Here comes the backlash of the lack of maintenance!

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.