The government is now continuing to strengthen state control of railway maintenance.
”"We want to transfer the entire basic maintenance of the railway to the Swedish Transport Administration," says Infrastructure Minister Tomas Eneroth (S) to TT.
The Social Democrats were elected on the basis of increasing the state's control over railway maintenance. The Swedish Transport Administration has already been tasked with more clearly directing both delivery follow-ups and maintenance inspections of railway maintenance.
Now the government wants to take another step and completely transfer the basic maintenance of the railway to the Swedish Transport Administration. The definition of basic maintenance is to ensure the daily operation of the railway, its punctuality and robustness.
”"This means that part of Infranord's operations will be transferred to the Swedish Transport Administration so that they can conduct basic maintenance under their own control," says Tomas Eneroth.
Infranord is a state-owned railway contracting company whose task is to maintain and modernize the railway.
”"We are making a major investment in railway maintenance. We are increasing railway maintenance by an extra SEK 1.34 billion every year. This is a very significant increase in railway maintenance, which will pose major challenges for those who work with railway maintenance."”
”"We are doing this because we want to fulfill what we went to the polls for with increased state responsibility for railway maintenance and because we believe that this is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving better punctuality and better stability in our railway system with the significant increases we have in the future on the railway maintenance side," says Eneroth.
The change will mean that the Swedish Transport Administration will receive a significantly larger share of maintenance on the railway side in the future. However, according to Eneroth, it will not affect other subcontractors in the market, as it is increasing overall as a result of the government's increased investment in maintenance.
Exactly when the change will be implemented is now being investigated, according to Tomas Eneroth.
Source: TT
