Mark Dudgeon, the Blue Guides rail correspondent, makes an epic winter trip from Sweden to Norway and back, across the Arctic Circle.

It’s a chilly, dark early evening in February at Stockholm’s Central railway station. Sleek Arlanda Express train sets serving Stockholm’s principal airport glide in and out of platforms 1 and 2. At platform, 4, meanwhile, an ageing but rather elegant locomotive heads a “traditional” train: the night sleeper to the far north of Sweden, which will continue across the Arctic Circle and beyond to the port of Narvik in Norway.

The train departs on time just after 6pm. It is composed of two sections: the front part of the train will go forward to Narvik, while the rear part of the train will be detached at Boden and continue for another forty kilometres or so to Luleå, on Sweden’s Baltic Sea coast. There is a mixture of sleeping accommodation: in both the Narvik and Luleå sections, two-berth sleeping compartments are available together with six-berth couchette coaches and standard seating accommodation. Additionally, in the Luleå section, there is a first-class sleeping coach; each of the compartments in this coach has wider berths with comfortable bedding and an en-suite (if compact) shower and toilet. The train also conveys a bistro coach, which is doing brisk business already as the train leaves Stockholm and will stay open until 11pm.

Early the following morning, nearly twelve hours after departure, and the train has arrived at Boden, over 900 kilometres north of Stockholm. Here there has been moderate snowfall during the night and the temperature is well below freezing. In the bistro coach, which has reopened before 6am for early morning breakfast, there is animated conversation amongst the train staff and clearly something is amiss. Then the train conductor makes an announcement in Swedish and English. It transpires there has been an electrical failure on the line between Boden and Luleå and no trains can run on that section of track for the time being. The Narvik portion can continue northwards, but because of the electrical problem no-one is sure yet at what time the train will leave.

Eventually the train is separated into its two sections. The bistro coach remains with the Luleå portion of the train, whilst two seated coaches, one of which includes a small buffet section, are attached to the Narvik portion. The Luleå train remains stranded at Boden station, while the Narvik train departs just before 8am, about 100 minutes late. The train settles into an easy rhythm for the six-and-a-half hour journey through the lightly-forested rolling countryside. 

Not long before the first major settlement is reached at Gällivare, the Arctic Circle is crossed unnoticed. The train continues on northwards, well into the wilds of Swedish Lapland. The snow cover and leaden sky provide a monochromatic backdrop to the panorama, which is no less striking for that. Just south of Kiruna, the main settlement on this route and the northernmost city in Sweden, huge mounds on both sides of the track rise into the Arctic gloom, as evidence of the raison d’être of this community and, indeed, the railway line. Iron ore has been mined here since the late nineteenth century. Around the same time, the railway was extended to Narvik, allowing the iron ore to be transported to the ice-free Norwegian coast for onward shipping, thus avoiding the Baltic Sea which was prone to freezing over in winter. This railway is called, appropriately, the Iron Ore Line (Malmbanan in Swedish). The main mine in Kiruna has gradually and literally undermined the town centre, and consequently in the early 21^st century the decision was taken to move the town centre about three kilometres to the east, a process which has started and will take several decades.

At Kiruna the train fills up with winter sports enthusiasts. Not long after leaving the station, the scenery changes dramatically, and for about 50 kilometres, the train skirts the southern shore of Torneträsk, Sweden’s sixth largest lake. This is probably the coldest region of the route, and jagged ice floes randomly pierce the smooth frozen surface of the lake. At the northern end of the lake, the railway reaches the popular Swedish winter sports resort of Abisko, where many of the passengers who boarded at Kiruna alight. The train will soon approach the Norwegian border and at the last stop in Sweden, two middle-aged garrulous ladies – presumably locals – board. The crossing of the border is marked by the two nations’ flags painted on the side of a tunnel. There is no passport check here, but the atmosphere changes as the two ladies don reflective jackets labelled “Customs” and now accompany in silence their male colleague, who has appeared with sniffer dog, through the train.

Meanwhile, the journey enters its most spectacular phase. The train emerges from a tunnel high up on the southern side of Ofotfjord. In true Norwegian style, the fjord is surrounded on both sides by mountains and from the train, frozen waterfall cascades can be seen on the northern side of the fjord. The fjord then opens out somewhat, and in the distance the road bridge across the mouth of the fjord is visible. This bridge carries route E6, which stretches for 3,000 km from the south of Sweden to the far north of Norway at Kirkenes, on the Russian border. 

