Swedish Transport Administration

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) is a government agency in Sweden, controlled by the Riksdag and the Government of Sweden. It is responsible for long-term infrastructure planning for transport: road, rail, shipping and aviation. It owns, constructs, operates and maintains all state-owned roads and railways and operates many car ferry services.

The agency is a member of the Nordic Road Association. For shipping and aviation, it only does planning and purchasing unprofitable traffic. Trafikverket does not do practical physical work to construct or maintain roads or railways, because that is done by separate companies which Trafikverket write contracts with and pay.

History
A special committee oversaw the effectiveness of the Swedish transport agencies during 2008 and 2009. A conclusion was reached that there would be significant gains compared with the then-present situation if a new agency responsible for long-term planning of the transport system for road, rail, maritime and air traffic was formed. Preparations started in the autumn of 2009, and the new authority began its work on 1 April 2010.

It took over all operations of the Vägverket [road administration] and Banverket [rail administration], as well as parts of the Swedish Maritime Administration, Civil Aviation Administration and the Swedish Institute for Communications Analysis, except that some practical operations were transferred to new commercial companies. These companies do road and railway building and maintenance, airport operations etc.

Companies separated from predecessors of Swedish Transport Administration

 * Svevia, road construction and maintenance
 * Infranord, railway construction and maintenance
 * SJ AB, passenger train operator.
 * Green Cargo, freight train operator.
 * Euromaint, train maintenance, sold to a private owner.
 * Jernhusen, owns railway related buildings, mainly railway stations.
 * Swedavia, owns major profitable airports (smaller unprofitable airports are normally owned by municipalities and regions)

Other agencies within the transport sector
Many activities have historically been performed by national business agencies such as SJ, Banverket and Swedish Road Administration. These agency activities has been taken over by the Swedish Transport Administration or by these agencies, if they weren't given to companies.


 * Swedish Maritime Administration, maintains and regulates ship routes.
 * Civil Aviation Administration, handles air traffic control and navigation infrastructure
 * Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen), a different Swedish government agency which handles legal regulation and control over transport operation.