Talk:Inlandsbanan

Questions by a reader

So apparently the railway was built mostly for military reasons (which exactly? Aimed at some particular scenario?) and a vague "develop the landscape" civilian reason. There is mention of declining passenger numbers due to increasing car ownership. Was there ever significant freight along this route? Why did the municipalities decide to buy and keep open the route? What are the trains like today? Are there special services (steam, special rolling stock, whatever)? how expensive are tickets? (If there are no fixed prices a range would also help) Can you book through tickets to stations not along this route?

I think that's it at first, but those were some of the questions I had reading the article. Hobbitschuster (talk) 20:31, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

As I understand it the military reasons were that the main railway could be cut by attacks from the sea, while a similar attack to the inland would be much more difficult (airborne commandos were scifi at that time and an invasion army would have severe problems). The economic development was about that there is no use producing anything if you cannot transport it to buyers. Many villages elsewhere had become flourishing towns as they got the railway and I suppose that was supposed to work as a silver bullet. The problem was that freight cost became too high after all. The wood based industry developed in seaside towns, were wood was brought by the rivers instead. SJ did not have any particular interest in the railway, while having good communications is important for the municipalities even when ticket sale is no gold mine. For me these answers seem quite obvious (the situation is similar in today's Finland), but somebody should clearly write them in a suitable form in the article (and check that they are true). The rest should be checked or described by somebody who did the journey. --LPfi (talk) 21:03, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

In the 1809 Finnish War, Russian troops invaded northern Sweden through Finland. An overland Russian assault has remained a likely war scenario for Sweden until present day, and was part of the reason to build the Boden fortress, and Inlandsbanan. Still, Inlandsbanan was heavy utilized during World War II, as petroleum fuel was scarce; German coal was however plentiful in early stages of the war, and locomotives could also run on wood fuel. After the German invasion of Norway, the Nazi government requested to use Swedish railways for their troops. Officially called permittenttrafiken, "the furlough traffic", it also contained strategic troop movements (including the Engelbrecht Division heading for the Eastern Front), and was seen as a Swedish concession to the Axis, and a betrayal of Norway and the neutrality doctrine. /Yvwv (talk) 21:09, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for those replies. I think we can glean further information from the website of Inlandsbanan (if I don't misunderstand them, you can get a pass for some 2000 kr. that allows unlimited rides for two weeks) and/or the appropriate WP articles. I would like to see this featured one day, but I'd also like to ride this one day... Hobbitschuster (talk) 22:15, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

Eat and drink section

Is there meal service aboard the trains? If so, it should go in an eat section, if not a single sentence saying so should be enough Hobbitschuster (talk) 17:06, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Good point. The line's website has some information, which I added. Good if somebody in the know could confirm and add their experiences. --LPfi (talk) 18:01, 22 October 2019 (UTC)