Sunday's rainy weather in Västernorrland led to one of Green Cargo's trains, loaded with round timber, derailing on the Ådalsbanan.
Another freight train derailed on the Norra stambanan north of Långsele and traffic on the Botniabanan up to Umeå is also affected by flooding.
We will need to divert as much traffic as possible via the Botniabanan as soon as it opens, says Stephan Ray, who is the head of communication and community contacts at Green Cargo.
"Unfortunate"
But even if this is feasible, the rerouting is complicated by different signaling systems and the fact that the Botniabanan has only a single track.
Stephan Ray notes that large parts of the basic industry are affected. This includes, among other things, steel, timber products, vehicle parts to be transported south, and some further abroad.
This highlights the need for a functioning transport infrastructure, a functioning railway that is resilient to various natural events.
He says that Sunday's incidents were unexpected.
- We have had a number of washed-out embankments in recent years. But that it happens so that a train also needs to derail is very unfortunate. You have to say that it's a bit surprising that it gets to happen.
For the forestry company SCA, the flooding has caused problems with timber supply. Since some roads were closed on Sunday, the company has had to find alternatives for transporting timber to some sawmills.
It's working well, but not quite as well as it usually does, says press chief Robert Östholm.
Awaiting information
He says that SCA, "like everyone else", is waiting for information from Trafikverket. He points out that challenges related to poor roads in northern Sweden are nothing new.
From some kind of socio-economic perspective, it's probably not completely free to have broken roads, he says.
Steel manufacturer SSAB transports steel slabs from the steel mill in Luleå to Borlänge via the railway. Three trains were standing still on Monday, but production is not largely affected, since there is a stock of steel slabs in Borlänge, according to press communicator Tobias Wagner.
Mining company Boliden uses the railway to transport copper between Skellefteå and Helsingborg. If the train stop becomes prolonged, the plan is to transport the copper by boat instead.
It's unfortunate that we can't use the infrastructure, but we can handle it in other ways for a shorter period, says press chief Klas Nilsson.
