Strong winds have created a real mess in the traffic – especially for the trains.
Several lines have been canceled around the country.
– Pon several tracks traffic stoppages are expected to last until tomorrow morning, says Bengt Olsson, press manager at the Swedish Transport Agency.
The severe storm hit large parts of the country on Wednesday. Several trees have blown over – and in turn downed power lines that blocked both roads and railway tracks.
– The gusts that come are troublesome. Especially when the ground is wet, the trees give way more easily when the wind blows, says Bengt Olsson, press manager at the Swedish Transport Administration.
During the evening, there are still several trees and power lines in the way of the tracks, which caused extensive adjustments to the train traffic.
Contact wires over the tracks
Trains between Linköping and Kalmar, Eskilstuna and Flen as well as Sala and and Alvesta Krylbo are some of the routes that have been closed. Also the Bohusbanan in Västra Götaland and trains between Ystad and Simrishamn.
On most of the tracks, the stoppage will last throughout the night and until Thursday morning.
– It is one thing to remove the trees. But when contact lines hang over the tracks, as it does in several places, it becomes more extensive, says Bengt Olsson.
He says that road traffic has not been affected in the same way.
– There are problems. Parts of E22 are affected and earlier today a tree felled a power line in Rimbo on road 77. But we’ve got that fixed now, he says.
“Can blow away quite well”
However, he singles out Skåne as still vulnerable.
– As it is open in Scania compared to other regions, the trees can blow away quite well.
Despite the storm, the Swedish Transport Administration has not seen any increase in accidents during Wednesday as a result of the strong winds.
– We managed to get information out very quickly. However, it has been noisy around Greater Stockholm. But those are collisions, nothing to do with the wind, says Bengt Olsson.