Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 23, 2017

Arlanda Express is an airport rail link connecting Stockholm Central Station with the 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 and call at Stockholm Central Station, Arlanda North Station and Arlanda South Station. Planning of the airport link started in the 1980s. In 1993 the Government of Sweden issued a tender for a public–private partnership (PPP) to build the Arlanda Line. The construction of the line was subsidized with a combination of some state grants and large state loans. The successful tenderer would 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 leading to a low utilization of the service. The service was used by 2.7 million passengers in 2007 and by 3.3 million passengers in 2012.