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Transport standstill as storm lashes Stockholm

Published: 5 Dec 12 15:18 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/44872/20121205/

Violent blizzards in Stockholm have caused serious disruptions to flights, trains, roads, and electricity, with meteorologists expecting more of the same.

“It’s been a lost day for travel in Sweden,” Klas Nilsson, spokesman for airport operator Swedavia, told the TT news agency.

Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) predicted up to 30 centimetres of snow in the capital, issuing a class 2 warning on Tuesday.

According to SMHI's 3-class scale, a class 2 warning means there is a "danger to the public, widespread material damage, and significant disruptions to important civic operations".

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMAGES FROM THE SNOW STORM

Planes failed to take off or land at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport for most of the morning, affecting up to 60,000 passengers so far.

From 6am until noon, only 13 out of 100 scheduled flights were able to land at the airport.

Only one in five managed to take off.

Meanwhile, Stockholm’s train lines have had problems of their own.

One train on the Lidingö line derailed in the early afternoon, although no one was injured.

The city’s commuter trains are still facing severe delays and the tube lines are also running slow.

“Those who don’t need to travel should re-evaluate if they can maybe go later,” said SJ spokeswoman Elina Yli-Torvi to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

The city’s entire fleet of buses was pulled out of service around 3pm as the snow drifts grew too high to navigate.

Thousands of people in eastern Svealand were without electricity in the afternoon, with little hope of a quick fix.

“It’s really difficult for the engineers to get there, both on the roads and in the woods,” said Viktoria Raft, spokeswoman at Vattenfall, which has 5,500 customers without electricity in Stockholm.

"But we’re working as fast as we can."

Some schools around the city were closed as early as 1pm.

In southwestern Sweden, one woman died when her car skidded off the road, although the police said there were no witnesses and it was too soon to blame the snow.

Meanwhile, the snow shows no signs of stopping, with SMHI predicting it to continue throughout the night and into Thursday.



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16:07 December 5, 2012 by Eagle63
And this is only the beginning...

If in any way possible, move to sunny Florida; it's around 25 C here in Cocoa Beach, sitting on the front porch having a few drinks to stay cool and relax in the morning sunshine..... :-)
17:30 December 5, 2012 by pkpekka
Do the Swedes not own their apartments if you have to talk about a "second-hand" or "andra-hand" contract when you rent directly from the owner. Are first-hand contracts only from governmental rental associations?

I applaud this in general if it brings a few more apartments onto the market. But this is just a patch on a gash that is the Stockholm housing market. Something has to be done to these multi-decade ques! Their rents should be higher to make black-market sub or sub-sub-sub letting less profitable. The biggest problem is not what you have to pay (black-market rates mean non-first handers are paying market rates anyway) but the impermanence and random nature of the contracts for the people looking for an apratment right now. Rents should be tied to the value of the apartments themselves not to how much everybody can pay. Then there would be people moving to the outskirts of Stockholm, more subway lines being built to take them there and more apartments being built there. Those who have the money would live in the center (like they do everywhere else).
22:26 December 5, 2012 by shaon72
I am a taxi diver. I have started my job at 05.00 o'clock in this morning. My question to vägverket/Transport styrelsen Please do your job fairly. There is a lot of street in stockholm was not clean or your worker does not work properly otherwise it would not have been so trouble on the street.

Thank you.
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