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Old and worn track switches, which the Swedish Transport Administration should have replaced up to ten years ago, are still used in the railways. According to Sveriges Radios Ekot, hundreds of trains are delayed because of the worn switches.
Over 80 track switches around the country have been condemned, but are still in use. Ekot’s review shows that nearly 400 trains have been delayed in the past two years due to recurring faults in the switches.
Jon Sundh, head of railway maintenance at the Swedish Transport Administration, tells Ekot that the worn switches have not been forgotten.
– There are other needs that have had to take precedence in the prioritization. We have continued to swap parts instead of replacing them completely. Those gears remain as a need for change going forward, he says.
Several of the condemned exchanges are in Gothenburg, others are in, for example, Linköping, Alingsås, Köping, Lund and Älvsbyn.