STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — “It’s a matter of identity,” said the small man, immaculate in a brown, Bond Street suit. “People must think of the system as something human, something they are a part of, rather than a kind of giant, distant, corporate thing.”
A graphics expert, the Englishman was here to look over the public transportation system and help it put on a new public face. One of his concerns was the corporate symbol — a simple white circle ringed in blue bearing the letters “SL.” They stand for Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, or Greater Stockholm Local Transportation Co., not for something human.
“People want to be part of things,” the slightly freckled Londoner enthused. “I remember the symbol I did for a London restaurant chain. We used a plate with a clever arrangement of knife and fork to make a smiling face. I like to give life to things.”
The Stockholm transit system lacks personality, he suggested with deep concern. The SL representatives nodded across the table in polite agreement. It just doesn’t have that whatever-it-is — zing, maybe, or even soul — to brand the subconscious of its riders.
The dilemma: Stockholmers know the transit system is modern, clean, efficient and fast. They trust it. But they haven’t learned to love it.
That SL should summon an image builder from London — while many other transit systems wonder where their next bus tire is coming from — is one sign that public transportation in the Swedish capital has made it big. In turn, big public transit has made modern Stockholm.
Foresight and Dynamite
Stockholm is built where Lake Malaren empties into the Baltic Sea, sprawling from the mainland on to some 20 islands and tied together with 40 bridges. Gamla Stan, the medieval old town, was surrounded by new development begun in the Seventeenth Century called the City of Stone. The first three decades of this century saw garden suburbs spring up around the City of Stone. Post-war development has reached deep into the suburbs with new planned communities.
With growth came tramlines in the second half of the last century, established by private companies and eventually taken over by the city-owned Stockholm Passenger Transport Co. By 1930, the idea of an underground railway for the city had emerged in City Hall debate. Soon after, the transit company showed the kind of foresight, which seems to mark Swedish urban development.
Per Holmgren of the National Association of Swedish Architects relates, “In more recently built suburbs, extensions of tramlines were built completely separated from all other traffic and made wide enough to take a future metropolitan train. In the southern part of the inner town, Södermalm, which is steep and rocky in places, one of the tramlines was blasted through the rock from Slussen to Skanstull. This tunnel tramline was opened in 1933.
The city’s busses and trams were struggling to cope with passenger growth when World War II cut off Sweden’s petroleum supply and private cars were garaged for lack of gasoline. When thousands of drivers suddenly became passengers, the transit system was jammed. After a decade of debate, realizing that the future growth of the city was imperiled, the City Council in 1941 voted to build an underground railway system.
Because of the war, construction did not begin until 1945. The first line was opened in 1950 — using the tunnel tramline built in 1933 and a southern extension of it.
Since it gave the go-ahead for the underground, the city has invested about $252 million in its construction. The money has paid for two complete systems with seven lines of varying length. The 38 miles of track are served by 68 stations. Despite its name — Tunnelbanan or underground—most of the system runs at ground level, on bridges or in cuts through the granite-imbedded landscape. Only 13.5 miles of track run below the surface.
Taking Rolling Stock
More than half of the 1,200,000 passengers carried daily by SL ride the company’s 658 shiny green T-Banan cars. The rest of the passenger load is carried by a fleet of 769 burgundy and cream-colored busses.
T-Banan riders head for work in downtown Stockholm
Last September, Sweden changed its road system from left-hand driving (like Great Britain) to right-hand driving. The switch gave S1 the opportunity, with financial help from the Swedish government, to purchase 550 new busses and rebuild the rest. As a result, Stockholm has today perhaps the most modern fleet in the world. The busses feature two-way radios, special low entrance steps designed after consultation with the handicapped and aged, and even a space near the rear door designed for a baby buggy with a special seat for mother. Seventy double-deck busses serve the central city and guarantee a seat to each rider — no standees permitted.
The basic fare on the Stockholm transit system is one Swedish Crown (about 200) and the ticket permits unlimited transfer within the same zone for one hour. The most expensive ticket is 1:50 Swedish Crowns (almost 300) which allows a rider to go anywhere on the system. A passenger buys only a single ticket, good on busses or the T-Banan, which is punched to show its validity.
