2022 was not a good year to take the train if you were in a hurry. The percentage of passenger trains that arrived on time was the lowest in ten years, according to a report from the statistics agency Trafikanalys.
At the same time, figures show that in 2022, 87 percent of all passenger trains arrived on time or no more than five minutes late, but among long-distance trains, only 71 percent were punctual.
Both figures are the worst in ten years.
The Swedish Transport Administration says that cracks in the rails between Gothenburg and Stockholm were one of the main reasons why the numbers were bad in 2022.
But there is also something else that is increasingly throwing timetables out of whack.
– This is what we call track running, i.e. people who are either on the tracks, near the tracks or who in one way or another move over the tracks, says Bengt Olsson, press manager at the Swedish Transport Administration.
In the player above: How train travelers react when trains don’t leave on time.