The railways in Sweden have a network of 13,000 km of track. The major operator is the state-owned SJ, but there are other operators such as Veolia, Tågkompaniet, Norrtåg and Inlandsbanan.

Left to itself, the major Swedish rail operator SJ is not very cyclist friendly, although matters have improved greatly recently. The SJ will run a number of mainline and regional trains with accompanied bicycle transport from certain stations and trains from Mondays to Fridays, in the summer in June, July and August, and on some lines from May until December.  On all other mainline routes and at all other times you can take your bike when it is first partially dismantled, packed and stowed as baggage. (Thanks are due to Cykelfrämjandet, the Swedish cyclists association for their help.)

Trains

X 2000
These very popular SJ high speed trains link Stockholm to major Swedish cities. The ADFC, the German Cyclists’ Club, reports on its website that some cyclists said that they could take their bikes in X2000 trains, though it is not officially allowed. Whether these bicycles were partially dismantled and bagged was not mentioned.
More conventional mainline trains:

SJ
InterCity trains are much slower than the X 200 trains. Some of these services offer limited bicycle transport in summer. The company also runs a number of night trains including a useful one for us from Malmö to Berlin, but it too does not take bicycles.

Veolia:
Runs a few trains daily from Malmö to Stockholm and return. If these take unbagged bicycles it will be a very small number.

1. Runs Lapplandståget/ Lapland train, a weekly train from Malmö to Lappland and on to Narvik from the beginning of July to middle of August – Fridays Malmö – Narvik returning on Sunday. Bicycles are transported on this train. It costs 99 SEK to take your bicycle along to Lapland from Malmö and Stockholm. Only one bicycle and one piece of luggage is allowed per passenger – inventive packing is called for. Space can be reserved online, but only Scandinavian credit cards are accepted on the website.
2. Runs trains on the Swedish end of the twice daily Mittnabotåget/Nabotåget service between Trondheim (N) and Östersund / Sundsvall (S). Whether the Norrtåg services mentioned below are a replacement or a additional service is not clear.

Regional Trains
Some of these trains are operated by SJ and some by more customer orientated organisations.

The Inlandsbanan from Kristinehamn in central Sweden to Gällivare in the north running through the wilds of northern Sweden takes bicycles from early June to the end of August. How interesting this area is for cyclists other than the purple-legged knotted-muscle MTB types, who wear shorts even in the middle of winter is debatable. The cost is SEK 50 for a single journey between two points on the line. Bikes are only allowed if there is room, but this appears to be the case normally, according to reports we have read from the ADFC. A charming feature of this line is that the FIAT diesel rail cars used on the line do not have restaurant or buffet facilities, but prebooking of meals or snacks in restaurant along the way is organised by the company. The train stops at various restaurants for half an hour or so.

Tågkompaniet, owned by NSB, Norwegian Railways runs trains in the middle of Sweden. Map On all trains in the Bergslagen area and the X-trains, there are two bike places in each train. In Värmland county, bikes are allowed on the trains as long as space is available.

NSB also runs regional trains between Goteborg in Sweden and Oslo in Norway. These trains take bicycles without reservation.

Skåne Commuter Transit in southern Sweden operates the Öresund line into Denmark and the railways for about 100km around Malmö. Services are contracted out to Arriva. An accompanied bicycle costs the same as a child’s single ticket on both trains and buses. Bikes are allowed on the train if there´s room. The train manager decides how many bikes can be taken. In general:

• Pågatågen: at most 10 bikes/train or section
• Reginatågen: at most 2 bikes/train or section
• Öresund line: at most 9 bikes/train or section.

On regional buses with the necessary fittings in this area bikes are carried at the weekend between 04:00 and 23:00 but only if there`s room and for a maximum of two bikes. This applies daily during the summer holidays from 15 June to 15 August .

Norrtåg: The north of Sweden now enjoys a cyclist friendly service by Norrtåg AB a joint DB/SJ company. See the route map for details.

