Growth in EU cross-border night trains by a commercially driven (Open Access) rail operator

The long distance international passenger rail operator Snälltåget  offer night trains between Sweden, Denmark and Germany 220 days per year. Since the start of the new route Stockholm - Malmö - Copenhagen - Hamburg - Berlin during the pandemic, on June 27 2021, over 120,000 passengers have travelled with the night train. Compared to the old route Malmö - Berlin, this represents a 500% increase in the number of passengers.

- This summer, every departure has been fully booked and we have increased capacity with an extra seating coach in several departures during July and early August, says Marco Andersson, Head of Sales and Marketing at Snälltåget. During the month of July 2022, we had 100% more travellers than last year.

Snälltåget runs the new route completely without subsidies from the state, as a commercially driven (open access) service, and due to that, the trains only run when there is a sufficiently large demand from passengers. In next year, Snälltåget plans to increase traffic by another 20 days to 240 days a year, to meet the increased demand. However, Snälltåget believes that the competition from Swedish incumbent SJ's new night train between Sweden and Germany is undermining fair competition.

- SJ receives state subsidy from the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) for operating parallel night train service with Snälltåget’s over 100 days per year, i.e. days that we on Snälltåget already run. It distorts competition and is just a waste of tax money, says Marco Andersson. Snälltåget has to compete against the taxpayer. We are calling for fair conditions for ALL train companies, i.e. that competition these days takes place on equal terms and without state subsidy, Marco Andersson continues.

In the agreement with SJ, the Swedish Transport Administration Trafikverket has an opportunity to reduce the number of departures that receive taxpayer subsidy in order not to disrupt competition. But it has not done that, even though Snälltåget announced that traffic will be increased before the procurement process even began.

- When the Government commissioned the Swedish Transport Administration to procure the traffic, infrastructure minister Tomas Eneroth promised that there would be no parallel traffic subsidized by the state. The Swedish Transport Administration has an opportunity to correct this, but they have not done so, Marco Andersson continues.

Snälltåget welcomes competition on the track and more capacity is needed in international traffic, but competition must take place on equal terms.

Snälltåget has called for simplifications for operating international traffic. Examples of desirable simplifications that treat all rail operators fairly

- harmonized rules regarding vehicles

- relief in track access fee levels for international traffic,

- tax exemption on fuel and VAT - in the same way that their air industry are subsidized.

Similar ideas have also been proposed by the European Commission to boost international rail services in the EU. The Swedish and Danish governments have, however, gone a different route and chosen to invest in taxapyer subsidy through the Swedish Transport Administration for one specific train company, incumbent SJ, as the solution. This is something that can be compared to taking a headache tablet instead of curing the real problem.