Crazy weather in Sweden!

So this winter marks the coldest winter Sweden has had in 22 years! I have no words to describe how severe it has been, so I will just post some articles from www.thelocal.se


I will say one thing about this though... If you can look past the chaos, it has been lots of fun and truly beautiful. I am happy to have experienced a winter of this enormity.  Sweden's weather has however made a drastic change and spring is definately on its way. =)

Snowfalls cause widespread travel chaos

Published: 22 Feb 10 07:53 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/25128

The harsh snowy weather continues to cause widespread disruption to train and public transport services on Monday.

Infrastructure Minister Åsa Torstensson has called the situation a "catastrophe" arguing that the National Rail Administration (Banverket) has not been taking its full maintenance responsibility for a long period of time.

Torstensson was also scathing of the way passengers have been treated over a weekend of delays and cancellations.

"Information is decisive in such a chaotic situation and it has not been adequate. People are not receiving information when they are sitting on the platform," she complained.

The Stockholm area is the hardest hit with the local transport authority, SL, warning people to stay at home on Monday if possible.

Large scale disruption in metro services has been forecast and temperatures as low as -25 Celsius have called a halt to train services from the capital to Gothenburg.

Many commuter rail services which run above ground were replaced with buses on Sunday night - affecting part of the green and red lines south with limited services set to persist into Monday.

Commuter services from Gnesta to Järna will be replaced by buses. Elsewhere trains will run at 25 percent of normal service.

As a result of the train and metro disruption, taxi services are reporting a high demand for their cars and long waits can be expected on Monday morning as rush hour commuters attempt to get to work.

At Slussen - one of the main metro and bus junctions in central Stockholm - arriving passengers were met with loud-speaker messages this morning urging them to walk or hail a taxi in order to continue their journeys.

National rail operator SJ experienced problems on its homepage over the weekend as server capacity proved inadequate. Access to SL's homepage was only sporadic on Monday morning as passengers scrambled to find information.

On the west coast, commuter services will run limited services on the Kungsbacka-Göteborg and Alingsås-Göteborg routes.

In southern regions, transport links are reported to be running as scheduled but the meteorological office, SMHI, has warned of problems later on Monday as winds and snow storms draw in.

Train services across the country are expected to experience problems for the remainder of the week despite attempts by the Rail Administration to reinforce staff numbers and battle to keep tracks clear of ice and snow and trains running.

Transport hit as snowstorms ravage Sweden

Published: 21 Feb 10 11:42 CET
Updated: 21 Feb 10 13:49 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/25124

Sweden came to a near standstill over the weekend when wind-packed snowstorms blanketed a nation still recovering from earlier snowfalls. Citizens were advised to remain homebound when possible, until railway tracks and highways were cleared.

Key intercity and commuter train services were cancelled, for the most part, as personnel worked around the clock to clear snow and ice from tracks and frozen switches. Passengers were advised to check appropriate websites for updated schedules before heading for stations.

Alternative bus transport could not be assured because of highway conditions.

Ambulance and rescue services were also delayed over the weekend. “People have had to wait for ambulances. We’ve had several cases where ambulances have found it very difficult to arrive. This has been a problem throughout the southern part of the country,” said Anders Klarström, spokesman at SOS Alarm Sverige (Sweden).

It has been the worst winter in 22 years. Klarström said northern Sweden managed better because the region is more accustomed to severe winters. But “you can see with your naked eyes that resources in the southern regions simply don’t suffice. We simply weren’t prepared to deal with as much snow as we’ve experienced this winter.”

It was unclear when the important Stockholm-Göteborg train route would be fully operational. Over the weekend about ten of these trains were running up to 15 hours late, according to the information department of Swedish Railways (SJ).

In Göteborg, Frida Grönberg boarded a Stockholm-bound train at 1:30 Saturday afternoon. Just before arriving in Hallsberg the train came to a dead halt. Switches had frozen.

According to the newspaper Aftonbladet, Grönberg and fellow travelers spent the night in an atmosphere of confusion and outright aggressiveness. The mood was grim. “I saw a passenger who opened an emergency door and simply jumped out,” she told the newspaper.

Personnel had no information whatsoever. “They wandered about, and sweared. They heard nothing from management

“There were no buses, nothing.”

The train was still stuck at 2 am Sunday morning when somebody got very sick. A conductor walked about and asked if there were any doctors onboard. “This is an emergency. I’ve got to ring 112 (emergency telephone service),” he said.

Thirty minutes later the train finally got underway for the long trip to Stockholm, and got as far as Södertälje near the Swedish capital before getting stuck once again. “We couldn’t take it anymore, and disembarked. We managed to get a taxi that drove us to a youth hostel.”

Worst hit was Western Sweden. In the province of Västergötland, special vehicles with chains were deployed to deliver insulin and other vital medicines to the homes of chronically sick citizens.

Numerous accidents were reported on the nation’s highways, “but in spite of extremely poor road conditions the number of truly serious accidents was relatively low,” said Thomas Andersson, information manager at the Swedish Road Administration (Vägverket).

Snow-laden rooftops verging on collapse posed a hazard. Part of a shopping center in Jönköping was sealed off after shoppers noticed alarming conditions. The roof of a recreational center in Borås collapsed during football training. Nobody was hurt.

In the past two weeks collapsing roofs have raised questions about their construction. Until the end of the 1980s the construction of rooftops was overseen by an independent inspector. Since then, the contractors themselves have been given this task.