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Lund tramway

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Lund tramway
A tram on Lund tramway
Operation
LocaleLund, Sweden
Open13 December 2020
StatusIn use
Routes1
OwnerLund Municipality
OperatorVy Buss tendered by Skånetrafiken
Infrastructure
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Propulsion systemElectric
Electrification750 V DC catenary
Statistics
Route length5.5 km (3.4 mi)
Tram stop Clemenstorget, near Lund C
A view of the terminus stop of the Lund tramway at Clemenstorget

The Lund tramway (Swedish: Lunds spårväg), marketed as LundaExpressen, consists of a single double-track 5.5 km (3.4 mi) 9-stop tram line in Lund, Sweden.[1]

The Lund tramway was inaugurated on 12 December 2020.[2] It connects Lund Central Station with the hospital, Lund University (LTH), Ideon Science Park, the new upcoming district of Brunnshög,[1] the MAX IV synchrotron light source, and the European Spallation Source[3] with a 15-minute tram ride. It is the fourth modern city tramway in Sweden, after Stockholm and neighbouring municipalities, Gothenburg and Norrköping, and the first all-new tramway system in Sweden since 1911.

The Lund tramway is operated by Skånetrafiken,[4] which also operates the city and regional buses and trains.

The first of the CAF-manufactured[1] trams was delivered on 29 July 2020,[5] and is named Åsa-Hanna[6] after the 1918 novel of the same name by Lund-born Elin Wägner.[7] The tram line opened to the public on Lucia day, 13 December 2020.[8] The project has been jointly funded in different parts by Lund municipality, Region Skåne, Skånetrafiken and the Swedish state,[1] costing 1.5 billion SEK (approximately 148 million euro).[3]

History

[edit]

There were plans in the late 19th and early 20th century to build a tramway in Lund as many other Swedish cities did around the same time, but these never materialized.[9]

Plans for the so-called "Lundalänken" system started in the late 1980s, and the modern incarnation of the tramway began in 2003, with the bus route Lundalänken trafficking through the Lund University Central Hospital area and the Faculty of Engineering at the Lund University being designed with the possibility of future conversion into a tramway in mind.[10][9] The system consisted of the city bus lines 6 and 20 as well as the regional bus lines 166 and 169. Formal planning for construction of the tramway began in 2010.[11]

The issue of the tramway was a dominant issue in Lund's municipal politics during the 2010s, with political parties changing stances on the tramway throughout the period.[12] The tram issue also led to the formation of a new local political party, with veteran Folkpartiet (Liberals) politician Sverker Oredsson among others forming Förnyalund (Renew Lund/For The New Lund) ahead of the 2014 elections.[13]

Construction on the nearly 6-kilometre (3.7 mi) tram route to achieve faster and higher-capacity public transport between Lund Central Station and many of the largest workplaces in the city was formally approved in 2015.[14][2]

In December 2015 a decision was made to construct a tramway between Lund Central Station and the European Spallation Source research centre.[15] Construction was started on 15 February 2017.[16] The contract with Skanska was signed in May 2016.[17]

The municipality of Lund invested a total of about 890 million krona in the tramway project. The state of Sweden financed the project with a further 373 million krona through two national investments to develop lasting cities and public transport.[18] This was in addition to the costs of the region: 297 million krona for the trams and 270 million krona for the depot. The total cost of the entire project amounted to approximately 1,500 million krona.[19] The municipality of Lund also receives income from construction and marketing rights along the tramway.

In 2018 the right-wing coalition in control of the municipal government announced no expansion of trams would be planned for the rest of the 2018-2022 term.[20]

Inauguration of the tramway was planned to occur on 12 December 2020 at an event where Johan Wester would be in attendance.[21] These plans were foiled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The inauguration was held digitally instead, with traffic commencing on the next day.[22]

Teething issues

[edit]

After the introduction of the tram, issues soon emerged with the formation of flat spots on the wheels of the trams due to repeated rapid braking. This culminated in all trams being out of service on 1 February 2021, less than two months after tram service started.[23] Due to the unexpected speed at which these issues emerged no lathe for the wheels was available at the time, resulting in issues with keeping the service operating as intended. A lathe designed for the trams was brought into service in May 2021.[24]

Disagreements with the manufacturer CAF over the issue with flat spots, along with other complaints, meant that Skånetrafiken did not take formal possession of all trams until July 2022. Tram services are set to run at 10 minute intervals during rush hour starting in August 2022[25][needs update], with a date for when the trams will operate at the originally intended 7.5 minute rate left undetermined.[26]

Structure

[edit]

The Lund tramway is a conventional electric tramway with bi-directional trams. The track width is 1435 mm. The trams are driven with a 750 volt direct current via overhead lines mounted 5.5 metres over the tracks without supporting lines.[27] The Lund tramway is built without railway-type signals, but it can use normal street signals in street crossroads.

