Malmtrafik I Kiruna AB

Malmtrafik I Kiruna AB or MTAB is a Swedish Railway company, subsidiary company with 100% of the group LKAB, which ensures the Transport Minerai of Fer between the mines of Kiruna in Sweden and the port of Narvik in Norway. MTAB transports 23 million tons per annum.

The parent company LKAB

LKAB ( Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag ) is a mining company, having the statute of public limit company by action (AB) whose capital is held to 100% by the Swedish State since 1976. She works five mines of Magnétite in Sweden with Kiruna, the most important site, and in Malmberget. The ore is essentially agglomerated in pellets in the sites of extraction, like in a factory located at Svappavaara. Ore exports are done by the Norwegian port of Narvik, free of ice permanently thanks to the Gulf Stream) and by the Swedish port of Luleå (in the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic), where the intervention of Brise-glace S is necessary the winter.

All transport is entrusted to MTAB. In Norway, MTAB uses the services of its own subsidiary company MTAS (Malmtrafikk ACE).

The manpower is of 160 employees for MTAB and 80 for MTAS.

History

The first ore train circulated of Malmberget with Luleå in 1888. The line of Narvik was inaugurated officially by the king Oscar II the July 14th 1903.

The total electrification of the line goes back to 1923.

At the origin, the ore was transported by SJ (railroads Swedish) and NSB (Norwegian railroads) within the framework of official Monopole S. In 1993, a tripartite agreement LKAB-SJ-NSB made it possible LKAB to intervene in the exploitation, with the objective to reorganize the transport of the ore to reduce of it the cost which accounts for 10% of the running costs of LKAB. MTAB was born on July 1st, 1996 in the form of a Co-entreprise gathering LKAB (51% of the share), SJ and NSB (24,5 % each one). Thereafter, LKAB benefitting from the reform and the opening of the railway systems both in Sweden and in Norway repurchased the share of the SJ in 1999 and the NSB in 2000.

The network

The network borrowed by MTAB between the mines and the ports represents 536 km of lines with normal way, electrified in Alternative course 15 Kv 16,7 Hz (Germanic standard and Switzerland). This infrastructure belongs Swedish side to Banverket and Norwegian side with Jernbaneverket, which are the official organizations charged with the management of the rail network.

The carrying capacity on these lines was increased to 30 tons per axle (the SNCF: 25 t/essieu). The slopes do not exceed 18 0/00 (18 per 1000)

Exploitation

A whole train ore is composed classically of a standard engine DM3 and of 52 coaches charged to 80 tons, that is to say a gross tonnage, tares coaches and engine included, of 5200 tons.

Since January 2001, MTAB brought into service new engines IORE and new coaches type UNO charged at 100 tons. That makes it possible to constitute trains, made up of 68 coaches, a total weight of 8160 tons.

The Locomotive S IORE, nine, were ordered from Bombardier (ex-Adtranz) and were delivered between 2000 and 2004. Long (2*22,9m), of a total mass of 360 tons (2*180t), they 45,8 m are made up of two elements with 6 axles (CoCo type), and are been driven by asynchronous motors which allow electric braking with regeneration. Their power of 10,8 MW makes of them the most powerful engines of Europe.

New coaches UNO, of a useful volume of 47 m ³, were ordered in 1998 at a South-African company, Transwerk. The order related to 73 coaches (either an oar more reserve).

In the ports, the unloading of the trains is done automatically and without stop. The unloading of a train of 5200 tons requires from 30 to 40 minutes. In the same way, the loading in the mines is done while rolling.

The maintenance workshops of the engines and the coaches are in Kiruna.

MTAB is member since 1999 of the IHHA (International Heavy Haul Association) whose seat is with the the United States and who gathers on a world level the mining railroads.

Services travellers

Although this line is dedicated to the goods traffic, there exist services regular travellers exploited by Connex (VEOLIA Transport) between Narvik and Luleå, via Kiruna. The section Kiruna-Narvik, 169 km, which is in the north of the Polar circle and crosses the Scandinavian chain by a natural master key to 550 m of altitude, does not miss a tourist attraction. This way is done in three hours (3 trains per day and direction).

See too

Railroad | rail-bound Transport in Sweden

External bond

LKAB/MTAB, official site
www.photos-trains.ch, the railway gallery
the page on Dm3 and the line Lapp

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