Public transport in Stockholm

Bus

There is a vast number of bus lines in Stockholm County. There are three different kinds of bus lines that differ from regular bus lines.

The blue bus are in the inner city variant trunk lines traversing large parts of the Stockholm inner city, and in the suburban variant acting as important feeder lines between the suburbs and public transport hubs in central Stockholm, or providing crossway connections between suburbs. These are called blue bus lines because the buses that operate on them are painted blue, in contrast to the red color of the regular buses. The service bus lines are especially adapted for elderly people, and are found in certain residential areas. Along some parts of these lines instead of regular bus stops there are areas where one can halt the bus just by waving at them.

Metro

The Stockholm Metro consists of three groups of lines, which are each referred to as a singular line.

The Stockholm metro has been called 'the world's longest art gallery', with most of the network's 100 stations decorated with sculptures, mosaics, paintings, installations, engravings and reliefs.

Suburban rail

There are three suburban rail systems, with eight lines. Roslagsbanan uses an 891 mm narrow gauge, the others use standard gauge.

Regional and intercity rail

There are regional and InterCity trains going on the mainlines between Stockholm and cities outside the county. These cities include Uppsala, Gävle, Eskilstuna, Linköping, Västerås. These train are run by SJ on their own, and SJ tickets or special combination tickets called TiM (SJ+SL) are valid. The trains are run for a profit by SJ, without tax support. This is possible by having relatively expensive monthly tickets, for example about 2000 kr Stockholm-Uppsala (SL not included).

Light rail and tram

There is one heritage tram line operational, Djurgården line. The infrastructure is owned by SL, but the cars are owned and operated by the Swedish Tramway Society. All SL fares are valid.

There are three regular light rail lines and one inner city tram line in Stockholm and only two of them, Nockebybanan and the new Tvärbanan are connected and share depot and rolling stock. The LRV primarily used on these lines are a localized version of Bombardier's Flexity Swift; Urbos trams have also been ordered.

Boat

There are several Stockholm archipelago boat lines in Stockholm County, run by Waxholmsbolaget. Some of them operate year around.

One boat line, Djurgårdsfärjan, goes in central Stockholm, between Slussen and Djurgården. The SL tickets and travelcards are valid on that one, but not on any other Waxholmsbolaget routes.

Airport transport

The rapid public transport to and from the airports in Stockholm are handled a bit separately than the regular land based public transport as handled by SL, thus they have their own tickets and pricing structure. It is also possible to take regular public transport to and from the airports, but that typically means one has to change between some buses or trains and the trip takes more time.

Arlanda Express

Arlanda Express provides an airport rail link service to and from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport.

The typical ticket price between Stockholm and Arlanda Airport for an adult is 240 SEK, and the trip takes 20 minutes.

Flygbussarna

Flygbussarna provides an airport bus service to and from all four airports associated with Stockholm: Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, Stockholm-Bromma Airport, Stockholm-Skavsta Airport, and Stockholm-Västerås Airport.

The ticket price between Stockholm central bus terminal (T-Centralen) and Arlanda Airport for an adult is 139 SEK, and the trip takes 40–50 minutes.

Local Bus and Pendeltåg

Arlanda is since 2012 served by the commuter train (Pendeltåg) to the Stockholm central railway station. If you need to go elsewhere in Stockholm or catch a train elsewhere, you can do it at Stockholm central railway station. The Stockholm subway system (Tunnelbana or T-bana as it is known locally) also connects there. Don't get confused, because the railway part of the station is called Stockholm Central while the subway stop there is called T-Centralen. T-Centralen is an easy walk from the railway part of the station underground so you need not worry about the weather. The subway system is extensive and also connects to the local bus system. You can use several different types of tickets to use the entire system without paying again and again. You can purchase single trip zonal tickets which are good for an hour after you first start, though they often give you at least an extra 15 minutes on top of that, buy a strip ticket which works like a zonal ticket though more than one person can use it at once, and there are travelcards for various time periods from one day to annual tickets that can also be used by more than once person, though—unlike the strip ticket—not at once. Also, if you qualify because of being a senior or some other reduction status, you can purchase all of these tickets at a substantial discount to the regulare tickets. All of these are available at the Pressbyrån store in the Sky City part of Arlanda. You cannot purchase these tickets at the Pressbyrån store in the arrival area. From Monday through Friday, the Sky City Pressbyrån store is open at 7 am, coinciding with many early arriving international flights. On Saturday and Sunday, it does not open until 9 am. This route takes about 15 minutes to get to Märsta and then another 45 minutes to get to Stockholm Central. It is by far the least expensive way to go from Arlanda to Stockholm. Up-to-date prices can be found from [www.sl.se] also in English. It starts out in Swedish but you can choose Visitor and see it in English.

Tickets

By one measure—single ticket price for a 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) journey—Stockholm has the most expensive-to-use public transport in the world, as of March 2009.

SL's tickets

SL has two main forms of tickets. Both are used for all SL public transport within Stockholm County.

In either case, the ticket is loaded onto an SL Access RFID card that is scanned at the start of each journey.

Regardless of the ticket used, journeys by the Stockholm Commuter Rail Pendeltåg to Arlanda Airport, or crossing the county border to Uppsala and Knivsta, incur additional costs. The additional cost for using the railway station at Arlanda airport is 120 SEK (can be paid upon arrival) (as of February 2017). Travelling to Uppsala or Knivsta with SL from Stockholm County requires a valid Uppsala County (UL) ticket in addition to the usual SL ticket.

SL's ticket prices

The prices for the most common tickets are as follows. The reduced price is for persons under the age of 20, or over the age of 65.

In addition, there are tickets available for school students under 20 years old, as well as tickets valid both for SL and UL.

Waxholmsbolaget's tickets

With the Waxholmsbolaget archipelago boats the ticket structure is essentially

On the Djurgården ferry line (Djurgårdsfärjan) between Slussen and Djurgården, only the SL travel cards are valid.

Arlanda Express tickets

The Arlanda Express train between Stockholm central station and Arlanda airport has its own relatively expensive tickets. The normal price is 280 SEK one way. Tickets can be bought in vending machines near the platform, or electronic tickets on the internet. They can be bought on board the train for a 100 kr surcharge. There are discounts for children, students and retired people. There are multi-journey tickets, and a one-year tickets for unlimited travel.

Contractors

SL does not themselves directly operate any traffic, instead all the traffic is handled by contractors. The contractors used by SL are as of May 2015 the following:

Rolling Stock

1. SL Metro Train
2. SL Commuter Train