The trams are trafficked on right-hand traffic on a double track. The trams drive on a space almost exclusive to them, but they can intercept other traffic at crossroads. The buses that previously drove on the street S:t Laurentiigatan were moved permanently in December 2016 and now drive on the streets Spolegatan and Kung Oskars väg instead. The buses that previously drove at Lundalänken have also got new routes.

The trams pass under the street Tornavägen and the European route E22. The most of the tracks of the trams are on grass. There are nine stops with platforms 35 metres long. The municipality of Lund is responsible for the structure of the tramway, whereas the trams and the depot are owned by the region of Skåne (Scania), with the depot being located to the east of the north-eastern terminus ESS.

In December 2018 a contract was signed for the use of the latter of two sections by a depot in Brunshög in the service of the trams, traffic and the signal system. The delay of the order of the depot construction, about a year after the trams has meant that the tramway should be ready before construction is complete, and that the signal system that is to be placed there can not be completed. In October 2019 there was an announcement that the complicated nature of the project has meant a further delay.[28]

Rolling stock

[edit]

The Lund tramway operates seven 33-metre-long low-floor trams of the model Urbos 100. The trams were ordered by Skånetrafiken in May 2018 from the Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). The tram were built in the CAF factory in Zaragoza, Spain.[29] Each tram has a capacity of 200 passengers with 40 seats. The contract of the trams specifies ten years of maintenance. The trams have names, similarly to the Pågatåg trains of Skånetrafiken. The names were chosen from a survey from Lund's citizens in 2019 where citizens could propose names with a connection to the city.[30] The first tram was named Åsa-Hanna,[31] after Elin Wägner's 1917 novel. The other trams are named Sfinxen, Lindeman, Blåtand, Brandklipparen, Inferno and Saxo Grammaticus.[32][33]

The first tram, Åsa-Hanna, was delivered to Lund on 29 July 2020.[34] During the delivery, an older tram that was owned by the tramway museum in Malmköping was rented to be able to eventually assist Åsa-Hanna in traffic and at the depot.[35] Åsa-Hanna was the first tram to undergo the first test route of the system on 17 August 2020. The last trams of the first contract were delivered in December 2020.[36] At the start of the tram traffic, four trams had been delivered to lund: Åsa-Hanna, Sfinxen, Blåtand and Brandklipparen. Three of these trams were planned for passenger traffic on the traffic inauguration day on 13 December 2020, the fourth tram was planned as a reserve tram. By 1 February 2021 all seven trams were planned to be delivered and ready for traffic.[37] This was not the case, as only four of the trams ordered by Skånetrafiken had been taken into use by summer 2022.[38] Shortly after the change in schedule in August 2022 the remaining trams were ready for traffic, with the exception of Blåtand which had been damaged in an accident on Midsummer eve in the same year.

In autumn 2025 the tram Sfinxen returned to traffic after a minor revision. This revision included new stop buttons for the impaired on priority seats on each end of the tram. The idea is to have all the other trams also undergo such a revision, as a higher level of traffic security is required when the journey interval of 7.5 minutes will be introduced. This denser traffic also requires five of the seven trams to be in traffic simultaneously, in contrast to four at the present density of 10 minutes.[39]

Future expansion

[edit]

Since the beginning of the project, there have been plans to extend the system with a new line to neighbouring Staffanstorp as well as Dalby, Linero and Södra Sandby or to new developments to the North and East of the current endpoint at the European Spallation Source, and to Staffanstorp via Tetra Pak through the centre of Lund[40][41], as well as to the west towards the municipalities of Lomma and Bjärred.[42] No decision for future expansion was made in the overall plan in 2018.[43]

The main boulevard of the planned area Västerbro is also being developed to have the ability to support light rail tracks in the future.

