Sweden to preserve Baltic Sea rail ferries

If a train is to go from Sweden to the European continent, it must either cross the Øresund Bridge or take the ferry from Trelleborg to Rostock. And the volume of goods is steadily declining with the rail ferry. Nevertheless, the Swedish traffic authority, Trafikverket, recommends investing in the ferry port in Trelleborg. This is the conclusion of a new report from Trafikverket to the Swedish government, thereby casting a safety net under the traffic with rail ferries across the Baltic Sea.

A security policy issue
The background for the proposal is grim. The freight trains from Sweden southwards are increasingly using the Øresund connection and passing through Denmark. This makes the rail ferries increasingly unprofitable. At the same time, the threat from the east is growing, and this turns secure connections to Europe into a security policy issue. Therefore, Trafikverket also suggests in its report that it should be the Swedish defense force that secures the connection between Trelleborg and Rostock.

“… as a safety measure, it is therefore proposed that the Swedish defense is tasked, upon agreement, to ensure continued train ferry operations in the short term also after 2026,” writes Trafikverket in the report.

Lacks redundancy
When rail ferries to Germany can become a matter of Swedish security policy, it is due to a strong focus on redundancy. If there is no ferry connection that can carry freight trains to Europe, then Sweden is completely dependent on the Øresund connection. This is true for military transports, but also for transports of essential raw materials.

In 2020, the route with rail ferries between Trelleborg and Sassnitz on the German island of Rügen was discontinued. Thus, the rail ferry to Rostock remains the only alternative to the trip over the Øresund connection and through Denmark. And Sweden is taking its impending NATO membership seriously – with all that entails:

Important for NATO support
“For the Defense, the train ferry connection is a primary choice for railway transports. The connection has become more significant lately and is expected to increase further in the future due to the Swedish host nation support for allies and the imminent NATO membership. The need is expected to rise for fast and long-distance heavy transports to and from the continent and further within Sweden,” writes Trafikverket in its report.

One-year framework agreement can be extended to 2030
However, it is not just military considerations that are the argument for preserving the rail ferries between Trelleborg and Rostock.

“Even though the civil defense has not expressed a specific need for its own part, the train ferries are important for the entire total defense supply capacity. The Defense has through a one-year framework agreement with the ferry operator secured the transport needs on the line between Trelleborg and Rostock, and the agreement can be extended until no later than 10 October 2030,” writes Trafikverket.