 Hey folks, welcome back to High Speed Rail Explained. Today we're talking about one of the world's least appreciated high speed rail nations, Sweden. If you haven't caught the previous videos in the series, I've covered most of the world's significant high speed rail systems, so check out the link in the top right corner for a playlist of those. It probably won't come as a surprise given my love of cold weather and transit, but I love Sweden. It reminds me a lot of Canada, and the time I spent in Stockholm was incredibly nice. There will be a video explaining its metro system later this year, so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it. Well, it has been a while since I've covered high speed rail in an explained video. Few countries are a better way to bring the series back. Sweden has a fairly large existing network, especially considering the country has a population of only a little more than 10 million people, making it similar in size to some Canadian provinces and US states. So let's dive in and see just how much there is to learn from this northern European railway powerhouse. If you want more high speed rail videos and transit videos in general, consider supporting the channel on Patreon or YouTube memberships for early access and for behind the scenes information. It allows me to commit more time to videos and invest in making them better. Sweden is not a country which is well known in the history of high speed rail, and that's rather unfortunate. Sweden began its development of tilting rolling stock, a technology which enables trains to operate at higher speeds without passengers feeling like the train is going to come off the tracks all the way back in the 1960s. And along with Italy, but unlike many other countries, tilting high speed trains actually ended up being widely deployed in Sweden in the 1980s and onwards. Such trains were well adapted to providing faster service along the quite curvaceous Swedish rail network, and had the capability to reach high speeds on adequately designed tracks. Such track didn't emerge until the 1990s, when newly constructed lines and infrastructure improvements like lines straightening enabled service on trains at speeds of up to 200 km per hour or 125 miles per hour. Another example of why I feel like there's really no reason to suggest that these are not high speeds or that this is not high speed rail. I also just find saying higher speed quite annoying. Now the question is where the track exists across Sweden, and the reality is that the Swedish approach to building high speed rail so far has been very opportunistic, with high speed rail built where it can be, somewhat like Germany, but without the dedicated high speed lines. The high speed trackage is substantial around the Stockholm metropolitan area, and forms much of the northern route to Umeå. At the same time, Sweden's largest cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, which you might remember is just a bridge away from Copenhagen, are all connected via lines which have substantial high speed sections, enabling travel times of around 3 hours from Gothenburg to Stockholm, and around 4.5 hours from Malmö to Stockholm. As you might expect, higher speed services also cross the border to serve both Denmark and Norway. Now with the existing network out of the way, the question is what are the plans for expanding and improving the high speed rail network in Sweden going forward? Well, both the east coast line, traveling from Stockholm to Sundsvall, and the west coast line from Gothenburg to Malmö, are said to be upgraded to 250 km per hour by 2030. What you need to understand here is that many of Sweden's 200 km per hour capable lines are actually geometrically capable of 250 km per hour operation, meaning the grades and curves are appropriate, though speeds are often limited by the electrical power system. Though in the case of the west coast and east coast lines, the power system is already upgraded, and the signaling is the main limitation, given it's currently the Swedish ATC system, which will be converted to ERTMS for high speed operations. Now, further long term planning was required for the lines between Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm, as plans call for entirely new lines to be constructed to serve the role of connecting the country's largest cities. Since, as with high speed rail in some countries like Japan, these lines will be playing a significant capacity expansion role, as well as a speed improvement role. Currently in development are three line segments, planned for construction sometime in the 2020s, and which will extend towards Jönköping, the rough geographic center point of the cities. The segments out from Stockholm and Gothenburg will be 250 km per hour capable, while the segment northeast from Malmö will have a top speed of 320 km per hour. Lower speeds were chosen as a value engineering option, and because with express trains, travel times will not be that far off of what would be possible with higher speed lines, while at the same time improving the service of far more numerous regional trains substantially. That said, connecting portions of the line in the center of what's currently under advanced planning will be 320 km per hour capable. Looking forward to the future, the new high speed rail lines being developed between the largest cities will eventually meet, and the long term plans consider the opportunity to add a new tunnel under the Aura Sun to provide high speed service to Copenhagen and beyond to continental Europe, which will become far more practical with the opening of the Fjermaren Belt tunnel between Denmark and Germany, making high speed trains or more reasonably night trains all the way from Stockholm to Berlin a real possibility. As I mentioned before, Sweden was quite early to develop tilting trains, and its primary creation from this program was the iconic X2000, which stands out to me with the Intercity 125 as the most iconic 200 km per hour capable trains. The X2000, sometimes known as the X2, is