The Continental Line ( sv, Kontinentalbanan) is a long
railway between
Malmö and
Trelleborg in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. At Trelleborg the railway terminates at a
railway ferry
A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ...
quay allowing rail cars to be ferried to
Sassnitz in
Germany. A part of the railway is also part of the line between Malmö and
Copenhagen via the
Oresund Bridge. The first seven kilometers of the line are
double track
A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.
Overview
In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...
.
Local passenger trains between Malmö and Trelleborg serves the railway with several stops along the route, and uses the old central station building of Trelleborg near the ferry port. The passenger service began to run again in the fall of 2015, after 40 years of non-existence.
Transport company
Veolia operates a direct sleeper train service between Malmö and
Berlin (formerly known as ''Berlin Night Express''), using the ferry.
History
At first called Malmö-Kontinentens Järnväg, the railway was opened in 1898 and was initially thought of as an extension of
Södra Stambanan
The Southern Main Line ( sv, Södra stambanan) is a long standard gauge electrified railway between Malmö and Katrineholm in Sweden. The trains continue further on to Stockholm Central Station along the Western Main Line and terminate there (at p ...
southwards. The line replaced an old railway between Malmö and Trelleborg, the
Malmö–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. In 1973 the
local passenger train line between Malmö and Trelleborg were shut down, but was reactivated again in 2015.
Most of the international trains on the railway were foreign, and until the 1970s there were direct trains from Malmö to
Moscow (operated by the
Russian Railways),
Hamburg (operated by
Deutsche Bundesbahn) and
Prague.
External links
* {{cite web, url=http://www.jarnvag.net/banguide/Malmo-Trelleborg.asp, website=Järnväg.net, title=Kontinentalbanan, language=sv, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130004605/http://www.jarnvag.net/banguide/Malmo-Trelleborg.asp, archivedate=30 November 2009
Rail transport in Skåne County
Railway lines in Sweden
Railway lines opened in 1898
Rail transport in the Øresund Region