It was during a meeting with the Swedish Transport Administration on Friday 17 November that Fredrik Thomasson (SD) and the regional councillor in Kronoberg Mikael Johansson (M) announced that they no longer want to invest in passenger traffic on the Southeast Link, a decision that, according to the Swedish Transport Administration, jeopardized the entire investment.
Since then, there has been a heated discussion in Blekinge about the future of the Southeast Link. But now the SD-led regional government in Region Blekinge is reversing course and instead says yes to passenger traffic on the Southeast Link.
"It is gratifying that we have managed to find a solution to this. We regret that the work has not been done earlier on how to finance passenger traffic, says Björn Tenland Nurhadi (SD), who is group leader in Region Blekinge.
Why are you saying 'yes' to passenger transport today, when you have said 'no' in the past?
"At that time, there was a meeting between the regions that raised the issue of funding. We didn't see then that there was a solution to the financing, but there is now and it means that passenger traffic can become a reality," says Björn Tenland Nurhadi.