In total, this involves over 6,000 newly added extra places.

More travelers than ever are choosing the train during the Christmas holidays, and demand for tickets is high. At SJ, Christmas and New Year travel looks set to increase by a full 13 percent between 21 – 31 December, compared to the same period last year. As a result of the high booking pressure, SJ is now connecting several extra carriages to many of the most popular Christmas departures.

– More and more people are taking the train for the Christmas celebrations, but as a train operator we do not have the opportunity to add additional train departures at short notice. Therefore, we are re-stowing and instead adding more extra carriages where they are needed most, says Tobbe Lundell, acting press manager at SJ.

The new extra carriages will help create over 6,000 seats on board SJ's fast trains between Stockholm and Gothenburg, but also between Stockholm and Umeå.

– Stockholm, together with Gothenburg, are the two most popular destinations during Christmas. At the same time, we are seeing a strong increase in travel north. Umeå accounts for the single largest increase during Christmas, with a whopping 42 percent, says Tobbe Lundell.

The greatest pressure is for travel on Friday, December 21. At the same time, there are still good opportunities to find train travel on Christmas Eve, including for travel within Bergslagen.

– During Christmas, many people leave the stress of the big city behind to visit family and friends instead. Falun is a very popular destination, but also Örebro and Mora, says Tobbe Lundell.

In total, Christmas travel by train in Bergslagen between December 21st and 31st has increased by almost 17 percent, compared to last year.

Top 10 – SJ's most popular train destinations during Christmas

Stockholm C
Gothenburg
Malmo
Uppsala
Lund
Sundsvall
Copenhagen
Ostersund
Linkoping
Are

Source: SJ's booking statistics on the total number of trips during the period December 21 - December 31, 2018, compared to the same period last year.

Top 10 – SJ's train destinations that have increased in popularity the most during Christmas

Umeå (+42%)
Norrkoping (+21%)
Sundsvall (+20%)
Uppsala (+19%)
Are (+18%)
Copenhagen (+17%)
Gothenburg (+17%)
Ostersund (+16%)
Gavle (+14%)
Helsingborg (+12%)

Source: SJ's booking statistics on the total number of trips during the period December 21 - December 31, 2018, compared to the same period last year.

Top 10 – The most popular train destinations with Tåg i Bergslagen during Christmas

Stockholm C
Falun
Orebro
Mora
Borlange
Gothenburg
Malmo
Ludvika
Lund
Motala

Source: SJ's booking statistics on the total number of journeys with Tåg i Bergslagen during the period 21 December – 31 December 2018, compared to the same period last year. SJ is responsible for planning and executing train traffic for Tåg i Bergslagen.