The train soon arrives at its final destination of Narvik, where there is brightness to the early afternoon sky which is unexpected given its location about 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. The weather on arrival is cold and windy, with frequent snow showers adding to the snow cover already on the roads. Narvik has a bigger town feel than its population size (14,000) would suggest, and its key location as a railhead and an ice-free port resulted in a major conflict in the Second World War. It is also the northernmost main railway station in Norway, but is not connected to the rest of the Norwegian rail network since the only railway line here is the line crossing the border from Sweden.

On the following morning the Gulf Stream has exerted its influence. A slow thaw has set in, drizzle is in the air, and the snow cover on the roads and pavements has changed into sheets of ice. Narvik’s small railway station is bustling with passengers awaiting the departure of the Swedish InterCity train 95 to Luleå. The train pulls into the platform ten minutes before departure, and despite its grand title and eight-hour journey schedule, consists only of a locomotive and two second-class coaches. The train departs on schedule at 10:25am, and climbs slowly from sea level along the mountainside. A small English group of seasoned tourists occupies half of one of the coaches, and the passengers move between seats to get the best shots of the spectacular scenery.

The railway between Narvik and Luleå consists of long single track stretches with only a few passing loops. Although there are only two passenger trains each way daily along the whole route, scheduling must also take into account the regular freight trains, which means that any delays can accumulate if a train misses its scheduled path.

In the small buffet section of one of the coaches, the male attendant, who had been checking tickets on the previous day’s train, now cheerfully serves coffee and snacks to his customers. The train is warm and comfortable and the atmosphere convivial. At Abisko, the train fills up again with winter sports enthusiasts, but just before arrival at Kiruna the train comes to a halt because of problems with a track point, resulting in a half-hour delay.

At Kiruna station, the train must reverse to continue its journey. The female train conductor, who had recently checked tickets and patiently dealt with passengers’ requests to change their reserved seats for better views, now puts overalls on, climbs down onto the track and uncouples the locomotive. The locomotive moves forward, then reverses down the passing loop past the train and approaches it from the opposite end. The train conductor-cum-shunter recouples the locomotive, and then the three staff take their short scheduled break, given that the train is about halfway in time through its journey.

Departure from Kiruna is about 40 minutes late. Many passengers are connecting onwards to the overnight sleeper train back to Stockholm, and given that there is only a short time in the schedule – 14 minutes – to make the transfer at Boden, there is a feeling of restlessness in the air. As if on cue, the train conductor makes an announcement saying that the train will likely make up much of the delay, and even if it is late arriving at Boden, the Stockholm train will wait. Calm is restored, and indeed the train makes up all of the delay and arrives at Boden punctually to the minute at 5:40pm, only to find that the Stockholm train, originating from Luleå, is itself delayed.

The southbound sleeper train leaves Boden about twenty minutes late and on this midweek night, the train is not full, and the bistro car is lightly patronised. Because much of the main line southbound towards Stockholm is also single track, by 10pm the train has lost further time waiting for trains passing in the opposite direction and is nearly an hour late.

The following morning the first public address announcement is made as the train approaches Arlanda airport station just before 6:30am. Miraculously, the train has made up the entire hour’s delay and it pulls in to Stockholm’s Central station punctually at 7am. Then, a welcome bonus for passengers with first-class sleeper tickets – buffet breakfast at the nearby Scandic Continental hotel is included in the fare.

TRAVEL NOTES

The through train from Stockholm to Narvik leaves Stockholm daily at 6:09pm, arriving at Narvik at 12:45pm the following day. As noted above, this train does not convey a first-class sleeping car throughout the whole journey; passengers need to switch to second-class seating accommodation at Boden at 6am in the morning. Alternatively, there is a later train with first class sleeping accommodation departing Stockholm at 9:55pm and arriving at Boden at 10:51am the following morning. Passengers then transfer to the (second-class only) InterCity train to Narvik, arriving there at 6:30pm.

In the reverse direction, as an alternative to the described journey, the overnight through train departs Narvik just after at 3pm and arrives at Stockholm at 10:17am the following morning. First-class sleeping accommodation is available on this train from Boden (departing at 10:18pm).

The best views between Kiruna and Narvik are on the right-hand side in direction of travel leaving Kiruna, and on the left hand-side southbound from Narvik. In each direction, the train reverses at Kiruna.

Tickets for all of these trains can be booked on the Swedish Railways website (www.sj.se/en). Eurail and Interrail passholders pay supplements for sleeping accommodation, and for reservations (which are compulsory) on the InterCity daytime trains; these can also be booked on the Swedish Railways website.