It’s insane that The Swedish Transport Administration threatens to close 16 regional railways

Sweden is amazing.
The government, alongside many others, has propagated to increase rail traffic for travelers as well as freight for several years.
And then suddenly, The Swedish Transport Administration threatens to close 16 regional railways; 15 of which are extremely important for freight traffic.

The Swedish Transport Administration is saying that the aforementioned railways are low-traffic routes. An analysis from The Swedish Public Transport Association shows the opposite. It shows that almost 4 million trips are made on these regional railways annually, which is to be compared with 25 million for the entire SJ.

As I’ve talked about before, there is a lack of maintenance, not least concerning the regional railways. Now it has become so neglected that The Swedish Transport Administration does not consider it affordable to continue. Over the years, it has gone from precautionary rail maintenance to largely concentrating on remedial actions. These actions are more expensive than maintenance, which has caused the costs to go through the roof.

The subordinated maintenance has in turn resulted in problems with the rails, delayed trains, slower speed, etc., which in turn has resulted in more travelers choosing the car – and trucks within the business sector – instead of the trains.
In this case, it's truly palpable how one has enabled the other to get into a profound negative spiral.

In the supporting documents for the infrastructure planning, The Swedish Transport Administration notes that it may be necessary to close low-traffic railways. The countryside will take the hardest hit, but the Västra Götaland County is also at risk if The Swedish Transport Administration gets their way. Indeed, more than 30 percent of the railway network is threatened – by which nearly a third of the inhabitants of the region are living.

However, instead of closure they should be investing immensely. There’s still a chance for that. An analysis from The Swedish Public Transport Association shows that there is potential to more than doubling the travels on many of the routes. "In many of the railways, demand for traffic is greater than the capacity. More than 2 million people live near the tracks. The regions have already made decisions about investing in trains and increasing traffic to meet the demand in growth and also widening people's labor market regions. The regions have adopted plans to increase the number of train departures from 90,000 to almost 140,000 per year. "
 
These initiatives require that the Swedish Transport Administration develops the regional routes instead of putting them down.

I am surprised that so few are talking about a new rail connection between Gothenburg and Oslo.
The reason is certainly money, money they plan to spend on the high-speed trains.
My solution to the problem is that the Swedish Government sells its stake in Postnord and uses the money to fund this rail connection instead.

In previous posts on this blog, I have been frustrated about the high-speed trains, as well as the lack of railway expansion between the Norwegian capital and Gothenburg; Scandinavia's largest port.
However, Postnord’s business is what upsets me the most. Just sell ​​it and use the money to finance the railway. Then we'll see how long the company can endure when it has to be run as a normal company.

In my opinion, we need to start renovating the existing rail network, which is constantly encountering problems, before we can even begin with the project of high-speed trains. 
For example, I know numerous people who frequently travel between Stockholm and Gothenburg in their work. They have grown tired of taking the train and the risk of being late to every other meeting. 

Another train route, which seems to be a blind spot for all members of the parliament, is the one between Gothenburg and Oslo. How else do you explain that no politicians, regardless of party affiliation, are talking about this? What is going on?
Instead they are talking about high-speed trains and investments for hundreds of billion Swedish crowns by 2030.

They seem to forget that Norway and Sweden are each other's main export markets, and few know that Sweden exports more in real terms to Norway's five million inhabitants than we do to Germany’s 82 million. 

Today we have a nice highway between Gothenburg and Oslo. You can travel to Oslo faster by car than by plane, train or bus. The traffic on the E6 is growing steadily. If we want to manage the flow of goods that passes the Svinesund Bridge – with 2 700 trucks daily plus the private cars and also reach the environmental objectives we signed in the Paris Agreement – then it’s about time for a new railway between Gothenburg and Oslo.

What are you waiting for?