Here is the locomotive to clear in Sweden's train chaos

In November 2017, the Government stated that "situations arise with train stops where time for evacuation of passengers and clearing of tracks becomes unacceptably long". Therefore, the Swedish Transport Administration was instructed to introduce faster and more efficient handling in the event of interruptions in train traffic.

The Swedish Transport Administration's goal is that the maximum time for commencing removal of obstacles to rail traffic should be within two hours in metropolitan areas and three hours in the rest of the country. The evacuation of passengers should take a maximum of one and two hours, respectively.

To achieve this, the Swedish Transport Administration received a grant from the government of SEK 215 million between 2018 and 2020.

The Swedish Transport Administration has placed diesel-powered clearing locks in ten locations in the country that must quickly clear trains that cannot be moved on. Since December 2019, there were only grubbing-ups at two locations in the country, one in Stockholm and one in Malmö.

In April 2020, eight other areas were also cleared. Älmhult and Nässjö in Småland were one of these areas.

- Älmhult is very well located on the southern main line, about midway between Malmö and Nässjö, which also has its own grubbing-up site, says Martin Öhlin, who coordinated the Swedish Transport Administration's work with the grubbing-up locomotive.

The Älmhults-based clearing lid is responsible for clearing the tracks in an area that extends from Kalmar and Karlskrona in the east, Halmstad in the west, Alvesta in the north and Kristianstad and Hässleholm in the south.

By 2024, five other areas should also have been given their clearing house.

The Swedish Transport Administration's hope is that trains that for some reason cannot continue their journey should be able to be moved and that the traffic thus returns to normal speed.

Passengers on board the train can either be evacuated on site or be allowed to remain until the train arrives at an appropriate place where towing can be changed for continued travel.

Hear Martin Öhlin talk about the clearing trains in the clip above.