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 "Summary in English". sparvaglund.se. Lunds kommun. 9 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  2. 1 2 "Spårväg Lund" (in Swedish). sparvaglund.se. Archived from the original on 2014-02-09. Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  3. 1 2 Zasiadko, Mykola (8 October 2020). "Fourth Swedish city gears up to launch tram network". RailTech.com. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  4. ↑ "Lund Tramway". Tram Travels. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
  5. ↑ "First tram arrives in Lund". Railway Gazette International. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  6. ↑ Ekström, Linda (29 July 2020). "Nu är första spårvagnen på plats i Lund". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  7. ↑ "Lunds första spårvagn är här" (in Swedish). Skånetrafiken. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  8. ↑ Larsson, Hans (13 December 2020). "Lunds första dag som spårvagnsmetropol". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  9. 1 2 "Spårvägsplaner i Lund".
  10. ↑ Lundalänken - en genväg för kollektivtrafiken
  11. ↑ Kuprijanko, Alexander (2014-06-30). "Majoriteten: Välj andra spår än spårväg". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  12. ↑ Kuprijanko, Alexander (2019-12-27). "Spårvägen röda tråden i Lunds politik under 2010-talet". Sydsvenskan. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  13. ↑ Kuprijanko, Alexander (2014-01-24). "Spårvägsmotståndare bildar nytt FNL". Sydsvenskan. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  14. ↑ "Historiskt beslut – spårvägen är klubbad" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan. 17 November 2015. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  15. ↑ Igångsättningsbeslutet fattat - byggstart 2016, Spårväg Lund C - ESS. Municipality of Lund. Accessed on 22 December 2015.
  16. ↑ Spårvägen börjar byggas i februari, Sydsvenskan 18 January 2017. Accessed on 19 January 2017.
  17. ↑ Partneringavtalet undertecknat.
  18. ↑ Spårväg Lund C till ESS, Municipality of Lund 9 January 2023. Accessed on 17 February 2023.
  19. ↑ Notan skrivs upp igen - så här mycket kostar spårvägen, Sydsvenskan 10 December 2019. Accessed on 30 December 2019.
  20. ↑ Johansson, Lars (3 March 2018). "Enig allians säger nej till mer spårväg". Skånska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  21. ↑ Då invigs spårvägen - med fest och gratis resande, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 7 January 2021.
  22. ↑ Spårvägsinvigningen blir digital, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 7 January 2021.
  23. ↑ Fagerström, Eskil (2021-02-07). ""Vi har ingenstans att svarva hjulen" – därför står Lunds spårvagnar still". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  24. ↑ Ahlberg, Alfred (2021-05-12). "Efter månader av väntan: Nu kan Lunds spårvagnar svarvas i Skåne". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  25. ↑ "Tidtabell Lund Linje 1" (PDF). Skånetrafiken (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  26. ↑ Kuprijanko, Alexander (2022-07-01). "Konflikten löst: Nu ska alla spårvagnar rulla i Lund". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  27. ↑ Spårvägens kontaktledningstolpar är på väg, Municipality of Lund 21 February 2019. Accessed on 16 August 2020.
  28. ↑ Spårvagnsdepån försenas - traffikstart skjuts upp, Sydsvenskan 10 October 2019. Accessed on 30 December 2019.
  29. ↑ CAF has its headquarters at Beasain, the company's birthplace, CAF. Accessed on 7 January 2021.
  30. ↑ Så heter spårvagnarna - sparvaglund, Spårväg Lund C-ESS. Accessed on 7 January 201.
  31. ↑ Åsa-Hanna, Lunds första spårvagn, rullar snart ur ut fabriken, Sydsvenskan 21 December 2019.
  32. ↑ Sfinxen är på spåret, www.sparvaglund.se 22 March 2019. Accessed on 20 May 2020.
  33. ↑ Första spårvagnen i Lund på väg - här är alla tågnamnen, Aftonbladet 22 December 2019.
  34. ↑ Första spårvagnen ankommer
  35. ↑ Spårvagn från 1907 hjälper gröngölingarna i Lund med inkörningen, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 7 January 2021.
  36. ↑ Nu invigs spårvägen i Lund | Järnvägar. 14 December 2020.
  37. ↑ Glest mellan spårvagnarna första månaderna - och ingen trafik på sena kvällar, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 14 December 2020.
  38. ↑ Skånetrafiken: Lundapolitiker sabbade spårvägsförhandlingar, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 25 June 2022.
  39. ↑ I december kan vi glömma tidtabellen för spårvägen: "En milstolpe", Sydsvenskan 16 September 2025. Accessed on 18 November 2025.
  40. ↑ Spårvagnar i centrum redan 2014, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 2 December 2020.
  41. ↑ Spårvagnslinjen blir längre och längre, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 2 December 2020.
  42. ↑ Idé: Låt Sandby gå före Dalby, Sydsvenskan. Accessed on 14 November 2020.
  43. ↑ Sammanfattning av översiktsplanen 2018, Municipality of Lund. Accessed on 2 December 2020.
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