- Kontinentalbanan
Infobox rail line
name = Kontinentalbanan
caption =
type =Railway
system = Swedish railways
status =
start = Malmö C
end =Trelleborg F
stations =
open = 1898
close =
owner =Banverket
operator =Green Cargo
SJSkåne commuter rail Danske Statsbaner
character = Freight and passenger
stock =
linelength = 32 km
tracklength = 39 km
notrack = Double or Single
gauge = RailGauge|sg
el = 15 kV AC
speed =
elevation = |Kontinentalbanan or the Continental Line is a
railway betweenMalmö andTrelleborg inSweden . At Trelleborg the railway terminates at arailway ferry quay allowing rail cars to be ferried toSassnitz inGermany . A part of the railway is also part of the line between Malmö andCopenhagen via theOresund Bridge . The first seven kilometers of the line aredouble track .There are direct trains from Malmö to
Berlin using the ferry. There are no local passenger trains, since the line is single track and freight traffic needs all capacity. Instead buses are used for local passenger transport, and they depart from m to ft|300 north of the ferry port. The building of the old railway station at the ferry port still stands, however.History
At first called Malmö-Kontinentens Järnväg, the railway was opened in 1898 and was initially thought of as an extension of
Södra Stambanan southwards. The line replaced an old railway between Malmö and Trelleborg, theMalmö-Trelleborg Railway , which didn't have good enough standard for the traffic. The ferry traffic service started in 1909, the same year it was nationalized. It was electrified in 1933. In the 1950s the seven kilometers between Malmö and Lockarp were rebuilt to double track.Most of the international trains on the railway were foreign, and until the 1970s there were direct trains from Malmö to
Moscow (operated by theRussian Railways ),Hamburg (operated byDeutsche Bundesbahn ) andPraha .External links
* [http://www.jarnvag.net/banguide/Malmo-Trelleborg.asp Järnväg.net entry on Kontinentalbanan] sv icon
* [http://www.banverket.se/templates/StandardTtH.asp?id=2562 Banverket entry on Kontinentalbanan] sv icon
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