cheaper or slower options departing from another station.

Fredrik74

At LHR they now have Heathrow Express and Elizabeth Line leaving from the same tracks. I think it's similar from OSL where there are different tracks but essentially the same spot.

I wonder how HEX in particular is doing now that there's basically zero advantage after Elizabeth Line opened beyond Paddington?

CPH-Flyer

HEX is doing reasonably well the times I have been to London since the lizzy line opened. Since we have an office within 5 minutes of the HEX, I usually stick with HEX. But they are probably being benefited quite a bit by the frequent service interruptions and extra train changes that the lizzy line offers.

Last time I was in London I was going around for a few appointments before leaving for Heathrow, the lizzy line was entirely suspended at least 2.5 hours without the service bulletins in the tube showed anything but good service. I guess the lizzy line is still in the hypercare period, so it does not count if it is suspended.
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GUWonder

HEX is faster and more reliable. And if booking it far enough in advance, it has been much cheaper than the Arlanda Express adult ticket.

There are indeed the OSL-serving local/regional trains and also the OSL Flytoget coming into the same area at OSL. Worked out about equally reliable for me over the years, but I could probably say just about the same thing about using bus 583 and taking the commuter trains to/from Marsta.

Nick Art

Interestingly the Flytoget trains at OSL will be merged into Vy very soon, the competition hence vanishing completely.

As an avid flytoget youth ticket enjoyer (cheaper than the cheapest fares on the normal trains) I will miss them.

GUWonder

Flytoget is cheaper than Arlanda Express and has turned out to be yet another thing that is cheaper in Norway nowadays than in Sweden.

While Arlanda Express had to cut back service in part of June before getting back to normal operations, Flytoget was getting ready to run extra frequencies and deliver all night service between OSL and the Oslo S station in the city.

Im a new user

When Arlandabanan was constructed in the 1990s, the East Coast Line got four tracks between Stockholm and Skavstaby (where the Arlanda Line begins). Before that, there were only two tracks. Wasn't the construction of these tracks also part of the Arlanda Line deal? Currently, the slow SL trains use the inner tracks (where there are platforms) while fast Arlanda Express, Mälartåg and SJ trains use the outer tracks (without platforms).

nussle

My understanding of the Atrain is that it is owned by Macquarie bank (known by us as the vampire kangaroo) and that makes perfect sense to me if you are unlucky enough to use Sydney airport you will rapidly see that same idea with a special cost for arriving by train and parking at extreme rates. Some folk take the train and get off a stop before and walk it.

If the whole idea is to encourage that bloody arlanda express then I wish the damn thing did not exist. I am in the north and the idea that I am being charged extra to encourage people to use a service I have never used and will never use pisses me off somewhat.

Bus 801 from Uppsala city to Arlanda seems to work every half hour and it has stopped the extra charge last time I looked.

The train SL or the SJ from uppsala/Gavle is good but very expensive because of the platform avgift charge in Arlanda. I wish the 801 went into Knivsta then I would train to Knivsta and catch the 801. It does touch the outskirts but its a long walk to its stop close the the E4.

Im a new user

If the idea is to avoid paying the A-train fee, then you could take bus 801 to the outskirts of Knivsta (Ar-terminalen) and change to bus 102 to central Knivsta, or you could take bus 583 (or 579) to Märsta and then take the train from there. However, paying the A-train fee to take the train is much faster.

If you're going all the way to Gävle, then you might wish to take bus 801 all the way to Uppsala and change to the train there. As I understand it, when UL switches from five zones to one zone next year, the price for 801 Arlanda-Uppsala followed by Mälartåg Uppsala-Gävle will drop to just 39 kr.

Bus 801 briefly had an extra charge, but it was soon dropped again. It only applied to single tickets, not to monthly passes.

nussle

Its not really a case of trying to avoid their costs although it is a bit of a shocker when you compare it to the actual cost of the train ticket down there, the reality is that no service is being provided even to today.

I just looked on the UL app for a train to Arlanda and the only option is the bus. The trains are still not stopping to the airport at least as far as the app is concerned. Bus 801 I saw has long lines to it in Uppsala central station as it was not designed to cope with this level of service.

The fixed price for a taxi from the north of uppsala has gone up about 1/3 but they will still offer a fixed price. One of our guests came into the factory the other day saying that taxi's in Sweden are very expensive. I enquired, taxi from Arlanda to Uppsala 1350SEK....about triple the normal price of 450SEK.

I dont have any infomation when the train will return to Arlanda and I am not sure what the problem actually is. I used the service from Stockholm central to Uppsala last week and it went through the arlanda station but did not stop. So, I dont understand what the actual issue is.

jamesbrownontheroad

Some more details on the derailment from the Swedish industry news source Järnvägar.nu: https://jarnvagar.nu/arlanda-express-ur-spar-i-vaxel/

A set of points (or railroad switch) providing access to the Arlanda Express depot appears to have changed while train 7900 was passing over them. 900 meters of track two sets of points were destroyed. The train was travelling at 150km/h when the accident happened. An 80km/h speed limit is operating on one track, but the second track will not be operational until August.

Im a new user

If the queue to bus 801 is too long, you could take bus 583 (or if the queue is too long, bus 579) to Märsta. In Märsta, take either the SL train or the SJ train to Uppsala. UL won't show this because bus 583 doesn't serve Uppsala County. The bus takes around 15 minutes and the train takes just below 20 minutes.

Normally, this requires an SL ticket for bus 583, a UL ticket (zones 1, 2, 5) for the SL train and an SJ ticket for the SJ train. However, because of the problems at Arlanda, the train companies decided to accept each others' tickets until this is fixed, so just a UL ticket for zones 1, 2 and 5 might be fine for the whole trip.

pseudoswede

After further review, I've decided that Arlanda Express is only a good deal if you either need to get into town ASAP or you are staying at an on-airport hotel. It probably helps that my kids are older now.

I booked two rooms near Arlandastad (Connect Hotel Arlanda) for the evening before our 9am flight. My travel group was two adults, four 18-year-olds, and one 15-year-old. Based on the AE and hotel shuttle schedule compared to SL, the best I could've done would've been saving about 20 minutes at the cost of spending 940kr for six tickets. SL took about an hour, which included waiting 10 minutes at Märsta for the bus, which then took us to the stop about a 3-minute walk from the hotel--all for the cost of 223kr for seven tickets.