The second derailment in a short time of the key iron ore train on the Malmbanan line in Northern Sweden is investigated as possible sabotage. Police have confirmed this on 26 February.
Featured photo: The derailed Malmbanan on 26 February 2024 (Press photo: Trafikverket)
On 25 February a goods train went off track between Katterjåkk and Vassijaure, in the far north of Sweden. This is the economically very important line between the iron ore mines of Kiruna, Sweden, and the offload harbour of Narvik in Norway, run by Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB. Six kilometres (about 4 miles) of tracks were damaged in this incident, the Swedish Traffic Authority (Trafikverket) reported.
A geographically large area
“For the time being we have categorized this as sabotage,” the Swedish police writes in a statement. “The investigation will take time, given the starting point that there is a lot of damage over a geographically large area in terrain that is difficult to access.”
In December 2023 a derailment on the same line
Also on 17 December an iron ore train derailed on the same line, also near Vassijaure, with repairs taking their time into February. The Swedish police is now investigating if there as a relation between the two incidents, which in both cases causes all train traffic on the line to halt.
A press spokesperson of LKAB confirmed earlier this week that every day the iron ore train does not go, it costs the mining company about EUR 10 million.
Ice-free harbour of Narvik
The Malmbanan is more than 500 kilometres (311 miles) long, running from Luleå on the Swedish East coast to Narvik on the Norwegian Atlantic coast. In 1915 it became the first railway line in Sweden that was electrified. As the Gulf of Bothnia in Luleå usually freezes up in winter, Sweden needed an ice-free harbour to export its iron ore. Hence the line was laid to Narvik.
The Malmbanan during World War 2
During World War 2, Sweden was essential for the Nazi-German war machine, as it delivered all its iron ore for metal production in Germany. The Allies had even an plan to invade Northern Sweden to stop this, but apart from a brief retake of Narvik and its surrounding area, the plan was not executed when Allied military resources were running thin in the opening years of World War 2. | © 2024 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com