Arctic Rail submits response to Sweden’s National Transport Infrastructure Plan
Arctic Rail has submitted a formal response to the Swedish Transport Administration’s proposal for the National Transport Infrastructure Plan 2026–2037, in its capacity as a cross-border collaboration platform bringing together actors in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
In the response, Arctic Rail highlights both concrete bottlenecks and unrealised opportunities in today’s transport system, and how these directly affect investment decisions, industrial development and resilience across the Nordic High North.
While the EU’s indicative project lists already include the Umeå–Luleå–Oulu (Bothnian Corridor) as a priority cross-border route, Arctic Rail stresses that the same strategic logic must also apply to the Luleå–Narvik section of the Malmbanan. This line constitutes the EU’s only continuous rail connection to an ice-free port in the High North Atlantic, making it a critical link in the Arctic rail system.
The response underlines that the Oulu–Luleå–Narvik corridor should be treated as a single, coherent backbone, enabling:
- secure access to critical raw materials and export logistics,
- support for the green transition and fossil-free value chains,
- civil preparedness and NATO-related mobility,
- and long-term regional development across the Northern Calotte.
Arctic Rail also emphasises that Sweden’s national planning must avoid becoming a bottleneck for investment decisions in Finland and Norway, as east–west flows via Narvik already carry substantial volumes of minerals, goods and seafood, and serve as a vital alternative if Baltic Sea routes are disrupted.
In a trilateral perspective – with coordinated decisions on capacity increases, interconnections and new rail investments – today’s constraints can be transformed into a robust Arctic rail network capable of supporting industry, exports and labour mobility for decades to come.
Read Arctic Rail’s full response (Swedish)
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