SWEDEN: Regional transport authority Storstockholms Lokaltrafik has reached agreement for state-owned passenger operator SJ AB to take over the operation of Stockholm’s Pendeltåg commuter services with effect from March 3 2024.
The capital’s suburban network is currently run by the MTR Nordic subsidiary of Hong Kong’s MTR Corp under a 10-year contract that began in 2016 and included an optional four-year extension.
SL indicated in May that it did not intend to exercise the contract extension, as MTR’s operations had ‘not reached the expected level’. According to local media, performance in the past year had been affected by ‘deficiencies in maintenance operations’, as well as a national shortage of train drivers.
SL Chief Executive David Lagneholm confirmed on November 1 that despite negotiations it had not been possible to find a way forward, ‘so now we choose together to end the agreement’. MTR has reportedly agreed to pay SKr800m in compensation for the early termination.
‘Although recent times have been marked by challenges, we can look back and state that — thanks to the commitment of our employees and a series of efforts — we have achieved the highest levels of both punctuality and customer satisfaction in the history of commuter trains’, MTR explained. ‘The current agreement means that MTR has difficulty obtaining the financial conditions to deliver traffic of a sufficiently high quality. MTR and SL have therefore jointly decided on an earlier end of the commuter train mission.’
SL’s parent Region Stockholm has entered into a contingency agreement under which SJ will operate the Pendeltåg network for two years from March 2024 with an option for a further year. Councillor responsible for transport Anton Fendert said ‘we have turned over all the stones and assess that SJ has better conditions to deliver a stable commuter train service’.
MTR confirmed that all staff who mainly work on the commuter services would be offered continued employment with the new operator.
‘We have made important investments in order to develop the business for the longer term during the years that we have operated the commuter trains’, said Caroline Åstrand, CEO of MTR Nordic. ‘Among other things, we have historically trained many new drivers in-house. Now all the focus is on ensuring a good handover to the next operator.’
The early termination of the Pendeltågen contract does not affect MTR’s separate agreement to operate the Stockholm metro network.
