Pågatågen


Pågatågen is an interurban railway system in Skåne County, Sweden, and is run by Skånetrafiken, the regional public transportation authority. The trains are operated by the contractor Arriva. The network has 72 stations, of which 8 are in the Malmö Urban Area: Malmö C, Triangeln, Hyllie, Svågertorp, Persborg, Rosengård, Östervärn and Burlöv and 4 in the Helsingborg Urban Area: Helsingborg C, Ramlösa, Rydebäck and Ödåkra.
Påg is a dialectal Scanian word for "boy", and is used to indicate that the trains are a local/regional phenomenon, and tåg is Swedish for train. The trains consist of purple-coloured electric multiple units of the X61 model. The last trip using the old model X11 was made on 8 September 2013. The trains are named after famous local people, either real or from fiction.

Lines

As of December 2018, there are ten lines in the Pågatågen system. There are stops in three neighbouring counties: three stops in Blekinge County, two stops in Halland County and one stop in Kronoberg County.
Local trains from neighbouring Småland also operate within Scania on the route Växjö–Älmhult–Hässleholm.

Rolling stock

The Pågatåg rolling stock is owned by Skånetrafiken, although the operation is carried out by Arriva.
Pågatåg rolling stock under the first concession were primarily of type X11, but as demand grew, other available train types had to be added to the roster. Some Bombardier Regina X52 type trainsets were rented from other train owners. The type X31, normally used for the Øresundståg traffic to Denmark, was also used sometimes. Subsequently, Skånetrafiken ordered 99 new Alstom Coradia X61 sets, a variant of the type used in Stockholm. Several of them have been used on revenue services since August 2010, and since 2013 they have taken over all services. Skånetrafiken attempted to sell most of the X11 trains during 2011, since they can no longer be used; they do not fulfill all the safety requirements for the City Tunnel in Malmö and had only a temporary exception from the rules.
Note that the rolling stock for the Øresundståg, outside of the Pågatåg concession, is of Class X31 only, and these trains are owned by Transitio, or by the Danish train operator DSB.

Tickets

For the Pågatågen trains as well as the Øresundståg, paper tickets or passes are needed. They can be bought in machines at the stations. This is in opposite to buses where electronic contactless smartcards are used. The reason for the difference is that half of the Øresundståg rolling stock is owned by Danish DSB which does not want to install Swedish ticket machines.