Tickets

Swedish railway tickets are a complex matter. There are inter-company booking arrangements called Resplus. However on some local lines two companies run in competition and then each others’ tickets are not valid, unless you specifically buy a Resplus ticket. Interrail tickets are accepted as far as we can see. There are also discounts for the young and pensioners. Each of the railway companies will sell you tickets for the whole system.

Veolia tickets can be purchased online on their website, but only Nordic credit cards are accepted. For all other credit cards, tickets can be booked and purchased over the telephone: Customer Service +46 771-26 00 00. Tickets are posted home and a small distribution fee applies. It is probably easier to use Raileurope or the major European state railway companies to purchase a ticket. Interrail cards are valid for travel on the Lappland train. Seats can be reserved for 29 SEK and couchettes for 249 SEK.

Getting there and back

We assume that the reader wishes to travel to Sweden to go cycle touring, rather than moving there to live. We would suggest that good places to go touring are Skäne east and northeast of Malmö, the west coast up to Göteborg, the Trollhätte and Göta Canals from Göteborg east or northeastwards from Malmö to Stockholm. Since there is but one train a day from Malmö to Stockholm that takes bicycles early in the morning. it is better to travel to Malmö and start cycling, rather than travelling by train with a bicycle to Stockholm, unless you wish to spend a day and night in Malmö. The best way to get to Malmö from London is via Harwich, Esbjerg and Copenhagen.

Journey	Mode	Cost Passenger/Bike	Comment
Harwich about 17:00 Esbjerg a: next day 13:00	DFDS Ship*	£169 for 2 people	You will need to eat on the ship dinner and breakfast cost about ?40 pp if booked in advance. This ship sails on three or four days a week.
Esbjerg d: 14:42 Copenhagen :17:49	IC*	46 Euros
Copenhagen d: 18:13 Malmö a: 18:46	RE

Journey	Mode	Cost Passenger/Bike	Comment
Malmö d: 11:33 Copenhagen a:1207	RE
Copenhagen d: 12:30Esbjerg a:15:26	IC	46 Euros pp
Esbjerg d:18:45 Harwich a: 12:00 the next day	DFDS Ship	£169 for 2 people	You will need to eat on the ship dinner and breakfast cost about ?40 pp if booked in advance. This ship sails on three or four days a week.

Putting Bikes on SJ Trains

You need to work out which train you wish to catch, buy a bicycle ticket/reservation for 249 SEK per bicycle (a whopping £25). You then go to the platform from which your train will depart to be there at least 20 minutes before the train departs. You should remove all luggage from the bike and wait for the arrival of the BestXpress personnel who wear bright orange waistcoats. They will load your bike on the train and when the train arrives at your destination they will be present on the platform to unload your bicycle. In case of problems in either phase of the operation ring 0771-71 71 71. It is definitely a gold plated solution, by no means customer friendly and the fact that all over Europe cyclists are loading their own bikes on trains seems to have escaped the notice of the SJ management.

Website

Veolia has a first page in Swedish and then, if you are lucky and you click the right spot you are directed to a page where you can click on a Union Jack to find a page in English about the Lappland train and the Malm? – Stockholm services. However you cannot use anything but a Scandinavian credit card to buy tickets. This is a good encouragement to use the Rail Europe or Deutsche Bahn ticketing services.

Skåne Commuter Transit is useful if you have a working knowledge of Swedish.

Inlandsbanan is a clear and simple website, but don’t send for the brochure, unless you really want to go there. Once you read it you will find yourself packing a rucksack and working out the most convenient way to get there.

Ferries

The ferries from Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Finland all take bicycles, as do the ferries out to the Swedish and Finnish islands.

Diversions

Your authors would dearly like to take the 1300 km long Inlandsbanan from Kristinehamn in central Sweden to Gällivare in the north. From the northern end we could take a train to Narvik on the Kiruna iron ore line. Then maybe the Hurtigruten ship to Trondheim and the Mitnatbotåget back to Sweden.