A Lid On Travel Time
The underground criss-crosses the city center every two minutes during the day (5:30 a.m. to 8:30 P.M., with a reduced schedule until 3 a.m. and no operations from 3 to 5:30 a.m.) A commuter heading downtown from a suburban station can catch the train from every four minutes to every 12 minutes, depending on the station. Busses connecting residential neighborhoods with the underground stations are tied into the system on similar schedules.
From this commuter’s standpoint, the operation seems remarkably smooth. I can leave my apartment in the southern suburb of Sk5ndal (six miles from the center of Stockholm), walk a half block to the bus stop, and board a bus which discharges its passengers at the entrance of the nearest underground station. By the time I reach the platform, the train is usually in sight. A quick look at the newspaper or the scenery and the twenty-minute ride is over. About thirty minutes and 280 will take me anywhere in the city center — without worrying about a parking place.
550 new busses were put on Stockholm’s streets last fall
Technology has made time more important than distance and Stockholm’s planners are attempting to make it possible for commuters — public or private — to reach the core of the city within a maximum of 45 minutes from anywhere in the metropolitan area. To accomplish this in distant suburbs, SL has contracted with the Swedish Railway to operate high-speed commuter trains. This, in effect, has integrated the two systems.
Fringe Benefits
The T-Banan wears Swedish modern makeup. From its toilets to its tollbooths, the lines are clean, smooth and functional, even a bit antiseptic at times.
Möller-Nielsen’s Sculptured Benches
The brightly lighted stations eliminate dark corners for lurkers — or lovers. There is a profusion of work by Swedish artists throughout the stations — sculpture, murals, partitions, gates and pillars. One of the most interesting — and certainly the most useful — contributions is the work of Egon Möller-Nielsen in T-Centralen, the main stations Benches sculptured in concrete with a built-in heating system — a delight for tired people with cold behinds.
Banks of escalators serve many stations and elevator service is provided in some cases. The new station at Gangband has a moving sidewalk. Large roofs shield waiting passengers at outdoor stations. (Bus stops, incidentally, are provided with benches and many with shelters.) The use of simple, direct signs and maps and schedules permits a stranger to Stockholm to use the T-Banan with ease. Some color is added to the stations by nearly 200 shops dispensing everything from newspapers to steamship tickets. But SL, like an occasional Swedish flicka, could do with a touch of rouge.
On the Public Tab
If Stockholmers haven’t learned to love SL, they have learned to accept it as a public service. There is no gritting of teeth or wringing of hands over the system’s inability to be self-supporting.
In 1967, SL earned about $74 million. But its expenses (including depreciation) were nearly $92 million. The difference, which is not termed a deficit here, of $18 million was covered by the City of Stockholm which contributed more than $15 million and by neighboring municipalities which gave SL the remainder. That tax money should underwrite the transit system is considered as normal as its use for street paving or education.
In the same vein, the Swedish government has approved the use of auto tax revenue to help finance rapid transit extension. Federal aid will cover 95% of the basic costs of new lines. During the next 15 years, plans call for doubling the size of the system and His Majesty’s government is expected to contribute more than 175 million to the task.
An Alternative
There were 620,000 residents in Stockholm and only 750,000 people in Greater Stockholm when the 1941 decision to build the underground was made. Today, the populations have grown to 800,000 and 1,250,000 respectively. The fact that SL carries 1,200,000 passengers a day is astounding in view of the numbers.
Despite the rapid increase in private autos, the T-Banan enjoys continued acceptance from commuters. Stockholm currently has about three cars for every 10 people and a family without an auto is becoming rare. A 1961 study showed that 87% of the commuters to the city center used public transit while 71% of those headed elsewhere in the inner city used the system.
Two Faces of Stockholm: A T-Ban Train Departs a Station Near Old Town
Having an efficient transportation system is no deterrent to the private car. The Swedes expect to have one car for every two people by 1990. But the T-Banan — coordinated with a modern road network under construction here since 1960 — has given the busy commercial center breathing space. Stockholmers have an attractive alternative to the private car. Erase the T-Banan and Stockholm would choke in its own exhaust fumes, as less resourceful cities everywhere are doing.
