ON JANUARY 1 Stockholm’s narrow-gauge commuter services transfer to private-sector management. Bus operator Linjebuss and Adtranz will run the three 891mm gauge routes for five years under contract to AB Storstockholms Lokaltrafik. Over the past five years, SL has contracted out operation of tram, bus and metro routes in a rolling programme. But the Roslagsbanan is the first rail route to change hands, the other lines having been won by SL’s existing subsidiaries.
Over the next two years, SL is due to award further rail contracts worth between SKr2bn and SKr3bn. Pre-qualification bids have been invited for operation of the horseshoe-shaped light rail network now under construction in the south and west of the city, and the Nockebybanan tramway which will share depot facilities with the new line at Alvik. Formal tenders will be called in the next two or three months, with the winning bidder to be selected by the second half of 1998. This will leave time for the winner to help with final preparations and start crew training ahead of the opening of the line in August 1999.
Bids are also to be called this year for the 185route-km network of commuter services radiating from Stockholm Central to Nynäshamn, S
