East Station In 1847, a
concession was granted to build a railway from the mines at Gällivare to
Töre in the
Gulf of Bothnia. The line was never built, and in 1882 a new concession was granted to an English company, who between 1884 and 1888 built a railway from Malmberget to the port at
Svartön in Luleå. However, the line was built with an inadequate standard, and the mining company lacked sufficient funds to finance the upgrades. In 1891, the line was
nationalized and taken over by the
Swedish State Railways. In February 1992, a report ordered by
Kiruna Municipality recommended that LKAB, SJ and NSB create a common company to operate the ore trains. At the same time, SJ stated that the consequence of LKAB taking over operation could be that passenger trains on the lines would be terminated. In April 1992, LKAB was awarded traffic rights by the
Swedish Rail Administration. There was a disagreement as to whether the agency had the authority to do this, and SJ stated that it was only the
Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications who had the authority to award traffic rights on the stem lines, in particular along the Main Line in Upper Norrland. The rights also did not affect the Ofoten Line. The following day, SJ and NSB stated that they were considering establishing a joint venture that would take over the operations of the ore trains. In May 1992, LKAB stated that Norway would, through its membership in the
European Economic Area, be required to allow any train operator to run trains on a line, while this was rejected by NSB who stated that this only applied within the
European Union, of which Norway was not a member. By August, SJ and NSB had offered to reduce the price from SEK 650 million to 450 million, but LKAB stated that they believed it was possible to reduce the costs further. In October 1992 the Swedish Ministry of Communications gave the final permission for LKAB to take over operations in their own right. On 26 October, SJ and NSB signed a new five-year contract with LKAB where the latter would purchase transport services from the two state railway. The annual price had then been reduced from SEK 650 to 400 million. Political commentators stated that the agreement allowed LKAB to keep all the profit in the line and introduce new cost savings, while SJ and NSB kept face by keeping the operating contract. The price reduction would mean that both NSB and SJ would have to lay off employees. In 1993, the state railways were losing money on the ore trains. In January 1994, SJ and NSB stated that they were going to merge the operations of the Iron Ore Line and the Ofoten Line. In May 1994, LKAB applied for traffic rights on the Ofoten Line. This was rejected in December 1994 by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, who stated that the company did not meet the criteria in the law, including that the applicant had to have rail transport as their main activity. On 8 June 1995, LKAB established a Swedish and a Norwegian subsidiary dedicated to rail transport. This would bypass the rationale provided by the Ministry of Transport in denying them traffic rights, and LKAB stated that there was no way the Norwegian authorities now could deny them such rights, given
EU Directive 91/440. At this time Norway was part of the
European Economic Area (and Sweden of the EU) meaning EU directives were valid in both countries. On 27 June 1995, LKAB, SJ and NSB reached an agreement where the three would establish a joint venture owned 51% by LKAB and 24.5% each by NSB and SJ. At the time there were 350 employees in the three companies involved in the transport, and the new company would recruit its employees among these, although it would need significantly fewer employees. The plans called for the new companies taking over operations from 1 January 1996. In late January, the committee concluded that LKAB met the criteria to receive traffic rights. The report also showed that 55 jobs would be lost in Narvik and that the
Norwegian Railway Inspectorate had concerns regarding the safety of LKAB's operations. The
labor unions protested after LKAB demanded that the employees switch union from
Swedish Union for Service and Communications Employees to the
Swedish Metalworkers Union. This was rejected by the workers, who would both have to reduce their pay and work five more years before retirement. On 28 May, 22 train drivers, all Swedish, took out sick leave in protest towards being forced to switch labor union and receive lower wages and worse pension rights. This caused a third of the ore trains to be canceled. On 28 June , the transfer of operations was finalized following a vote in the
Parliament of Norway.
Heavier trains locomotive near
Kiruna Malmtrafik took over operations from 1 July 1996. The company bought the Dm3-locomotives from SJ, NSB's six El 15 locomotives, and a number of workshops, depots and shunters. Post-nationalization, it became the first private railway company in Europe to haul international freight trains. from 26 September to 27 October 200 employees in Narvik were on strike regarding the transition rules for employees. While the strike lasted, there was increased shipments to Luleå. In November, the new ore port in Luleå opened, having cost LKAB more than half a billion Swedish kronor and a capacity of six million tonnes of ore per year. In 1998, LKAB estimated a gradual 35% increase in production until 2005, and demanded that the track owners grant sufficient funding to upgrade the lines from to maximum permitted axle load. Combined with new locomotives, this would give increased efficiency in hauling the ore. The upgrade for the Ofoten Line would cost 180 million
Norwegian krone, and would allow LKAB to increase the train weight from . In addition, heavier trains would have to be longer, so sufficient
passing loops would have to be upgraded to . In March, LKAB awarded the contract to build 750 new 100-tonne
hopper cars to
Transnet of South Africa, after among others Norsk Verkstedindustri had been considered. In August, an agreement was reached whereby LKAB would pay for NOK 100 million of the NOK 130 million needed to upgrade the Ofoten Line. The contract to deliver 18 Iore locomotives was signed with Bombardier on 15 September 1998. LKAB bought SJ and NSB's share of MTAB in 1999, making MTAB a subsidiary. The first
twin unit locomotive was delivered in 2000, and serial delivery was made from 2002 to 2004. In March 2004, LKAB decided to not purchase the option for additional hopper cars from Transnet, and instead purchase 750 heavier cars from K-Industrier. Later LKAB went back to SA3 couplers which now are used on all ore trains. In 2003, the Iron Ore Line from Kiruna to Riksgränsen and the Ofoten Line were finished upgraded to 30 tonne axle load, allowing half the trains to operate with maximum capacity. but since there had been limited funding for the project. On 23 August 2007, LKAB ordered another four twin units, with delivery in 2010 and 2011, and costing €52 million. This will replace all remaining Dm3. After delivery, six locomotives are used from Kiruna to Luleå, and twenty are used from Kiruna to Narvik. By 2009, sufficient passing loops had been built along the whole line from Narvik to Luleå to allow all trains to operate with full capacity. By 2011, LKAB's will be able to replace all the Dm3, and convert all the ore trains to 68 cars. This will increase the capacity from 28 to 33 million tonnes per year, and at the same time reduce the number of departures per day from 21 to 15. A well managed ore train going downhill may have an electricity consumption of around zero due to
regenerative braking.
Resignalling In March 2021 it was announced that
Hitachi Rail had been awarded a contract by
Trafikverket to roll out
ERTMS level 2 signalling system on the line between Gällivare and Boden. In September 2024, ERTMS was used for real traffic between Kiruna and Gällivare, the first ERTMS stretch on the Iron Ore Line.
Incidents In December 2023 a fully laden train derailed near Vassijaure. The line was subsequently repaired and reopened in February 2024, however another derailment took place a week after it reopened near the same location. A preliminary investigation was opened to consider the possibility of sabotage. ==Equipment==