Ore traffic back on track

During the two coldest and snowiest months of the year, 15 kilometers of rail have now been repaired. For more than nine weeks, BDX Rail, which has maintenance responsibility for the Malmbanan, and its subcontractors have been working, often around the clock.

"They have done a fantastic job in the toughest environment in Sweden. In severe cold and blizzards, they have struggled with frozen machines and concrete hard embankment. We send a heartfelt thank you to everyone who worked tirelessly along the line so that the trains can now run again," says logistics manager Linda Bjurholt.

This is the longest traffic interruption on the Malmbanan ever and has resulted in SEK 100 million in lost revenue per day for LKAB. In total, there are now about 3 million tons of pellets stored in Kiruna and Svappavaara. This corresponds to over 400 fully loaded ore trains. LKAB runs an average of 10 trains a day to the port of Narvik.

Now that the traffic is running again, these trains are being taken up by the volumes produced daily by the pellet plants in Kiruna and Svappavaara. It will take several years to deliver the stored products. So it remains to be seen how large the costs will ultimately be for LKAB.

"There is currently no extra capacity to run more trains. In addition, the Swedish Transport Administration is planning for extensive and by all means much-needed maintenance work over the coming ten-year period. This unfortunately means that the capacity drops even more," says Linda Bjurholt.

The cause of the derailment is now being investigated by LKAB and also by the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) and the Swedish Accident Investigation Board.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com