…And A Tool
Swedish planning is an exercise in mass coordination. It’s impossible to look at any phase of urban development here without crossing jurisdictional lines. Start with the transportation system and you find yourself looking at plans for new communities, renewal of the city center, the highway program and metropolitan government.
Construction of the T-Banan was more than just laying tracks to the hinterland. Planning for the underground coincided with work on a new city master plan begun in 1944 and melding the two efforts produced a pattern of suburban development, which is still followed today.
“It was possible from the outset,” architect Holmgren relates, “to execute a high degree of coordination of both public transport and urban development and to introduce new principles in order that the underground might be used to its best advantage.
“The thinking is that the lines should pass through the center of the built-up areas whilst motor traffic routes should run through green belts which surround them, producing a so-called ‘finger plan’ (with developed areas running from the city center as fingers from a hand.) The location of an underground line, therefore, determines the location of each built up area.
“A small local center,” Holmgren explains, “is created around each station on the line. This provides everyday goods for the population living within walking distance and, generally speaking, there is no local competition between shops in the same category.
“Blocks of flats — often in high-rise construction — are erected within 550 yards from the station exits and terrace and detached houses beyond these up to a distance of 1000 yards … A suburb of this kind usually has a population of 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants.”
A String of Pearls
Several such suburbs are then built along each T-Banan line, one after the other, “like pearls on a string,” he says. The minimum distance between stations should be 1100 yards and the maximum 2200 yards. On each line, one station is selected for the development of a major center, offering a large variety of goods and services to several suburbs along the line. The main center, with a supporting population of 50,000 to 100,000, can be reached by underground, bus or private auto.
Since work on the transit-oriented communities began in 1947, the city has built 18 new suburbs housing 250,000 people and is working now on several more. The main centers of Vällingby, Högdalen and Farsta are already well established, with Vällingby and Farsta earning their places in city planning textbooks. Work is underway on a massive new center at Sk9rholmen and plans are drawn for a fifth center on former military land at Järvafältet.
The centers are not molded in the American pattern. They differ initially because they link into the underground system. Second, they are built along with — and for — new housing estates, rather than plunked down near established neighborhoods. But beyond that, the centers contain a variety of social and cultural facilities. Farsta, with 46 commercial shops, includes also a public library, public health and dental clinics, community hall and theater, youth center, church, police station, cinema, post office and space for light industry.
Adjacent to Farsta center, a minute or two from the underground station, are three schools — a high school, vocational school and kindergarten. The Skärholmen center will include a 180-room pensioners’ hotel, a sports and swimming center, and schools within the center itself.
“The factor which determines finally the necessary capacity of public transport,” Holmgren says, “is always the commuter concentration in the rush hours, but if passenger traffic can be created in the reverse direction the railway economics will benefit.”
Reversing the Flow
Vällingby has a population of 63,000, including 27000 people who work. The community provides some 10,000 jobs, many of them held by residents who want to work near their homes. Farsta offers employment for 5800.
THE T-BANAN IN FARSTA — This aerial view by SL shows a portion of the development, which has been built around the underground line in this southern suburb. The T-Banan’s white-roofed station is the focus. Two loops to the left of the tracks are used by busses to pick up and discharge passengers. To the left of the loops is Farsta Center’s entrance for riders. Housing nearest the railway is high-rise, with building heights decreasing away from the center. Despite the density of building, preservation of green areas adds beauty to the area. Pedestrian paths (center) enable people on foot to reach the center without crossing streets. Out of sight at left, parking for 2300 cars is provided.
Near V911ingby, the underground has influenced the development of a flourishing industrial park, which has its own station on the line. “An interesting thing with Farsta,” relates Holmgren, “is that at a very early stage in the planning, the Swedish Telecommunications Service showed interest and have now built and will expand their new premises there. In addition, a big insurance company has built a branch absorbing 1000 office workers from their central office, which means a decentralization and evacuation from the inner town. They are keen to transfer near a main center and to a station on the underground network, as the latter gives access to almost the total labor market of Greater Stockholm.”
Pluck and Power
The City of Stockholm is the biggest landlord in the metropolitan area, thanks to its practice of buying land begun early this century, and now owns about 80% of the land in Stockholm outside the city core. Needless to say, this has made development of new communities easier.
