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The West Link ( sv, Västlänken) is a railway tunnel under construction under central
Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
. The purpose of the project is to increase capacity and reduce travel times on the Gothenburg network by changing the
Gothenburg Central Station Gothenburg Central Station ( sv, Göteborgs centralstation, Göteborg C) is the main railway station of Gothenburg and it is the oldest railway station in Sweden still in use. The station serves 27 million passengers per year, making it the second ...
from a terminus to an underground transit station. Two new underground stations, Haga and
Korsvägen Korsvägen (literary ”the cross road”) is a public square and transport hub in the events district of Gothenburg, Sweden. Many important event venues and visitor attractions are located on or near Korsvägen, including the Swedish Exhibition ...
, will also be built. Of the 1.02 million people (2018) who live in
Greater Gothenburg Sweden has three metropolitan areas consisting of the areas surrounding the three largest cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. The statistics have been retrieved from Statistics Sweden and the statistics released on 10 November 2014. The offic ...
(1.7 million in
Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1 ...
), 450,000 people live outside the Gothenburg municipality. Approximately 175,000 people in the region commute to or from Gothenburg Municipality daily. The majority of these people use cars for transportation and the roads in the region are overloaded. Better rail communications to different parts of Greater Gothenburg and better connections to current public transport networks would improve the situation. There is a political wish to reduce car dependency and increase public transport usage. Significant sums of money have been – and are being – invested in rail infrastructure in the other Swedish urban areas such as the Stockholm and Malmö regions (over 40 bn SEK each during 1990-2010). Rail investment in the greater Gothenburg area has not kept up with these other urban areas. The largest improvement according to the proposed plan would be for commuters from places along the railways from
Kungsbacka Kungsbacka () (old da, Kongsbakke) is a locality and the seat of Kungsbacka Municipality in Halland County, Sweden, with 19,057 inhabitants in 2010. It is one of the most affluent parts of Sweden, in part due to its simultaneous proximity to the ...
/
Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them the ...
and who work or study near Haga station, where a large part of the
University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...
is located. 15 minutes could be saved per journey. Time would be also saved on other journeys, for example around 5 minutes from Alingsås to Sahlgrenska or Chalmers. The main reason to build the tunnel is to increase capacity. The
Gothenburg Central Station Gothenburg Central Station ( sv, Göteborgs centralstation, Göteborg C) is the main railway station of Gothenburg and it is the oldest railway station in Sweden still in use. The station serves 27 million passengers per year, making it the second ...
has no capacity for more trains in rush hours, which obstructs the wish to increase train traffic and build a new railway to
Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 66,273 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them the ...
, the second largest city in the province, which has dense bus traffic to Gothenburg.


History


Planning process

As early as the 1950s there were plans for a tunnel under the inner city for railbound vehicles, then for trams. The plans were abandoned because of the cost. The city has to finance tramways, while the government finances railways. The planning process has taken a long time, being included in preliminary city plans in the mid 90s under the project name "Centrumtunneln". A feasibility study was conducted in 2001–2002 by Banverket in cooperation with Västra Götalandsregionen, Västtrafik, Göteborgsregionen, and the city of Gothenburg. Similar rail tunnel projects have already been implemented in Malmö and in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. Västlänken is not part of the Trafikverket Future plan (swe: Framtidsplan) 2004–2015, nor the alternative plan. Construction could start earlier since the
Västra Götaland Regional Council The Västra Götaland Regional Council, or, Region Västra Götaland, or ''Västra Götalandsregionen'', is the devolved regional council of Västra Götaland County in Sweden. It was created in 1999 by the merger of the county councils of Gothenbur ...
is willing to invest money in the project.


Routes

Banverket investigated three routes for Västlänken, including new stations along the routes in the city centre. The route alternatives were named after the proposed new stations: Haga–Korsvägen, Haga–Chalmers, and Korsvägen. In addition to these underground alternatives, an expansion of the current rail network to the south, with a larger terminus station, was also investigated, named Förstärkningsalternativet ( en, the reinforcement alternative).


Decision

On December 19, 2007, Banverket chose the Haga-Korsvägen alternative as it best fulfilled the goals for the expansion. A majority of other governmental bodies to which the proposed routes were referred for consideration also agreed on that opinion.


Construction

The construction cost for the project is estimated at SEK 14.5 billion, using a price index of January 1, 2007. By 2012 the estimated cost had increased to 20 billion. The cost of the project will be partially financed by road tolls levied on vehicles entering and leaving central Gothenburg, as well as on those simply passing by the city on the major thoroughfares. The official construction start ceremony took place on 30 May 2018.


Art

Trafikverket The Swedish Transport Administration ( sv, Trafikverket) is a government agency in Sweden, controlled by the Riksdag and the Government of Sweden. It is responsible for long-term infrastructure planning for transport: road, rail, shipping and avi ...
(the Swedish Department of Transportation) are hosting a public art project from 2018 through 2026 to make the building fences less of a negative intrusion in the city. There are 8 kilometers of building fences during the construction period, 2,8 to 4 meters high. Trafikverket publicly asked artists to submit ideas and presentations of artworks that could be part of the project. The first 2 artworks were created in 2018. The big start was in 2019. There are or will be artworks in Centralen, Kanaltorget, Sankt Eriksgatan, Västa Sjöfarten, Packhusplatsen, Skeppsbron, Södra Hamngatan, Rosenlund, Haga, Pustervik, Linnéplatsen, och Korsvägen. The project is called Planksidan.


See also

*
City Tunnel, Malmö A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
* Citybanan, Stockholm *
Gothenburg quadricentennial jubilee The Gothenburg quadricentennial jubilee ( sv, Göteborg 2021) was originally scheduled to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2021 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, organizers have postpo ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vastlanken Railway lines in Sweden Railway tunnels in Sweden Rail transport in Gothenburg Proposed tunnels in Sweden Proposed public transport in Sweden Proposed rail infrastructure in Sweden Proposed railway tunnels in Europe West Coast Line (Sweden) Underground commuter rail 2025 in rail transport