STADLER has handed over the first five-car Flirt EMU for Swedish open-access inter-city operator MTR Express, less than a year after receiving the order for six trains.

VÄSTTRAFIK, the public transport authority in the Swedish region of Västra Göteland, together with its counterparts in the counties of Halland and Jönkoping, have awarded Swedish national passenger operator SJ a nine-year contract to operate the Västtågen regional network centred on Gothenburg for nine years from December 2015.

SWEDISH railfreight operator Green Cargo has signed a contract with Bombardier to install automatic engine stop-start technology on one of its diesel locomotives as part of a trial which aims to cut fuel consumption and emissions by reducing idling time.

EQT Infrastructure II, a €1.9bn equity fund, is to take a majority stake in Hector Rail, a private Swedish railfreight company which operates trains in Scandinavia and Germany.

NORWAY and Sweden have agreed to draw up a joint strategy for the development of rail traffic on the Oslo – Gothenburg corridor following a meeting between representatives of Sweden's Industry Ministry and the Norwegian ministry of transport in Stockholm on August 27.

THE FIRST of six 200km/h Flirt EMUs for Swedish open-access operator MTR Express left the Stadler Rail plant in Bussnang, Switzerland, on August 21 bound initially for the company's train commissioning centre in nearby Erlen.

On-rail competition has transformed the railfreight landscape in Europe over the last 20 years, but in wagonload - a sector competing directly with road for nearly every load - operators increasingly see cooperation as the key to maintaining and growing the business. Keith Barrow looks at how an alliance between wagonload operators is working to deliver service standards comparable with road.

A-TRAIN, the company which operates the rail link to Stockholm's Arlanda airport and runs the Arlanda Express service has been sold by Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund (MEIF) to Portare Acquisition, an international consortium of investors, for an undisclosed sum.

SWEDEN's Environment Ministry gave its approval on June 26 for the Västlänken suburban rail tunnel beneath Gothenburg, allowing infrastructure manager Trafikverket to develop detailed plans for the SKr 20bn ($US 2.99bn) project.

A JOINT study by the Norwegian and Swedish infrastructure managers, Jernbaneverket and Trafikverket, recommends upgrading the heavy-haul line linking Kiruna and Narvik to meet a forecast growth in traffic.