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980
XIII. INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS OF SWEDEN.
Government railways, a) Stockholm—Malmö, 618 km., our principal route
of communication with the Continent; a private railway, 32 km., connects Malmö
with Trelleborg, from which direct communication by sea is effected via Sassnitz
with Germany; b) Stockholm—Gothenburg, 458 km., to Katrineholm station in
common with the above; c) Stockholm—Kristiania, 575 km., to Laxå in common
with the above; 439 km. of the whole length belong to Sweden, and 136 km. to
Norway; d) Stockholm—Uppsala—Bräcke—Boden—Gellivare—Narvik, near Ofoten
on the Atlantic, 1,581 km., of which 1,542 belong to Sweden and 39 to Norway;
a branch line in the direction towards the Finland frontier is under construction;
e) Sundsvall—Ånge—Trondhjem, 465 km., 363 km. of which belong to Sweden
and 102 to Norway; by means of this line the Gulf of Bothnia and the Atlantic
Ocean are joined six or seven hundred km. farther to the south than by the line
last mentioned; f) Mjölby—Örebro—Krylbo, 253 km., which considerably shortens
the distance between the Government railways in the north and in the south of
Sweden; g) Trelleborg—Malmö—Gothenburg—Kristiania, 689 km., 300 km. of
which is the property of the Swedish State, 239 km. belong to private Swedish
companies, and 150 to the Norwegian government; h) the railway lengthwise through
Bohuslän, of which at the end of 1903 the line Uddevalla—Strömstad is ready.
Our private railways are divided between more than 100 proprietors and
therefore only occasionally constitute large complexes. Of the most important
lines may be mentioned: Stockholm—Örebro— Svartå, 267 km., lately, partly
(Frövi—Svartå, 75 km.) taken over by the State; Uppsala—Gefle—Ockelbo, 152
km.; Gefle—Falun—Orsa, 194 km., leading to the picturesque country round
lake Siljan; Kristinehamn—Mora—Elfdalen, 262 km., between the lakes Venern
and Siljan; Gothenburg—Falunr 478 km., west of lake Venern; Halmstad—Nässjö,
196 km., and Nässjö—Oskarshamn, 148 km.;
Karlskrona—Vexjö—Alfvesta—Verna-mo—Gothenburg, 353 km.; Helsingborg—Jönköping, 246 km., from Öresund to
lake Vettern; Örebro—Pålsboda—Norsholm—Hultsfred, 300 km., etc.
During the last few years attempts have been made in different places to
unite, under one management, private lines situated near each other, and with
regard to this one ought specially to remember the Traffic joint-stock company
Grängesberg—Oxelösund (organized in 1896), which to a large extent has acquired
Frövi—Ludvika, Frövi—Köping, and Oxelösund—Flen—Vestmanland railways
(altogether 275 km.) and arranges about a considerable traffic of iron-ore from the
Grängesberg mines (also acquired by the company) in Dalarne to the harbour of
Oxelösund on the Baltic, for export abroad.
To the construction of a large number of our private railways the State has
contributed with considerable subventions, in all about 70 million kronor, chiefly
in the shape of loans on favourable conditions, besides which the terns of
construction, with respect to private railways, generally have been made as little
burdensome as possible from the side of the State. The position the State thus
has assumed as advancer of capital to no mean extent for private enterprise within
the domain of railway building, has powerfully contributed to the great
development, according to our circumstances, which the private railways have attained. —
Something like 800 km. of railway built by private companies, have in course
of time been purchased by the State.
"With regard to the way of building, it may be mentioned that all
the Swedish railways are single-tracked, with the exception of some ten
km. in Skåne and at Stockholm. On the busiest lines, double tracks
will probably be laid down in course of time.
All the Government railways have the ordinary gauge (1-435 meten)
and likewise 66 % of the length of private lines. Altogether Sweden
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