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Train travel is an important part of the Swedish transport industry and the demand has increased last couple of years. Different train categories meet different purposes, fast trains, long-distance trains, regional trains and commuter trains all fulfill different transport tasks. In early 2020, the entire travel industry, including the passenger train industry, suffered a big decline in demand as a result of measures to reduce the risk of infection by the corona virus that causes the disease Covid-19. This report aims to shed light on some of the effects of the reduction in demand and then to draw conclusions on how passenger travel can change in the future. The goals are thus to identify direct effects, measures and problems and to investigate possible long-term effects in the form of a number of scenarios. The results section describes how the railway companies have been affected and what measures they have had to take. For commercial traffic, the number of travelers has decreased by over 90 percent and for procured traffic by about 50 percent (April 2020) compared to the beginning of the year. A case study was also conducted with an analysis of the number of canceled trains between Stockholm and Gothenburg during the period January-April, 2019 and 2020. The result of the case study showed that there was an increase in the number of canceled trains by a total of 576 percent in 2020 compared with 2019. Finally, three scenarios have been set up that represent how possible long-term effects of the Corona virus may affect passenger train traffic in the future. These scenarios have received the headlines Return to normal, The trend with fewer trips continues and Increased demand for train traffic and they are presented in a concluding discussion part. |
