Lidingöbanan () is a light-rail line in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, between Ropsten and Gåshaga brygga, serving the southern half of

Lidingö Lidingö (), also known in its definite form Lidingön and as Lidingölandet, is an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago, northeast of Stockholm, Sweden. In 2023, the population of the Lidingö urban area on the island was 48,162. It is the ...

island.

History

The Lidingöbanan has its origins in the ''Stockholm-Södra Lidingöns Järnväg'' (Stockholm-Southern Lidingö Railway), proposed by

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

Gustaf Dalén Nils Gustaf Dalén (; 30 November 1869 – 9 December 1937) was a Swedish engineer and inventor who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1912 "for his invention of Sun valve, automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators fo ...

, opened for traffic 1914. It got ferry-less access to Stockholm when the Lidingö bridge was opened 1925. Public transportation on Lidingöbanan has always been provided using

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

cars, but in the past Lidingöbanan also carried goods traffic. At its largest, Lidingöbanan extended to Humlegården in Stockholm through Stockholms Spårvägar's tramway network, with access to the Värtabanan freight railway track. There was also traffic on a track on the north side of Lidingö island which terminated at Kyrkviken, but that section closed in 1971. Lidingö town centre is now accessible only by bus. Lidingöbanan formally became part of SL's public transportation network in 1972.

Tramway

Lidingöbanan was legally a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

until 31 March 2009, when it was reclassified by the Swedish railway inspectorate (''Järnvägsstyrelsen''). Freight train traffic existed 1925–1982. Passenger service has, however, always been provided by tramcars, which prior to 1967 continued onto the streets of Stockholm, as mentioned above. The electrical infrastructure (overhead wire) is of tram type. The line was closed between the summer of 2013 and October 2015 for engineering works, modernisation and installation of new equipment, with rail replacement buses running during that period. When reopened parts of the single track line had been converted to double track, and new Type A36 trams were introduced, along with a new signalling system.

Lines

Lidingöbanan has a single line with thirteen stations, from Ropsten in northeast Stockholm to Gåshaga brygga in southeastern Lidingö. At Ropsten there is an interchange with the Stockholm Metro Red Line 13, and a Waxholmsbolaget

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

boat terminal at Gåshaga brygga. There are plans to connect the line with the Spårväg City line in central Stockholm.

Rolling stock

Until closing down for modernisation in 2013, the rolling stock consisted of so-called ', Type A30/A30B and B30/B30B manoeuver trams, all over fifty years old, and dating from the period (1940s–50s) when the Stockholm Metro was only partially completed and these areas were served by trams, adapted for faster two-way traffic. Since re-opening in 2015, there is new bi-directional

Multiple unit A multiple-unit train (or multiple unit (MU)) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more Coach (rail), carriages joined, and where one or more of the carriages have the means of propulsion built in. By contrast, a locomotive-hauled ...

s of Type SL A36 in operation. (PDF; 1,75 MB) This is the designating of SL for low-floor EMU's of Type CAF Urbos AXL. They are equipped with automatic train control and Wi-Fi. The A36 is the four-part, longer variant of the Type A35, which is in service on

Nockebybanan Nockebybanan () is a tram/light-rail line between Nockeby and Alvik in the western suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden. The long line is part of the Storstockholms Lokaltrafik public transport network, and connects with the Stockholm metro and Tvärban ...

, Tvärbanan and Spårväg City as three-part units since 2013. (PDF; 2,39 MB) The unit type A36 is adapted for traffic on the Lidingöbana and has a significantly higher passenger capacity with 100 seats. Otherwise, both CAF trams are identical. Both types are designed as single cars, but can also be operated in pairs. Recently (2024) there is nine units of type A36 (numbers 551 to 559), which are parked at the AGA depot for traffic operated by AB Stockholms Spårvägar on behalf of the Stockholm Region on the Lidingöbanan. Both types in comparison:

References

External links