The Karlberg Conundrum (2)

Let The Train Take The Strain ... ?

It definitely looks like a station and Streetview shows a thoroughly respectable station building.

It dates from 1882 ...

... and, as you would expect in Sweden, is clean, tidy and well equipped.

There are pictures showing a number 72 bus stopping outside ...

... and the route diagram shows it as the first stop northbound on trains departing from Stockholm Central Station.

We can also discover that these innocent blue lines show the "Pendeltåg" network.

Stations carry the letter "J" for Pendeltåg (?).

Some authorities translate this as "commuter lines", but Google Translate offers "shuttle". The "pendel" bit has the same semantic history as "pendulum" in English and "pendule" (pendulum clock) in French.

So "shuttle" it is. Here is Karlberg on one of the current Stockholm Transport maps.

There are four "shuttle" routes, all given route numbers and all passing through Karlberg.

BUT ...

None of these services stops at Karlberg.

Try the journey planner?

That red text is not at all hopeful. Fortunately there is an English version.

And even on Google Maps, the 72 stop has gone ...

... although the station is still there.

Summat's up!

The truth finally evolved after a thorough reading of the Wikipedia article on the Pendeltåg network.

Den 10 juli 2017 skedde trafikstart av Citybanan, som är en järnvägstunnel under centrala Stockholm som sträcker sig från Stockholms södra till Tomteboda. I och med färdigställandet av tunneln fördubblades spårkapaciteten genom Stockholm och gav pendeltågstrafiken två nya stationer samt egna spår på sträckan. Nya stationer är Stockholm City, i nära anslutning till centralstationen och T-centralen, samt station Stockholm Odenplan (som ersätter Karlbergs station) med bytesmöjlighet till tunnelbanans gröna linje. Projektet kostade cirka 16 miljarder kronor i 2009 års prisnivå.

Clues are shown in bold and italic. Fortunately Wikipedia also does it in English.

A rail tunnel underneath central Stockholm began construction in 2008 and opened on 10 July 2017. This new tunnel, known as Stockholm City Line (Citybanan; lit. ‘the city line’), is intended for the exclusive use of the Pendeltåg system. Two new underground stations, Stockholm City Station (located under T-Centralen, both stations with connections to Stockholm Central Station) and Stockholm Odenplan Station ...

... (located under Odenplan metro station, intended to replace Karlberg Station) were built as part of the Citybanan project.

So poor little Karlberg Station would seem to be no more. To reuse some of the famous "Dead Parrot" sketch:-

It is bereft of life, it rests in peace! It's transport processes are now History! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, it's shuffled off the network coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible!!

Odenplan is posher, underground ...

... and has connection with the Metro and numerous buses.

But it's a long long walk to Karlberg Palace (click on map below for an enlargement).

As an experienced if unwilling user of the interwebnet, fbb can usually find his way round transport web sites (although those with cyrillic script, japanese and chinese would be no go areas!) but he could find nothing specific about the transfer of services to the new tunnel line on the official Stockholm Transport web site.

But then yesterday's comment writer said it all.

The web is only easy if you know most of the answer before you start.

An up to date timetable book, unfettered by dodgy signal strength, is always quicker for an "outsider" to use than anything on-line. As one Stagecoach bus manager in Sheffield was brave enough to admit, when offered a "heritage" timetable book ...

... "I would use a book like that if one were available."

Q.E.D.

Timetable books and a bit more from Stockholm feature tomorrow.

 Saturday selection blog : 7th October