That one was interesting, but seems to be missing some data about regional trains in Sweden. Even though commuter trains around Stockholm seem reasonably correct.
Yeah I probably have some confirmation bias having travelled mainly inside the Stockholm/Sörmland region and from Stockholm to Gothenburg. I was very surprised to see that Edinburgh to Glasgow is not electrified for example.
Sweden-Norway is getting improved, the railroad between åre-trondheim has been 2 separate trains due to the Norwegian train not being electrified. Which is now being worked on. Trains in the northern parts of Sweden will always be sparse due to the low population tho.
I live in the north (Norrbotten) in a smaller community. There is a point to take the train between Gothenburg and Stockholm instead of flying for example, but taking the train from Luleå to the south is simply not worth it. It's just as expensive (sometimes more so) and the trip will take at least 15h longer...
Scandinavia is not really where you want to go in Europe for good intercity trains (its commuter rail is another story). The connection between Sweden and Norway is especially notorious for being ancient and slow, with plans to upgrade it being discussed for many years. The modern lines are the Great Belt route east-to-west across Denmark, and the triangle in southern Sweden connecting Malmö, Gothenburg, and Stockholm. And even those are not up to French, Spanish, or German standards.
Also Stockholm in summer is empty. People leave the town and go on holiday, retract to the country side.
I also don't understand when he says there is/was no social distancing. That is totally not my experience here, a lot of people were working from home and commuter trains were quite empty.
Hej! Another Trollhättebo! Yeah, I actually passed a couple on my ride, though I only mentioned one. As an American my baseline is the number of 4-way stops in the US. I've only lived in Gothenburg and here, which gives a poor sampling bias.
That is a bad excuse, USA is denser than Sweden yet Sweden still has enough trains that you don't have to take cars between basically all cities with more than 10k inhabitants, even those in the mostly depopulated Swedish north.
Flying from Stockholm to Copenhagen (or even Malmö or Gothenburg) is often a better alternative to trains. Thankfully there's now an express train to Gothenburg, but that's about it.
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