Stockholm ~ Travel

Nordic Museum, in Djurgården

Stockholm (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈstɔkːˈhɔlm, ˈstɔkːˈɔlm, ˈstɔkːɔlm] is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag (parliament), and the official residence of the Swedish monarch as well as the prime minister. Since 1980, the monarch has resided at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm and uses the Royal Palace of Stockholm as his workplace and official residence. As of 2010, the Stockholm metropolitan area is home to approximately 22% of Sweden's population. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality (2010), 1.37 million in the urban area (2010), and around 2.1 million in the 6,519 km2 (2,517.00 sq mi) metropolitan area (2010).

Public square, Stureplan

Founded no later than circa 1250, possibly as early as 1187, Stockholm has long been one of Sweden's cultural, media, political, and economic centres. Its strategic location on 14 islands on the south-central east coast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago, has been historically important. Stockholm has been nominated by GaWC as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-.In The 2008 Global Cities Index, Stockholm ranked 24th in the world, 10th in Europe, and first in Scandinavia. Stockholm is known for its beauty, its buildings and architecture, its abundant clean and open water, and its many parks. It is sometimes referred to as Venice of the North.

Shopping street, Drottninggatan

Climate

Stockholm, with a February mean of −3 °C (26.6 °F), depending on the definition used, lies directly on the border between the humid continental and oceanic zones (Köppen Dfb / Cfb). Due to the city's high northerly latitude, daylight varies widely from more than 18 hours around midsummer, to only around 6 hours in late December. Despite its northern location, Stockholm has relatively mild weather compared to other locations at similar latitude, or even farther south.

Hötorget buildings, seen from Sveavägen

Summers are warm and pleasant with average daytime high temperatures of 20–22 °C (68–72 °F) and lows of around 13 °C (55 °F), but temperatures could reach 30 °C (86 °F) on some days. Winters are cold, and sometimes snowy with average temperatures ranging from -5 to 1 °C (23 to 34 °F), and sometimes drop below −15 °C (5 °F). Spring and autumn are generally cool to mild.

The climate table below presents weather data from the years 1961 - 1990. According to ongoing measurements, the temperature has increased during the years 1991 - 2009 as compared with the last series. This increase is on annual basis around 1.0 °C (roughly 1.8 °F). Warming is most pronounced during the winter months, with an increase of more than 2.0 °C (around a 3.6 °F - 4 °F increase) in January.

Southern Södermalm and Johanneshov

The highest temperature ever recorded in Stockholm was 36 °C (97 °F) in July 3 1811; the lowest was −31 °C (−24 °F) in January 20 1814. However, the temperature has not dropped to below −25.1 °C (−13.2 °F) since January 10, 1987

Annual precipitation is 539 mm (21.2 in) with around 170 wet days and light to moderate rainfall throughout the year. Snow mainly occurs from December through March with some winters bringing plenty of snow, while others are milder with more rain than snow.

Northern Södermalm and the bridge to Riddarholmen

Transport

Public transport

Stockholm has an extensive public transport system, one that by at least one measure is the most expensive in the world. It consists of the Stockholm Metro (Tunnelbana); two urban rail systems, Roslagsbanan and Saltsjöbanan; and a suburban rail system: the Stockholm commuter rail (pendeltåg), three light rail systems: Nockebybanan, Lidingöbanan, and Tvärbanan; a tramway: Spårväg City; a large number of bus lines, and the inner-city boat line Djurgårdsfärjan. All the land-based public transport in Stockholm County, except the airport buses/trains, are organized by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL), with the operation and maintenance of the public transport services delegated to several contractors, such as MTR who operate the metro and Veolia Transport who operate the suburban railways except for the commuter rail. The archipelago boat traffic is handled by Waxholmsbolaget.

Stockholm City Museum, in Slussen

SL has a common ticket system in the entire Stockholm County, which allows for easy travel between different modes of transport. The tickets are of two main types, single ticket and travel cards, both allowing for unlimited travel with SL in the entire Stockholm County for the duration of the ticket validity. Starting April 1, 2007, a new zone system (A, B, C) and price system applies for single tickets. Single tickets are now available in forms of cash ticket, individual unit pre-paid tickets, pre-paid ticket slips of 10, sms-ticket and machine ticket. Cash tickets bought at the point of travel are the most expensive and pre-paid tickets slips of 10 are the cheapest. A single ticket is valid for one hour. The duration of the travel card validity depends on the exact type; they are available from 24 hours up to a year. A 30-day card costs 790 SEK (83 EUR; 130 USD). Tickets of all these types are available with reduced prices for persons under 20 and over 65 years of age

View of the two Kungstornen buildings

The City Line Project, or The Green Tunnel

With estimated cost at SEK 16.8 billion (January 2007 price level), which equals to 2.44 billion US dollars, the City Line, an environmentally certified project, comprises a 6 km-long commuter train tunnel (in rock and water) beneath Stockholm, with two new stations (Stockholm City and Stockholm Odenplan), and a 1.4 km-long railway bridge at Årsta. The City Line is being built by the Swedish Transport Administration in co-operation with the City of Stockholm, Stockholm County Council, and Stockholm Transport, SL. As Stockholm Central Station is overloaded, the purpose of this project is to double the city’s track capacity and improve service efficiency. Operations are scheduled to begin in 2017.

