The Left Party is going to the polls on re-establishing closed night train traffic and giving it long-term state funding. The party also wants to build double track on the entire stretch Gävle–Sundsvall–Härnösand and speed up the planning so that all stages have a time for construction to start.
What happened?
In a party political play on August 14, the Left Party presents three points for the railway in northern Sweden. According to the proposal, night trains that have been closed are to return, the funding is to be long-term and the state is to install double tracks along the entire New Ostkustbanan. The party singles out the stretch Gävle–Sundsvall–Härnösand and wants the planning work to be speeded up. No detailed investment budget, stage order or completed timetable is reported on the page.
Location
Gävle, Sundsvall, Härnösand, Norrland
Impact and significance
For travelers and companies along the Norrland coast, the proposal affects both accessibility and capacity. The left party describes the single track as a bottleneck that affects train traffic even outside the region. The party links the investment to jobs, climate and regional development. These are arguments from the sender and not an independent socio-economic assessment. Cost, source of funding and how the proposal relates to the national transport plan need to be reviewed separately.
Background
Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar refers to protests against canceled night trains and states that more than 70,000 people signed. She also says that the Swedish Transport Administration has assessed that continued piecemeal upgrading is not a long-term solution. WUA has only used the party's own publication here and therefore reproduces figures and judgments with clear attribution. The article does not contain a linked authority report that makes it possible to check every claim in the same material.
Latest update
The publication is an election promise and does not mean that traffic has been ordered, the start of construction has been decided or money has been allocated. The next controllable step is whether the party puts forward funded proposals and how the government, the Swedish Transport Administration and other parties describe the alternatives. Travelers must use the traffic operators' current information for existing night trains and canceled departures. This summary is based on the stated public source and describes the state of affairs when the WUA reviewed the material on 17 August 2026. It does not replace the authority, municipality or organizer's own practical information. If dates, times, conditions or execution have changed, the later information on the original page shall be used. Title and text have been editorially reworded to separate verifiable information from the source's own judgments. No data outside the cited material has been used to fill gaps, and the reader should follow the source links for full context.
Sources
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Reviewed: 2026-08-16. Independent editorial content. WUA Sverige is not affiliated with any political party.