Ostlänken
Encyclopedia
Ostlänken is a planned high-speed railway in Sweden, intended to run from Södertälje
Södertälje
Södertälje is a city and the seat of Södertälje Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 86,069 inhabitants in 2010.The industrial city, about south of Stockholm, is the home to truck maker Scania AB and a top 10 pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca....

 (just south of Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

) to Linköping
Linköping
Linköping is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104 232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality with 146 736 inhabitants and the capital of Östergötland County...

, where the routes to Göteborg and Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...

/Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 diverge.

The time plan is to start building around year 2015–2019 and have it finished about five years later. The construction cost for the new 160-kilometre railway is calculated to be 24 billion SEK. A detailed plan from the Swedish rail administration was published in December 2008.

The railway will allow train speeds of 320 kilometres per hour (198.8 mph). Long-distance trains would call at Stockholm Central Station
Stockholm Central Station
Stockholm Central Station is the largest railway station in Sweden. The station is situated in the district of Norrmalm at Vasagatan/Central Plan. Opened July 18, 1871, the station is the largest in Sweden, with over 200,000 visitors daily...

 and Södertälje Syd
Södertälje Syd
Södertälje Syd is a major, but not the most centrally located, railway station in Södertälje, Sweden. It is located on top of the 2 km long Igelsta Bridge....

 before joining the new line, on which there would be an intermediate stop at Norrköping
Norrköping
Norrköping is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County. The city has a population of 87,247 inhabitants in 2010, out of a municipal total of 130,050, making it Sweden's tenth largest city and eighth largest...

, and reach Linköping about 40 minutes faster than by the existing line. Between Södertälje and Norrköping, regional trains would make additional stops at Vagnhärad
Vagnhärad
Vagnhärad is a locality situated in Trosa Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 3,221 inhabitants in 2005.- Landslide :On the 23rd of May 1997 a big landslide damaged or destroyed more than 7 residential houses when they were literally falling into Trosaån, the Trosa river...

 and Skavsta Airport, and make a brief detour onto the existing line to Nyköping
Nyköping
Nyköping is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,427 inhabitants in 2005. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County.- History :...

.

In a little more distant future, a new railway connecting Linköping-Göteborg is planned, called Götalandsbanan
Götalandsbanan
Götalandsbanan is a planned high-speed railway planned to be built between Södertälje and Gothenburg in Sweden, past Linköping and Jönköping. The planned length is about 440 km...

. Together, the Ostlänken and Götalandsbanan railways would allow trains to travel between Stockholm-Göteborg in under two hours.
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