| Götalandsbanan | |
| Type: | High-speed rail |
| Status: | Planned |
| Start: | Gothenburg Central Station |
| End: | Borås |
| Owner: | Swedish Transport Administration |
| Tracks: | 2 |
| Signalling: | ERTMS |
| Map State: | collapsed |
Götalandsbanan (the Gothia line) is a planned high-speed railway planned to be built between Södertälje and Gothenburg in Sweden, past Linköping and Jönköping. The planned length is about 440km (270miles). The speed is planned to be 250km/h.
It will, if built, be used for passenger trains going between Gothenburg-Stockholm, Gothenburg-Borås, Malmö-Linköping-Stockholm, Linköping-Stockholm and more connections. The travel time Gothenburg-Stockholm is expected to be 2:00 to 2:15 compared to 2:45 to 3:00 today. The travel time (Malmö-)Linköping-Stockholm would be cut by 40 min, Jönköping-Borås by 40 min and Gothenburg-Borås by 20 min. A more dense schedule is possible as well. It is also planned to have railway stations at the Göteborg Landvetter Airport and the Stockholm-Skavsta Airport. An additional objective is to free up capacity for Cargo rail on the existing rail network. The disadvantage with the project is the big cost.
The railway has a detailed plan between Gothenburg-Borås, and between Linköping-Södertälje (this part is called Ostlänken). Detailed planning is being done between Borås-Linköping. It was announced in August 2012 that the Swedish government had decided to proceed with Ostlänken. The announcement also contained details of the proposed double-tracking upgrade between Mölnlycke and Bollebygd as part of the programme, though the announcement didn't say what has happened to the original plan to build a station on the presumably-discontinued section of high-speed line between Mölnlycke and Bollebygd serving Göteborg Landvetter Airport (which is currently a few kilometres away from the existing railway line).[1]
The railway is covered under Sverigeförhandlingen, a government negotiation process providing funding for high-speed rail projects in Sweden.[2]
The total cost of the 60 km project is 48.5 billion SEK (€5 billion) in 2021/2024 prices, with completion in 2038.
The Gothenburg–Borås railway was divided into three sections: (Gothenburg–) Almedal–Mölnlycke, Mölnlycke–Bollebygd (via Göteborg Landvetter Airport), and Bollebygd–Borås. The total cost of the project was expected to be 33 billion SEK (€3.5 billion) at 2015 price levels.[3]
, a strategic choice of measures study (åtgärdsvalsstudie) for the Borås–Linköping section is expected to be finished in early 2018. An advance copy of the study was released on 15 February 2017.[7]
Europabanan, the high-speed line to Malmö, is planned to branch from Götalandsbanan in Jönköping.[8] In Jönköping, the railway will pass south of the city centre, where a new station will be built.[9]
See main article: East Link Project., an up to 2km (01miles) wide corridor, in which the East Link will run, has been selected. A railway plan is being drafted. Construction is expected to begin in November 2017, with the Kardon Line (Kardonbanan), a new freight line connecting Norrköping Harbour with the Southern Main Line, since the East Link will cut off the old connection.[10] [11] Full construction is expected to commence in 2021, with operation in 2033–2035.[12]