Main Line Through Upper Norrland

Main Line Through Upper Norrland
The railway line at Döda Fallet in northern Sweden
Overview
Owner	Trafikverket
Termini	Bräcke Boden
Service
Type	Railway
System	Swedish railway
History
Opened	1894
Technical
Line length	626 km (389 mi)
Number of tracks	1
Character	Mostly freight
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Electrification	15 kV  16.7 Hz AC

The Main Line Through Upper Norrland (Swedish: Stambanan genom övre Norrland) is a 626-kilometre (389 mi) long railway line between Bräcke, Jämtland County and Boden, Norrbotten County in Sweden.^[1] For military and regional policy reasons, it was built in very sparsely populated areas, far away from the more densely populated coast. The line has several branches to settlements on the coast, the ones to Umeå and Luleå being considered part of the line itself. Today the three largest settlements along the line are Boden (population 18,800), Älvsbyn (population 5,500) and Vännäs (population 4,100).

In 2010, the Bothnia Line opened, which parallels the Main Line Through Upper Norrland along the coast from Sundsvall to Umeå. From 2013 all passenger traffic moved from the Main Line to the Bothnia Line, ending service between along the section between Bräcke and Vännäs. The North Bothnia Line is under planning, and will in a future allow high-speed trains to run to Luleå.