Location: | All over Stockholm |
Open: |
All year daily . [2012] |
Fee: |
1 Day SEK 115, 3 Day SEK 230, 7 Day SEK 300. Reductions for young, elderly. [2012] |
Classification: | Underground Railway |
Light: | Incandescent |
Dimension: | L=105.7 km, 100 Stations. |
Guided tours: | n/a |
Photography: | allowed |
Accessibility: | yes |
Bibliography: | |
Address: | Stockholms Tunnelbana. |
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info. |
1941 | beginning of construction. |
1951 | first line inaugurated by the Swedish King. |
1994 | last station opened. |
The Stockholms Tunnelbana (T-Bana, Stockholm Subway) is a system of 100 stations on three lines which covers the area of the capital Stockholm. There are three lines with colour codes, the red, blue, and green line. The red (T13, T14) and blue line (T10, T11) have two alternative branches and the green line three (T17, T18, T19). Actually only 47 of the 100 stations are underground.
Beneath being the main means of transport for commuters into the city, it is also famous as an underground art gallery. Several of the stations have been transformed into magical pop art caverns with bright colours. And while most subway station in the world show some art, just to make them less uncomfortable and boring, several stations at Stockholm are really exceptional. The art is actually forced by the operator, the AB Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL), who even have a a webpage in English about the art. They have several documents for download, including a metro map showing the art stations. The information is also available as a booklet in the office of the SL.
The most impressive stations are the newer ones and those from the 1970s. The 1970s were a good era for Sweden, when the country produced famous people like ABBA, Björn Borg, Ingemar Stenmark and Frank Andersson. The stations were not built with vertical walls and horizontal ceiling any more. Instead the station was excavated as a huge cavern, the walls then covered with a drainage system, which drains away ground water, then the walls were covered with with a seven to eight cm thick layer of sprayed concrete. The concrete follows the shape of the rock and thus gives the illusion to be the rough rock face. The whole station looks like a huge, archaic cavern.
Solna centrum is painted in deep red, which gives the impression of a dramatically red night sky. Along the floor a sort of artificial horizon is painted on the wall, an almost 1,000 metres long spruce forest. It was designed by Anders Åberg and Karl-Olov Björk in 1975.
Tensta was designed by Helga Henschen in 1975 and celebrates the different cultures of the immigrants living around the station. There are paintings of flowers and animals, and phrases in many different languages. Highlight is a prehistoric cave in the central arch.
Rådhuset (Town Hall) has a pink coloured ceiling, and a sort of ethnographic exhibition. The artworks look like the exhibts of a local history museum, including "forgotten" leather bundles and baskets from the market in Kungsholmstorg. What looks like the plinth of a huge pillar is actually an equally faked chimney stack. It was designed by Sigvard Olsson in 1975.
Kungsträdgården is loacated at the baroque garden, and the station was built to reseble aspects of this place. The basic colour is green, there are white marble statues, a rock waterfall, and cast sculptures which were once located at the now gone Makalös Palace. An elm tree trunk clad in stone represents the Battle of the Elms, the protest of the loacls against the felling of the elm trees in the park, which was successful. Highlight of this station is the "archaeological dig" at the Arsenalsgatan exit. It looks like a Forum Romanum which was discovered during the construction of the station. The station was designed by Ulrik Samuelson in 1977.
The Hötorget station is on the oldest line, the green line, and is not actually a station with art. The station itself is built in the style of the 1950s and is well preserved, making it a monument and an artwork at the same time. The light green tiles on the walls and the yellow tiles on the floor are a typical design of the 1950s, the wooden escalators are preserved in their original state. Many of the 1950s stations were designed by Peter Celsing, the chief architect of the Stockholms Spårvägar (Stockholm Tramways), the Kulturhuset, Riksbanken and Filmhuset.
The last station was opened in 1994, but while no complete station was designed since then, the existing stations are renovated regularly. Numerous rather dull stations were transformed into artworks, other stations were used for temporary art exhibitions.