Stockholm Central Station

Stockholm Central Station
Location Stockholm, 
Sweden
Coordinates 59°19′48″N 18°03′22″E / 59.330°N 18.056°E / 59.330; 18.056Coordinates: 59°19′48″N 18°03′22″E / 59.330°N 18.056°E / 59.330; 18.056
Elevation 3 m
Owned by Jernhusen
Operated by Arlanda Express
Stockholmståg
SJ
Veolia Transport
Line(s) Ostkustbanan
Västra stambanan
Platforms 17
Construction
Architect Adolf W. Edelsvärd
History
Opened 1871
1957 (T-Centralen)
Services
Preceding station   Sweden   Following station
Terminus

Stockholm Central Station (Swedish: Stockholms Centralstation, Stockholm C) is the largest railway station in Sweden.[lower-alpha 1] It is situated in the district of Norrmalm at Vasagatan/Central Plan. Opened July 18, 1871, it has over 200,000 visitors daily,[1] of which about 170,000 are travellers (105,000 with commuter trains, 25,000 with Arlanda Express and 40,000 with other trains).

Because it is the busiest station in Sweden, engineers use the heat generated by the thousands of visitors every day to help heat a nearby office building.[2]

In front of the central station stands a statue of Nils Ericson.

History

The station in 1890

The station was built between 1867 and 1871 with Adolf W. Edelsvärd as the architect. Until 1925 the tracks led in to the station but during a renovation 1925-1927 the tracks were moved to the west and the former track hall was converted into a 119 meter long, 28 meter wide and 13 meter high waiting hall. During the renovation the station was extended to the south through the construction of the southern pavilion. This part of the station currently houses a conference facility. Next to the conference facility is the Royal waiting hall where the Royal Family waits when travelling by train.

In 1951 the façade towards Vasagatan was changed and given a more simplified look. In 1958 an underground passage to T-Centralen was opened.

Traffic

The front of the station being renovated during summer 2012. Reflecting this, the statue of Nils Ericson in front of the main entrance is wearing ear mufflers and accompanied with a text saying Jäsicken hvilket oväsen ("Oh my gosh what a noise").
A SL X60 commuter train on platform 10

The station consists of two parts:

On level with the Northern Railway Square are service depots for long-distance and regional trains. Trains arriving from the south and turning back from the central station, after passengers continuing northwards have disembarked, continue to the service depots where they are cleaned and have their supplies refilled. Then they continue back via platforms 10 to 12. Long-distance trains from platforms 4 to 8 are services in the same way near the Northern Railway Square.

Commuter train station

The Stockholm commuter rail uses two platforms and platforms 13 to 16, and constitutes a major part of the traffic at the Stockholm Central Station.

The Stockholm Central station is the busiest station on the Stockholm commuter rail, with about 53,000 boarding the trains and about as many disembarking every weekday (as of 2005). The commuter rail uses two platforms 13 to 16. Each platform has entries with entry gates from the lower level and a ticket sales office on the upper level with an entry from Klarabergsviadukten.

The commuter trains go on their own tracks along Ostkustbanan via Tomteboda, and after Karlberg Station they go underneath the other tracks to avoid conflict with long-distance and regional trains. After the centre, they join the Stockholm connection railway to the south, which has had two tracks since 1871. In 2006, a decision was finally made to construct Citybanan, a new track in a tunnel, and Stockholm City Station, a new station for commuter trains below T-Centralen. The construction was started in January 2009 and is scheduled to be finished in 2017.

Bus

A bus terminal called Cityterminalen is located adjacent to the main station, directly connected by a short pedestrian tunnel.

Local services offered by SL stop at various bus stops close to the main station's exits.

Metro station

Services on all lines of the Stockholm Metro network are provided on a separate station named T-Centralen. An underground pedestrian passage connects it to Stockholm Central Station.

Services

Bicycles outside the station
Ringen ("the ring"), in the centre of the ground floor, is one of Stockholm Central station's most distinctive interior features. Citizens of Stockholm like to refer to it as Spottkoppen ("the spittoon").

Note

  1. Not including Metro stations.

References

  1. "Stockholm". Jernhusen. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
  2. Xanthe Hinchey: "Harvesting energy: body heat to warm buildings" in BBC News, 9 January 2011

External links

Media related to Stockholms centralstation at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, May 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.