an electric locomotive hauled high speed active tilting train with a top operating speed just slightly above 200 km per hour, though trains have been tested at over 250 km per hour. Unlike many other countries, which have repeatedly added new models to their high speed roster, the X2000 still forms the centerpiece of high speed rail in Sweden, being locally developed by ASEA and Kalmar Verkstad, who later became part of AdTrans, Bombardier, and now Alstom. Perhaps the most visually noticeable feature of the trains is the integrated snow plow and corrugated bodies. Beyond the X2, the X40 is another high speed train operating in Sweden on regional routes, and comes by way of Alstom as part of its Coradia duplex family. The trains have a top speed of 200 km per hour, are EMUs, and I just really like their design. On lower demand routes, there is the X55 and its Varianis, which was manufactured by Bombardier, including in Sweden before its takeover by Alstom. The X55 comes from the Regina line, and thanks to being equipped with ERTMS, will be capable of operations at 250 km per hour in the future. The X55s are also EMUs. The X3 trains, which operate on Stockholm-Zarlanda Airport Express Air Rail Link, also deserve a mention, as they are also capable of 200 km per hour operations. The trains are manufactured by Alstom as part of the Coradia family. Also in the category of X-Name trains is the X74, which is a statler flirt similar to those used in Norway, which are actually operated open access in the country by MTR, which shows that company's incredible reach. The trains have a very nice livery, and are 200 km per hour capable, of course, and MTR actually advertises them as not causing motion sickness compared to the tilting X2000s. Flixtrain also rents trains in Sweden, probably going to deserve their own video in the future, with a combination of Siemens Vektron locomotives and used carriages from Deutsche Bahn running 200 km per hour service. Last but not least is the ER1, which is a localized version of the Statler KISS, capable of 200 km per hour operations, and used by Operator Mellardarstrafi on regional services, previously contracted out to SJ Swedish state railways, who operate most of the national railway network. As of 2022, these services are also actually being run by MTR. Finally, it should be mentioned that all mainline trains in Sweden operate with 15 kV AC overhead power. Looking forward, a number of new and enhanced high-speed trains should be operating on Sweden's rails in the coming years. For one, there's the enhanced X2000 sets, which will be a result of a total refurbishment and rebuild of existing X2000s. This makes a lot of sense given the continued relatively minor extent of railways with top speeds of 250 km per hour, as well as Sweden's rapidly accelerating passenger numbers. Upon the someday retirement of the X2000, Sweden will have a high-speed railway entirely operated with EMUs. Beyond the X2000, new 250 km per hour Zephyro Express intercity trains from Alstom, though these trains were ordered before the merger with Bombardier and hence have the Zephyro name, have already been ordered in anticipation of the opening of new high-speed capable tracks. These trains look like a cross between the Arlanda trains and the X55s, but will have the iconic grey colour scheme of the X2000. Carrier Vestrafi has also ordered Zephyro Express trains for operations out of Gothenburg. There are also plans for CAF to provide new Cividi Nordic trains, which will operate regional services in the country's southeast, much like the X40. These trains will be capable of 200 km per hour top speeds and will hit such speeds on the southern mainline, operated by Krasotagen. Beyond 250 km per hour capability, SJ will need to procure 320 km per hour trains to fully utilize new sections of line being planned for the future. And while there are a wide variety of train models available, including some from Alstom, the Siemens Velaro feels like the likely contender, given its proven performance in cold weather climates such as Russia, a major concern for any train to be used in Sweden. Now, interestingly, Sweden is one of the smallest countries to be able to say it, but some models have actually been exported to other countries, though in very limited numbers and actually only really to one country. The Shenzhen Guangzhou Railway, or Guangshan, took order of one X2000 for itself, which can go along with that railway's other misfit rolling stock. Much more significant though was the export of the Regina design, which was originally developed in Sweden as the CRH-1 for China's high-speed rail network, which was followed up with orders for more updated Regina-based trains in the form of the CRH-1A and B, which likely went on to form the basis of Bombardier-Zephyro high-speed rail platform. It might surprise you, but along with the German ICE-1, the X2000 actually toured the US and Canada in the 1990s as a promotional effort for high-speed rail. Unfortunately though, these trains, which probably would have worked great for cell services, were never purchased. Perhaps less surprising, Sweden has the northernmost high-speed rail network in the world. The country also presents an excellent example of a balanced approach to high-speed rail that might be very appropriate for smaller countries and regions who want to deploy better passenger rail service without building fully dedicated high-speed lines. I'd argue that Sweden presents a compelling example that you might be better off building a lot of 200 or 250 km per hour capable tracks rather than a small amount of 320 km per hour tracks, especially if those higher speeds can also benefit regional trains, and considering that Sweden will likely be getting those higher-speed tracks now that they've massively improved the usage of their railway network. And so with that, we have Sweden, one of the world's smaller, but very interesting high-speed rail networks. Tell me in the comments down below which country I should do next, and as always, thanks for watching.