Select Committee on Transport Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 40-50)

MR INGEMAR LUNDIN

3 NOVEMBER 2004

  Q40 Ian Lucas: You have opened up a lot of new stations. Where has the funding come from for that? Is that part of your general budget or have you made specific applications for grants from government?

  Mr Lundin: The major stations are paid for by the users which are the operators, which also includes a long distance bus service. They have to pay a fee for using those big stations. It is not a big number of stations. We have four or five in our county. The small stations are more like a platform. We are talking about investments in platforms and things like that. It has been a responsibility for the municipalities. We have also in our plans just for platform areas a special subsidy which means that 50% of the cost has come from the municipality and 50% has been from government.

  Q41 Ian Lucas: The smaller stations are more platforms than buildings? They are not used for community use in addition to being used as platforms?

  Mr Lundin: Most of the old stations are gone or are private houses nowadays. We are using platforms and facilities on board the platforms—shelters, for example.

  Q42 Ian Lucas: You mentioned that 60% of your population can travel two kilometres to the station. How do they travel to the station?

  Mr Lundin: Most of them are walking to the station. I do not have a figure but that is part of the success. It is much more difficult to find a user that must first have a bus and then a train.

  Q43 Chairman: It looks as though, with the new rolling stock, you had to replace the old rolling stock and you chose a completely different system, a different engine and a different design and different sizes. Is that the case?

  Mr Lundin: Yes. It is quite interesting that in the 1988 Transport Act we were given the old rolling stock free of charge. We also got a subsidy of the size that the state railway had before for a 10 year period until 2000.

  Q44 Chairman: You have the subsidy that would have gone to the rolling stock in the national railway?

  Mr Lundin: We have used some of this subsidy by making an investment in refurbishment. This is quite a small investment compared to buying new rolling stock. For perhaps 10 years it has helped us to have a train that looks quite new inside.

  Q45 Chairman: Its bigger seats are more comfortable?

  Mr Lundin: It is much more comfortable. You can lean back the seats, for example.

  Chairman: We have a much more unique approach. We buy very expensive new rolling stock which has smaller seats, is less comfortable and the lavatories do not work. Apart from that, we have got it right.

  Q46 Ian Lucas: Who maintains the track in the Swedish system?

  Mr Lundin: It is part of the old, former state railway that is our Railtrack. It is called Banverket. Most of the employees are on the Railtrack infrastructure.

  Q47 Ian Lucas: Do you pay them for maintaining the track?

  Mr Lundin: Yes, we do but in Sweden we have a decision which we could translate. It should not be more expensive to use heavy vehicles on track than on road. That means that we pay about 30% of the cost of investment and maintenance of the track for our service. From 1985 to 1990 we had to pay for the cost of the track. That meant that we who had bad tracks had to pay more than our neighbours who had good tracks. This is a good system for us because 30% is better than having to pay 100%. It is not a heavy part of the cost, using the tracks.

  Q48 Clive Efford: You pay 30% of the costs of maintaining the track. Where does the remainder come from?

  Mr Lundin: It comes in some way from the government.

  Q49 Clive Efford: It is a heavy subsidy?

  Mr Lundin: It is a very heavy subsidy and it is a very heavy investment. In the new 12 year plan it is more investment in rail than in roads in Sweden.

  Q50 Clive Efford: We have severe problems with soggy leaves and fine snow that seem to bring our rail system to a halt on a regular basis. You seem to have more severe weather than us at times and manage to run a railway. Could you enlighten us as to how you achieve that?

  Mr Lundin: I used to say that we have recycled British weather. We also have those leaves. It is a problem for us. We have more forests than you have. October is a horrible month for us but with the new trains it is not as big a problem as with the old trains.

  Chairman: Mr Lundin, we are enormously grateful and I am very, very sorry that you lost your case. I really do apologise for that. Not only do I now know how to pronounce "Jönköping" but, if you are ever looking for a part time job, perhaps you would like to come and run some of our railways. Thank you very much.





 
previous page contents next page

House of Commons home page Parliament home page House of Lords home page search page enquiries index

© Parliamentary copyright 2004
Prepared 9 December 2004