Travelling by rail
Still tickets available
“It really hasn’t been a problem,” Martina Nord, press officer at SJ, told The Local. “There have been a lot of tickets still to buy. What really makes this year different from other years is that Christmas Eve is on a Saturday, so a lot more people want to travel on the Friday.”
Swedes celebrate Christmas on December 24th rather than December 25th, meaning many people will be travelling to family on December 23rd.
At the time of writing, however, it was still possible to book tickets on Friday December 23rd on most of the key routes.
Tickets were still available on the Malmö to Stockholm route, albeit from 1,475 kronor one way. In the Stockholm to Malmö direction, however, many trains are already sold out.
A few trains are sold out on the Gothenburg to Stockholm route in both directions on December 23rd, but tickets are generally still available.
Nord recommended those who can travel on the 22nd (the last day of school in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö), to make that their travel day, or instead travel on the morning of Christmas Eve.
“If you have the opportunity to travel on the Thursday or even on Christmas Eve itself, there are still tickets available,” she said.
Risk of disruption
Train operators are worried however about the possible impact of the Swedish Transport Administration’s new digital traffic planning system, MPK (background in Swedish here), which is being launched on Sunday, December 11th.
In a press release posted on its website on Wednesday, SJ warned that the new system could bring delays and train cancellations over the coming few weeks, adding that it had already ordered replacement buses to be in standby.
“We don’t really know the consequences yet,” Nord told The Local. “All the train operators are just trying to prepare for all the consequences that there might be. Trafikverket (The Swedish Transport Administration) don’t really know what will happen, because they are so late, like 6 months late, so we do not know how to test this with our systems.”
She said that SJ has 30 different systems which will need to be able to communicate with the new MPK system, and, as a result of the delays, they have not yet been able to test in advance how they will work together.
“So we’re in the dark about what the consequences are going to be.”
Travelling by road
Unlike over the Easter weekend, the Swedish Transport Administration tends not to carry out major roadworks over the Christmas period, as it is too cold for some jobs and also a time where road workers are on holiday. This means any disruptions are likely to be weather related.
“We don’t yet know what the weather’s going to be like. It might snow or there could be strong winds, so you have to take into account that it can take longer time, and make sure that there are no warnings,” said press officer Katarina Wolffram. “If they [Swedish state forecaster SMHI] puts out a yellow or a red warning, think about whether to travel that day or whether to wait.”
With most Christmas travel concentrated on Friday December 23rd, the roads could be unusually crowded this year.
The busiest part of the Swedish road network is likely to be the E4 that runs from Helsingborg via Jönköping to Stockholm, Uppsala, Gävle and Sundsvall. Other holiday traffic hotspots are the national road 40 between Gothenburg and Borås and the E22 from Norrköping to Kalmar.
If there is signifiant snowfall over the Christmas period, Wolffram recommended keeping to major roads as much as possible.
“You should keep in mind that we prioritise the major roads most when its snowy weather, so we recommend that people stick to the big roads as much as possible, because they are ploughed regularly,” she said.
If you are driving on icy or snowy roads, drive slowly, keep a significant distance between you and the car in front, and avoid breaking or turning abruptly. Even if there is no visible ice or snow, be aware that there may be icy patches in shady areas.
You should also make sure you have winter tyres (and even a chain, if driving in the far north). You should pack blankets or warm clothing in case you get stuck or break down. It’s useful to have a engine heater, or block heater, which you can plug into your engine to warm it up so it starts in freezing conditions.
And of course you need to have an isskrapa, or ice scraper, ideally one with a brush if it’s snowy. (A debit card will get rid of the ice in emergencies but it might not work again afterwards).
Travelling by air
Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport no longer suffers from the serious queues it experienced over the summer, but is preparing for them to return as a result of increased travel over Christmas.
“We are expecting that a lot of people wll travel over Christmas, it’s the biggest weekend we have,” Peter Wärring, a press officer at Swedavia told The Local.
“We have increased our staffing and are well prepared, we have extra terminal hosts on site.” He said that the staffing problems the airline had suffered at the start of the summer were now resolved, with enough staff in place to man security controls.
“There might still be queues at certain points, which is why we are advising travellers to make sure they’re there at the right time, check in digitally from home if that’s possible, and to travel with only hand luggage if possible.”
He said that people with only hand luggage who are travelling through Terminal 5 should be aware that they have the option of going through security controls at Terminal 4, where queues are likely to be shorter.
He said that as of now there was no indication that any airlines were having to cancel flights due to strikes or other disruptions.
In a guide to Christmas travel on its website, Arlanda’s operator Swedavia also warned that it is “prepared to implement access restrictions to Terminal 5, if the need should arise”. Here is its list of tips for those travelling over Christmas.
Swedavia further recommends packing Christmas foods and wrapped Christmas presents in check-in baggage.
“If the security screener cannot see what something is, it will be a shame to have to open Christmas presents at the security checkpoint,” the company explains.
Those travelling from Sweden to the UK should also be aware that there could be serious disruption with staff at six airports staging walkouts between December 23th and December 26th and December 28th to New Year’s Eve. See BBC article here.