West Link

For other uses, see Westlink.

Västlänken

File:Vastlanken train tunnel in Gothenburg Sweden map based on OpenStreetMaps.png
Overview
Line	Västkustbanan
Location	Gothenburg, Sweden
Status	In planning
System	West Coast Line
Start	Göteborg C
End	Liseberg
No. of stations	3
Operation
Opened	approx. 2025 or later
Owner	Trafikverket
Character	Passenger trains
Technical
Line length	290 km
Track length	8 km
No. of tracks	Double
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrified	15 kV ​16 2⁄3 Hz AC

Västlänken (English: the West link) is a planned railway tunnel under central Gothenburg. The purpose of the project is to increase capacity and reduce travel times on the Gothenburg network by changing the Gothenburg Central Station from a terminus to an underground transit station. Two new underground transit stations, Haga and Korsvägen, will also be built.

Of the 920,000 people (2009 figure) who live in Greater Gothenburg, 410,000 people live outside the Gothenburg urban area. Approximately 250,000 people in the region commute to or from Gothenburg Municipality. The majority of these people use cars for transportation and the roads in the region are overloaded. Better rail communications to different parts of Gothenburg and better connections to trams would improve the situation. There is a political wish to attract more public transport users. Significant sums of money have been – and are being – invested in rail infrastructure in the Stockholm region and the Malmö region, more than 20 bn SEK each during 1990-2010, but much less in the Gothenburg region.

The largest improvement according to the prosed plan would be for people who commute from places along the railways to Kungsbacka/Borås and who work or study near Haga station, where a large part of the University of Gothenburg is located. 15 minutes could be saved per journey. Time would be also saved on other journeys, for example around 5 minutes from Alingsås to Sahlgrenska or Chalmers.

History

Planning process

As early as the 1950s there were plans for a tunnel under the inner city for railbound vehicles, then for trams. The plans were abandoned because of the cost. The city has to finance tramways, while the government finances railways.

The planning process has taken a long time, being included in preliminary city plans in the mid 90s under the project name "Centrumtunneln". A feasibility study was conducted in 2001–2002 by Banverket in cooperation with Västra Götalandsregionen, Västtrafik, Göteborgsregionen, and the city of Gothenburg. Similar rail tunnels are already under construction in Malmö and in Stockholm.

Västlänken is not part of the Trafikverket Future plan (swe: Framtidsplan) 2004–2015, nor the alternative plan. Construction could start earlier since the Västra Götaland Regional Council is willing to invest money in the project.

Routes

Banverket investigated three routes for Västlänken, including new stations along the routes in the city centre. The route alternatives were named after the proposed new stations: Haga–Korsvägen, Haga–Chalmers, and Korsvägen. In addition to these underground alternatives, an expansion of the current rail network to the south, with a larger termius station, was also investigated, named Förstärkningsalternativet (English: the reinforcement alternative).

Decision

On December 19, 2007, Banverket chose the Haga-Korsvägen alternative as it best fulfilled the goals for the expansion. A majority of other governmental bodies to which the proposed routes were referred for consideration also agreed on that opinion.

Construction

The construction cost for the project is estimated at SEK 14.5 billion, using a price index of January 1, 2007. By 2012 the estimated cost had increased to 20 billion. The cost of the project will be financed partly by road taxes taken from motorists entering central Gothenburg and passing through the city on the major thoroughfares.

See also

• City Tunnel, Malmö
• Citybanan, Stockholm
• Gothenburg quadricentennial jubilee