Tvärbanan

Tvärbanan is a light rail line in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden. Its name literally translated into English is "Crossways line". It links together many bus and rail lines crossways through its connections with the southern and western subway branches of the Stockholm Metro ("Tunnelbanan") and the Stockholm commuter rail ("Pendeltåg"). The possibility to travel between southern and western greater Stockholm without having to enter the city centre significanly reduces the number of transit passengers, also reducing the number of trains having to pass through the Gamla Stan bottleneck during peak hours. Near Liljeholmen the track is shared with freight traffic in a short section, this being the only place in Sweden where freight and trams share the same track.

The tramway is separated from roads in most parts, but there is a section in Gröndal where the tracks run on roads among regular road traffic. In Hammarby sjöstad the trams run in a reservation in the centre of the road rather than in mixed traffic, but there are level crossings between the tram line and several streets.

Traffic on Tvärbanan started in 2000, first between Gullmarsplan and Liljeholmen, then later between Liljeholmen and Alvik, and in 2002 between Gullmarsplan and Sickla udde. Tvärbanan was used by around 32,000 passengers per weekday 2005.cite web|url=http://sl.se/Upload/rapporter/uploads/000023206/SL%20Fakta%202005.pdf|title=Fakta om SL och länet år 2005|publisher=Storstockholms Lokaltrafik|date=2006-05-18|accessdate=2008-04-06]

The bridges used by Tvärbanan include Alviksbron, Gröndalsbron, and Kvarnbron.

Lines

Tvärbanan has a single line (22) with 17 stops, going from Sickla udde south of the Stockholm city centre through Gullmarsplan, Årsta, Liljeholmen, Gröndal, and Stora Essingen to Alvik west of the city centre.

There are discussions to extend Tvärbanan both north from Alvik to Kista and Solna, and east from Hammarby sjöstad to Nacka and Slussen, thereby integrating it with Saltsjöbanan. These extensions would lead it to have interchange options with the Metro blue line as well.

Main interchange options

*Alvik
**Metro green lines 17, 18 and 19
**Nockebybanan (light rail line 12)
*Liljeholmen
**Metro red lines 13 and 14
*Årstaberg
**Commuter rail lines 35 and 36
*Gullmarsplan
**Metro green lines 17, 18 and 19
**Large number of bus lines to Tyresö, Haninge, Årsta and Södermalm

Future extension

A decision has been made to extend it from Alvik to Solna, ending at the new national football arena, near the railway with commuter trains. This shall be finished in 2011.

Also a decision has been made to extend it from Sickla udde to connect to the Saltsjöbanan, and to run the Tvärbanan vehicles on Saltsjöbanan as well. This should also be in operation by 2011.

References

External links

* [http://www.sl.se/ficktid/karta%2Fvinter/vNockTvar.pdf PDF map of Tvärbanan and Nockebybanan lines]
* [http://www.sl.se/ficktid/karta%2Fvinter/vSpar.pdf PDF map of all SL rail lines]
* [http://www.sl.se/english/ Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (Stockholm Transport)] - Official site (English)
* [http://www.sl.se/ Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (Stockholm Transport)] - Official site (Swedish)