Northern Sweden Is Not An Exotic Colony
THE NORTHERN GREEN REVOLUTION The North has a golden future. But the sitting Swedish government doesn't seem to get it.
The article is the third and last in the series “The Northern Green Revolution”. The series has previously been published in Swedish in Rörelsen. It is available in its entirety for the paying subscribers of Last Night in Sweden.
When the mining of iron ore in Sweden’s northernmost county Norrbotten took off during the 19th century, a rail connection was needed to transport the ore. The 500 kilometer long Ore Railway (Malmbanan), between Luleå by the Baltic coast and Narvik on the Norwegian Atlantic coast, opened in 1902.
Although the railway has developed a lot since then, it is still single-track. The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) is proposing a double track, but no decisions have been made.
Half of Sweden's steel production will soon be transported along the route. The lack of track capacity is expected to be a major problem for Boden. The municipality itself will pay for a three-kilometer extension, in order to get a rail connection to the area where the company H2 Green Steel will produce its fossil-free steel. The investment is estimated to cost 1.5 billion SEK.
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