Arlanda Express is an airport rail link connecting Stockholm Central Station with Stockholm-Arlanda Airport outside Stockholm, Sweden. Operated by A-Train AB, the trip takes 20 minutes and runs four to six times per hour using seven X3 electric multiple units. The services operate over the East Coast Line and the Arlanda Line, call at Stockholm Central Station, Arlanda North Station and Arlanda South Station, and were used by 2.7 million passengers in 2007.
Planning of the airport link started in the 1980s, and in 1993 the Government of Sweden issued a tender for a public–private partnership (PPP) to build the Arlanda Line, the construction of which would be subsidized with partial state grants and large state loans. The winner would then receive a monopoly on traffic between the airport and Stockholm until 2040. The line and the services were inaugurated on 25 November 1999. The PPP contract has since been criticized for being unclear, uneconomical for the state and giving a low utilization of the service.
Read more about Arlanda Express: Service, Rolling Stock, History
Famous quotes containing the word express:
“Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)