Gothenburg commuter rail

Infobox Public transit
name = Göteborgs pendeltåg
locale = Gothenburg Metropolitan Area
transit_type = Commuter rail
began_operation = 1960
lines = 2 with 2 services
stations = 20
ridership = 42,000
track_gauge = RailGauge|sg
operator = Västtrafik

Gothenburg commuter rail or Göteborgs pendeltåg is the commuter rail system associated with Gothenburg, Sweden. The trains go on the main-line tracks, shared with long-distance trains and freight trains. They are operated with X11 electric multiple units.

Lines

There are two lines in the Gothenburg commuter rail system. One between Gothenburg and Alingsås, the second between Gothenburg and Kungsbacka.

Regional rail lines

In addition there are some regional rail lines, going to cities further away, with a higher speed, more sparse stops.One goes between Gothenburg and Vänersborg (called Tvåstadspendeln, Tvåstad - literary "two towns" - being Vänersborg and Trollhättan). Another goes between Gothenburg and Borås, and one goes between Gothenborg and Uddevalla and some trains continue to Strömstad.The regional trains to Borås and Vänersborg go in addition to the long-distance trains, filling up gaps between them, to create one-hour schedule. The trains to Strömstad are kind of long-distance train by themselves, but the county authorities has responsibility , since it was inside one county also before the county reform 1998. These three railways are single track, which makes it hard to have denser schedule than once per hour, without having too many slow train meetings, since there are freight trains as well.

The railway to Trollhättan is being rebuilt as a double track railway, to be completed in 2012, when both a new commuter rail connection to Älvängen and a denser schedule to Trollhättan will be introduced. The most used connection on these lines is the connection to Borås, if including the about 30 buses that is used since the railway can't support the demand. There are plans to build a new railway here also. This railway is going to be a super-highspeed railway (max 320 km/h), planned to be built around 2020-2025, and later extended to Stockholm.