Sweden’s busiest airport is going out of its way to push passengers onto an overpriced rail link
ALWAYS ON THE lookout for a bargain, Gulliver takes great pride in using public transport when he travels abroad. Journeys between airports and city centres are no exception. Most of the time finding the cheapest route takes no more effort than logging onto an airport’s websites or opening a navigation app such as Google Maps. Sometimes, however, airports are not co-operative, trying their best to shove visitors onto convenient but overpriced transport links.
A quick visit to Arlanda’s website gives the strong impression that these are the only two options. But there are in fact more than that. Three commuter buses also connect the airport with Märsta Station, 20 minutes from Arlanda. From there you can take a 40-minute train to Stockholm Central. Because the entire journey can be made within a 75-minute window, passengers only need to buy a single ticket. That costs just 32 SEK if you invest in a prepaid swipe card, or 45 SEK if you do not.
That one can reach Stockholm city centre for nearly one-tenth the price of the Arlanda Express is nothing exceptional. The price difference is roughly comparable to that at London’s Heathrow Airport between the Heathrow Express, an overground rail service which is Britain’s most expensive train per mile, and the cheap-as-chips London Underground system. Local buses are also well signposted at its terminals.
Instead, people arriving at Terminal 5 must ignore the signage and go upstairs to the departures level before waiting at an unmarked stop. Alternatively, local buses also stop at a nearby office complex—another option that requires passengers to ignore all the airport’s signage to find the buses there.
Gulliver appreciates that the public-private partnership which built the Arlanda Express in the 1990s–at a mind-blowing cost of 6bn SEK–wants to recover at least part of its investment. That is why passengers are also hit with a 120 SEK “station access fee” if they attempt to take slower commuter trains to Stockholm. But free competition between different modes of transport is good for travellers as it spurs efficiency and helps keep a lid on fare levels.
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