City Tunnel (Malmö)

The City Tunnel (Citytunneln)

Location of the tunnel and the new stations
Overview
Line	Oresund Railway
Location	Malmö, Sweden
Status	Completed
System	Swedish railways
Start	Malmö C
End	Hyllie
No. of stations	3
Operation
Opened	December 4, 2010
Owner	Trafikverket
Character	Passenger trains
Technical
Line length	17 km
Track length	28 km
No. of tracks	Double
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrified	15 kV  16 2⁄3 Hz AC

The City Tunnel (Swedish: Citytunneln) is a 17-kilometre rail link in Malmö, Sweden, running between Malmö Central Station (Malmö C) and the Öresund Line (Öresund Bridge), of which six kilometres under Malmö city centre is in tunnel, to increase capacity on the Scanian network by changing Malmö C from a terminus to a through station. The work was projected to cost 9.45 billion SEK. Under construction since March 2005, the line was inaugurated by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden on December 4, 2010, and revenue service commenced on December 12, 2010.

Planning for a railway connection passing through Malmö to the proposed Öresund bridge began in 1991. The task of investigating technology and cost of several options was assigned to Svedab AB (Svensk-Danska Broförbindelsen). In 1995, the City Tunnel Consortium was formed, starting the design of the tunnel solution. The main purpose of the tunnel was to transform Malmö C from a terminal into a through station by building new underground platforms, enabling more rail traffic in the Skåne region and across the bridge to Denmark), to create more stations in Malmö, to relieve Continental Line from passenger traffic, to expand the catchment area of cross-Öresund traffic and improve connections between places south of Malmö and Öresund trains. The opening of the new Triangeln underground station creates what will be one of the country's largest railway stations, with significantly reduced travel times from the region's cities to southern parts of central Malmö, including the large Malmö University hospital. Malmö thus now has two stations in the city center, of which Triangeln station has the most jobs and housing in its vicinity. A new station was also built in Hyllie, south of Malmö.

Construction commenced on March 8, 2005. Three major construction sites had been established, at Malmö C, Triangeln and Holma/Hyllie. By the end of 2006, another construction site had been opened in Lockarp, where connecting tracks to Ystad and Trelleborg were being built. The underground station at Malmö C was built in a 0.8 km long open trench which was then covered. To minimize traffic disruption, the extensive and time-consuming work was done in stages. In order to build Triangeln station, two 25 m deep vertical shafts were dug at the northern and southern part of the site, and the station was then milled out of the rock by a roadheader — a machine equipped with a rotating cutter head on a telescopic arm. The rock was then lined with concrete elements to finish the structure. Hyllie Station was built in an approximately 7 m deep shaft; the vault that covers the station is a distinct landmark in the Hyllie development area. The tunnel was mostly bored by two tunnel boring machines (TBMs). Underground drilling commenced in November 2006 and February 2007, respectively. On 25 March 2008, one of the TBMs achieved breakthrough at Malmö C, followed by the second TBM on April 21. Work was completed in December 2010, six months ahead of schedule.