Västlänken is a planned railway tunnel under central Gothenburg

Gothenburg

Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...

. The purpose of the project is to increase capacity and reduce travel times on the Gothenburg network by changing the Gothenburg Central Station

Gothenburg Central Station

Gothenburg Central Station is the main railway station of Gothenburg and the third largest railway station in Sweden after Stockholm Central Station and Malmö Central Station. The station opened in October the 4th, 1858. Approximately 40 000 travelers visit the station every day. The station is...

 from a terminus to an underground transit station. Two new underground transit stations, Haga

Haga, Gothenburg

Haga is a city district in Gothenburg, Sweden, renowned for its picturesque wooden houses, 19th century-atmosphere and cafés. Originally a working class suburb of the city with a rather bad reputation, it was gradually transformed into a popular visiting place for tourists and Gothenburgers...

 and Korsvägen

Korsvägen

Korsvägen is a public square, traffic junction and public transport hub close to Universeum, The Swedish Fair, The Museum of World Culture and the amusement park Liseberg in Gothenburg, Sweden. A major armament of the square/junction was made in the 1990s...

, will also be built.

Of the 920,000 people (2009 figure) who live in Greater Gothenburg 410,000 people live outside the Gothenburg urban area. Approximately 250,000 people in the region commute to or from Gothenburg Municipality. The majority of these people use cars for transportation and the roads in the region are overloaded. Better rail communications to different parts of Gothenburg and better transitions to trams would improve the situation. There is a political wish to attract more public transport users. Big money has been and is being invested for rail infrastructure in the Stockholm region and the Malmö region, more than 20 bn SEK each during 1990-2010, but much less in the Gothenburg region.

The largest improvement according to the prosed plan would be for people who commute from places along the railways to Kungsbacka

Kungsbacka

Kungsbacka is a locality and the seat of Kungsbacka Municipality in Halland County, Sweden, with 17,784 inhabitants in 2005.It is one of the most affluent parts of Sweden, in part due to its simultaneous proximity to stunning countryside and the large city of Gothenburg..-History:The first records...

/Borås

Borås

Borås is a locality and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 63,441 inhabitants in 2005.- Geography :Borås is located at the point of two crossing railways, among them the railway between Gothenburg and Kalmar, and is often considered the Swedish city gaining the...

 and who work or study near station Haga, where a large part of the Gothenburg University

Gothenburg University

The University of Gothenburg is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg.- Character :The University of Gothenburg is the third-oldest Swedish university, and with 24,900 full-time students it is also among the largest universities in the Nordic countries...

 is located. 15 minutes could be saved per journey. Also in other relations time would be saved, for example around 5 minutes from Alingsås to Sahlgrenska or Chalmers

Chalmers

Chalmers may refer to:* Chalmers, Indiana, a US town* Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden* Chalmers Automobile, a former U.S. car company* Chalmers , people with the surname Chalmers...

.

Planning process

Already in the 1950s there were plans for a tunnel under the inner city for railbound vehicles, then for trams. The plans were given up because of cost. The city has to finance tramways, while the government finances railways.

The planning process has elapsed during a long period of time, being included in preliminary city plans in the mid 90s under the project name "Centrumtunneln". A feasibility study was conducted in 2001–2002 by Banverket in cooperation with Västra Götalandsregionen, Västtrafik, Göteborgsregionen, and city of Göteborg. Similar rail tunnels are already under construction in Malmö

City Tunnel, Malmö

The City Tunnel is a 17-kilometre rail link in Malmö, Sweden, running between Malmö Central Station and the Öresund Line . The tunnel portion of the project extends for a length of six kilometres under the city centre...

 and in Stockholm.

Västlänken is not part of the Trafikverket Future plan (swe: Framtidsplan) 2004–2015, nor the alternative plan. Construction could start earlier since the Västra Götaland Regional Council

Västra Götaland Regional Council

The Västra Götaland Regional Council, or Västra Götalandsregionen, is the devolved County Council of Västra Götaland County in Sweden. It was created in 1999 by the merger of the county councils of Gothenburg and Bohus, Älvsborg, and Skaraborg Counties coupled with the devolution of power from the...

 is willing to invest money in the project.

Routes

Banverket investigated three routes for Västlänken, including new stations along the routes in the city centre. The route alternatives were named after the proposed new stations; Haga–Korsvägen, Haga–Chalmers, and Korsvägen. In addition to these underground alternatives, an expansion of the current rail network to the south, with a larger termius station was investigated, named Förstärkningsalternativet (the reinforcement alternative).

Decision

On December 19, 2007, Banverket chose the Haga-Korsvägen alternative as it best fulfilled the goals for the expansion. A majority of other governmental bodies to which the proposed routes were referred for consideration also agreed on that opinion.

Construction

The construction cost for the project is estimated to SEK

Swedish krona

The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...

14,5 billion, by price index of January 1, 2007.