A sophisticated team of planners representing SL and several city departments jointly designs the new areas, charting a time schedule for each phase of the work and then submitting each decision for political approval, as the schedule requires. The team functions as a new town corporation but works within the political framework.
What makes all the planning work is summed up by Yngve Larsson, former commissioner for Traffic and Planning in Stockholms “We have had the power to give our plans legal force, and the city council has had the pluck and resolution to give us the resources necessary for their implementation.”
A Magnet Downtown
By 1952, Stockholm had two underground lines in operation but they lacked the vital link through the Central Business District and Old Town. The issue was forced when they kept pouring people into the city center and surface traffic became overloaded. The Swedish Parliament gave the city new power to expropriate land and plans for an entirely new core began.
“As the construction of the underground involved the demolition of so many buildings, renewal could take place on a large scale instead of piecemeal,” Holmgren explains. “This meant that certain whole streets could be widened in a comparatively short time, that the various forms of traffic could be separated more effectively…that service roads could often run underground and large pedestrian precincts be formed, and that where contact was necessary between different forms of transport it could be made easier and safer.”
Holmgren asserts, “Underground stations act as magnets, attract people to them and almost force reconstruction of adjacent areas.” The three lines, which will eventually cross the CBD, have anchored its development. Even owners of property not directly affected by the underground are more willing to renew. “There is no doubt,” he observes, “that for several decades hence there will be a great deal of reconstruction work in the downtown area.”
The Greater Issue
The expansion of outer Stockholm and the rebuilding of the inner city have both ridden the T-Banan. Now it is carrying a metropolitan government,
The Stockholm County Council and the City of Stockholm reached an agreement in 1964, thanks to the efforts of a negotiator appointed by the Swedish government, to jointly operate the transit system, which previously had been confined to the city boundaries. This resulted in the formation of a new body as important as its title is long — the Local Federation for Matters concerning the Region of the Stockholm City and County. The Swedes call it KSL.
KSL is governed by an 80-member council, 40 representatives elected by the city and 40 from the county. In addition to assuming operation of the Stockholm transit system, it has purchased four suburban bus lines operating outside the city.
In 1971, KSL is to be replaced by a Greater Stockholm County Council or “Storlandsting.” While details are still under discussion, the council will probably be elected by popular vote and have the right to collect taxes. In addition to public transport, it will be responsible for regional planning, health care, coordination of planning for housing, water supply and sewerage, higher education and policy for leisure time activities.
Thus, the transit system has become a vehicle for a major modernization of government in the Swedish capital.
Sweat and Fears
In 1965, SL carried 223,000,000 riders. Last year, the number dropped to 217,000,000. Thanks to a new line, total riders should increase in 1968 but there is concern, though not alarm, at SL.
Larsson observes, “It is useless to deny that collective transportation in Stockholm as elsewhere is working under the menace of the private motor car.” He sees the menace growing with the planned dispersal of population. “And since, at the same time, the number of cars is expected to double, one may well ask if the suburbanites will continue to patronize the subway and busses as they do now,” he suggests.
In addition to seeking a face its riders can love, SL is seeking to seduce riders in other ways. One is park-and-ride. The first lot designed for driver-riders was opened recently and another is planned. For two Crowns, a motorist can park all day and ride to the city center. (That’s about 400) Greater discounts are offered on weekly and monthly tickets.
The search for customers has now led SL to that corporate Geiger counter — market research. The company hopes the researchers will learn what it takes to make people leave their cars at home.
Some people at SL think they have the answer. “People just don’t want to stand in a sweaty subway car,” one SL man told me. “We have to find a way to guarantee everyone a seat anytime they ride with us. And people think the system is cold. We have to make it warmer.”
“On the ability of the public transportation enterprise to stand up to this competition, technically and financially, and in the long run to prevail, the outcome of our planning will depend,” Larsson predicts.
Putting it another way, there’s an awful lot riding on SL’s love affair.
A touch of rouge, perhaps?
Received in New York August 12, 1968.
Mr. Meeker is an Alicia Patterson Fund award winner, on leave from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This article may be published with credit to David A. Meeker, the Post-Dispatch, and the Alicia Patterson Fund.
