Wearside firm lands Sweden deal

Transport group Arriva has doubled the size of its presence in Sweden with a new 12-year rail deal that will see the Sunderland firm provide an additional 94 million passenger journeys a year in the country.

The Wearside-based company, which is now owned by German firm Deutsche Bahn, has begun working on the second phase of Sweden’s largest integrated multi-modal public transport tender.

The 12-year E20 contract serving the Swedish capital of Stockholm was awarded to Arriva by regional transport authority Storstockholms Lokaltrafik.

Following the successful launch of phase one of the contract in August 2012, Arriva is now operating 101 light trains on the city’s 65 kilometre Roslagsbanan tram system along with 229 buses in Stockholm’s northern district. Phase two also sees a further 920 employees transferring to Arriva.

Arriva was the subject of a £1.6bn takeover by Deutsche Bahn in August 2010, in a deal which saw  the stock market-listed company become the passenger transport division for the German giant.