Between Riddarholmen and Söder Mälarstrand, the City Line will run through a submerged concrete tunnel. As a green project, the City Line includes the purification of waste water; noise reduction through sound-attenuating tracks; the use of synthetic diesel, which provides users with clean air; and the recycling of excavated rocks.

Nordiska Kompaniet's department store

Roads

Stockholm is at the junction of the European routes E4, E18 and E20. A half-completed motorway ring road exists on the south and west sides of the City Centre.

Front view of Scaniabanken

Congestion charges

Stockholm has a congestion pricing system, Stockholm congestion tax, in use on a permanent basis since August 1, 2007, after having had a seven month trial period in the first half of 2006. The City Centre is within the congestion tax zone. All the entrances and exits of this area have unmanned control points operating with automatic number plate recognition. All vehicles entering or exiting the congestion tax affected area, with a few exceptions, have to pay 10–20 SEK (1.09–2.18 EUR, 1.49–2.98 USD) depending on the time of day between 06:30 and 18:29. The maximum tax amount per vehicle per day is 60 SEK (6.53 EUR, 8.94 USD). Payment is done by various means within 14 days after one has passed one of the control points, one cannot pay at the control points.

Five star luxury Grand Hôtel

After the trial period was over, consultative referendums were held in Stockholm Municipality and several other municipalities in Stockholm County. The then-reigning government (cabinet Persson) stated that they would only take into consideration the results of the referendum in Stockholm Municipality. The opposition parties (Alliance for Sweden) stated that they were to form a cabinet after the general election—which was held the same day as the congestion tax referendums—they would take into consideration the referendums held in several the other municipalities as well, but did not specify more in detail how they would do that. The results of the referendums were that the Stockholm Municipality voted for the congestion tax, but all the other municipalities voted against it. The opposition parties won the general election and a few days before they formed government (cabinet Reinfeldt) they announced that the congestion tax would be reintroduced in Stockholm, but that the revenue would go entirely to road construction in and around Stockholm. During the trial period and according to the agenda of the previous government the revenue went entirely to public transport.

Historical buildings on Stortorget in Old town

Ferries

Stockholm has regular ferry lines to Helsinki and Turku in Finland (commonly called "Finlandsfärjan"); Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia, Åland islands and to Saint Petersburg. The large Stockholm archipelago is served by the Waxholmsbolaget archipelago boats.

Stockholm Marathon, on Djurgårdsbron

City bikes

Between April and October, during the warmer months, it is possible to rent Stockholm City Bikes by purchasing a bike card online or through retailers. Cards allow users to rent bikes from any Stockholm City Bikes stand spread across the city and return them in any stand. There are two types of cards: the Season Card (valid from April 1 to October 31) and the 3-day card. When their validity runs out they can be reactivated and are therefore reusable. Bikes can be used for up to three hours per loan and can be rented from Monday to Sunday from 6 am to 10 pm.

Stockholm Central Station.

Airports

StockholmStockholm-Arlanda Airport is the largest and busiest airport in Sweden with 18 million passengers in 2007. It is located about 40 km north of Stockholm.

l International and domestic:

Ø Stockholm-Arlanda Airport (IATA: ARN, ICAO: ESSA) is the primary airport for the region and serves as a hub for Scandinavian Airlines.

Ø Stockholm-Bromma Airport (IATA: BMA, ICAO: ESSB) is located about 8 km (5.0 mi) west of Stockholm.

l Only international:

Ø Stockholm-Skavsta Airport (IATA: NYO, ICAO: ESKN) is located 100 km (62 mi) south of Stockholm.

Ø Stockholm-Västerås Airport (IATA: VST, ICAO: ESOW) is located 110 km (68 mi) west of Stockholm, in the city of Västerås.

Ø Arlanda Express airport rail link runs between Arlanda Airport and central Stockholm. There are also bus lines, Flygbussarna, that run between central Stockholm and all the airports.

As of 2010 there are no airports specifically for general aviation in the Stockholm area.

Greater Stockholm's commuter train.

Inter-city trains

Stockholm Central Station has train connections to many Swedish cities as well as to Oslo, Norway and Copenhagen, Denmark. The popular X 2000 service to Gothenburg takes three hours. Most of the trains are run by SJ AB.

Nationalmuseum.

Stockholm City Hall.

Stockholm Olympic Stadium.

Gamla stan.

Strandvägen as seen from the island of Djurgården.

Söder Torn, an 86 meter tall building in Södermalm.

Stockholm School of Economics.

A 360 degree panorama of Stockholm inner quarters taken from the City Hall tower. From left to right: Riddarfjärden with Södermalm in the background, Kungsholmen, Klara sjö, Norrmalm with the central station in the foreground, Stockholms ström, Riddarholmen with the Old Town, and again Riddarfjärden with Södermalm