Main Line Through Upper Norrland

Main Line Through Upper Norrland
The railway line at Döda Fallet in northern Sweden
Overview
Type	Railway
System	Swedish railway
Termini	Bräcke Boden
Operation
Opened	1894
Owner	Trafikverket
Character	Mostly freight
Technical
Line length	626 km (389 mi)
Number of tracks	1
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	15 kV  16 2⁄3 Hz AC

The Main Line Through Upper Norrland (Swedish: Stambanan genom övre Norrland) is a 626-kilometre (389 mi) long railway line between Bräcke, Jämtland County and Boden, Norrbotten County in Sweden. For military and regional policy reasons, it was built in very sparsely populated areas, far away from the more densely populated coast. The line has several branches to settlements on the coast, the ones to Umeå and Luleå being considered part of the line itself. Today the three largest settlements along the line are Boden (pop 18800), Älvsbyn (pop 5500) and Vännäs (pop 4100).

The line is dominated by freight traffic. The railway has between Umeå and Luleå two passenger night trains per night and direction, and three day trains per direction (2013). In 2010, the Bothnia Line opened, which parallels the Main Line Through Upper Norrland along the coast from Sundsvall to Umeå, and from 2013 passenger traffic moved to the Bothnia Line and ended between Bräcke and Vännäs. The North Bothnia Line is under planning, and will in a future allow high-speed trains to run to Luleå.