Nick Art

Just a small warning for anybody travelling to Stockholm before June 7th, the trains to and from the airport are not running due to an accident.

The taxi-stand and the Flygbussen queue are completely overrun so plan with enough time.

Small tipp: The queue for the Flygbussen to Lilieholmen is tiny and it brings you close enough to the city to take the trains or a taxi.

As far as I'm concerned the way the airport/SJ/Arlanda Express are dealing with this is, or perhaps more precisely, not dealing with this, just shows how badly the situation is currently managed. There is barely any information, certainly not proactive and the remaining options are completely overrun as the infrastructure is just not built to handle this volume. Also, be prepared to be utterly ripped off by the taxi drivers as they will no longer honor the fixed price and will punch the meter up to the max.

It is interesting to see how much traffic was moved with the Arlanda Express and how badly the infrastructure suffers when it goes out of order.

GUWonder

Sort of got started discussing this here:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35294716-post7362.html

It’s been out of service since early Saturday morning.

Bolt — sort of like Uber — worked pretty well this evening to get to and from Arlanda by car.

In that thread, there was some reference to there not being much demand for Arlanda Express. Apparently that is not the take of everybody after this nearly week long outage.

All I get from Arlanda Express in terms of info is that they will refund.

Nick Art

I thought this topic would deserve its own thread and I was planning to move the posts discussing this in the café here, but I now realized that I haven't moved them :P

I got burned pretty badly by one of the taxis that ended up charging me over 2500 SEK as they refused to honour the fixed price once we arrived at the destination... Go figure, so I am slightly more unamused by this whole mess. :P

GUWonder

I was surprised that there was no thread about this and no discussion for many of the days this service has been out of service since the track/train incident early last Saturday morning. Hopefully, more become aware of this before arriving at or heading to ARN.

That unregulated taxi price paid sounds like you were subject to highway larceny. Did you agree on a fixed final taxi fare price with the driver before driving off in the taxi? I can’t even trust the supposed flat fare displays on Swedish taxis unless reading the fine print — and even then there could be unwelcome surprises. Bolt was under 600 SEK for the cheaper option, and no surprises.

the810

Personally I'd just take the bus to Märsta and train from there, unless I'm under a time pressure.

GUWonder

Bus 583 from ARN is pretty empty most often — and best boarded before it gets to T2 on the way to Marsta— but there are times when it can get pretty packed and luggage an issue in a way that luggage isn’t with Flygbussen.

There are a lot of taxis that hang at out ARN just waiting to rip off with crazy high prices just because they can prey upon traveler’s unfamiliarity or desperation. Even over a decade ago, I would sometimes run into cabbies at ARN who wanted to charge me 1200+ SEK for a ride that would have then typically cost closer to half of that at most when sticking to non-predatory taxi operators.

sydunipete

I've always felt ripped off by taxies in Stockholm. Once I told the driver I didn't want to buy the cab, just ride in it for a while!

But unless time is really tight I catch the bus to Marsta and Pendletag from there.

GUWonder

Ever since SL started accepting contactless bank cards and ApplePay and also now allows purchases of tickets on the SL app, taking bus 583 and the commuter train is easier than it used to be. But for people with a lot of luggage or some mobility issues, Flygbussen is at times the better idea of trying to get the right balance of value for money, time and comfort.

SK2751

Also for outsiders, like me. I wouldn't have known the 583 hack ... I did pay for Arlanda Express in the past. If you are coming in from another city this seems the only clearly advertised option.

pseudoswede

I'm a person who pays extra to spend as little time as possible on public transportation. Fortunately, there are usually good deals on Arlanda Express that make traveling with a family pretty inexpensive.

This trip, we need to head up to Uppsala once we land on Thursday. Are north-bound trains affected by this outage, too?

GUWonder

The trains to Uppsala were impacted at least initially, and instead it was off from ARN to Marsta by bus to go to Uppsala by train or take a bus or taxi from ARN. But word yesterday was June 7th should be normal with both these train services at ARN.

You’re definitely not alone in having taken Arlanda Express thinking it was the only non-taxi way to get into the city from the airport. Know lots of people who didn’t realize even for a long time that there were other options beside Arlanda Express and taxi. Even Stockholm locals often haven’t known there was a non-taxi, non-Arlanda Express, non-flygbussen way to get between central Stockholm and the airport.

FlyingMoose

I sure hope you both didn't pay by charging the fare back on your credit card and report this person to the police and transport authority? Those fraudulent taxi drivers are a plague in Stockholm and the exact reason you should never use regular taxis and always default to Uber. That is a 500% premium and pure fraud.

We've successfully had two license pulled of these parasites that took advantages of international colleagues. Report them here: https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/en/contact-us/

GUWonder

Thankfully, Arlanda Express is back in service. Hopefully, no more accidents.

Nick Art

I was planning to take the Flygbussen with the family, but on the promise of "standard pricing" mother jumped into a taxi and dragged us along against my protests and my better judgement.

Thank you for this. I was planning on writing this off as a learning experience, but based on this information I will be pursuing this.

GUWonder

Due to a change of schedule and a related rush, I’m back to using Arlanda Express this moment. I dislike paying this much for such a short ride, but it gets me around faster than the alternatives. The plus is no dealing with negotiating with taxi drivers and then whatever happens on the roads.