Snälltåget, owned by the Franco-German transport group Transdev, runs a handful of direct trains from Malmö to Berlin a year. Photo: Snälltåget/Facebook
Sweden's red-green coalition government will spend 50m kronor (€4.7m) this year pushing forward plans for new night trains to continental Europe, a first step towards meeting a Green Party campaign pledge. "More and more people want to be able to travel in a climate friendly way, both when they go on holiday and for work," Per Bolund, Sweden's Green Party deputy finance minister said in a press release.
"Now it's up to use politicians to invest in making the train a real alternative way of getting to Europe."
Crister Fritzson, chief executive for state-owned rail firm SJ, in February told Expressen that it did not plan to begin operating night trains to the continent for another decade.
The company, he said, would wait for the completion of the planned bridge–tunnel linking the Danish island of Lolland with the German island of Fehmarn, which would make the journey much simpler.
But the green party has pledged to sidestep SJ and instead tender directly for the service.
"The government will use public procurement in order to make sure that there are daily night-trains to the continent," Jakob Lundgren, press secretary for Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lövin, told The Local last month.
"SJ is one possible company that can operate those trains, but not the only one."
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