As of July 1, SJ is easing its booking restrictions.
Two people who are not part of the same travel group can then end up next to each other – unlike now.
SJ and the Swedish Public Health Agency met last week, after the agency chose to ease travel restrictions so that symptom-free people can travel within Sweden from June 13.
SJ is therefore making some changes to train bookings. Previously during the corona pandemic, trains have been operated with a maximum occupancy of 50 percent.
”"We have looked at how we can offer more people the opportunity to travel this summer and how we can go about it practically. We have discussed with the Public Health Agency how to sit and what is safe and secure travel," says Mats Almgren, Communications and Sales Director at SJ, to TT.
According to SJ, the change will be something between the current situation and what it looks like in a normal situation.
”"We will not fill the trains to capacity. We cannot say at this time what the exact percentage of blocked seats will be, but the plan is that people will not sit on top of each other, but there will be a certain thinning factor.".
TT: Does that mean that two people who are strangers to each other can end up next to each other?
”"Yes, that can happen, but if you do that, there should be a certain number of empty seats so you can move around.".
TT: But it sounds like the whole ocean is storming aboard your trains, doesn't it?
”"No, it won't be, we will make sure of that. We do what we can, but the individual traveler has a great responsibility to only travel if they are symptom-free.".
There has also been talk that SJ would return to previous cancellation rules. They have now chosen not to make any changes and are keeping the current, more generous rules, including free upgrades for rebookable tickets through August.
”"If you develop symptoms after booking your ticket, you should be able to cancel it free of charge," says Mats Almgren.
How the summer will develop in terms of bookings is difficult to determine, even though we have seen a certain change in recent days, points out Mats Almgren.
”"We are coming from very low levels, sales dropped 80–90 percent from normal levels and now we are up to 40–50 percent. We are still far below normal. It is leisure travelers who go and they book quite late.".
Source: TT
