Railcare is a contractor for Trafikverket for snow removal on the railway during the winter season. From mid-November to mid-March, Railcare provides snow removal at strategically selected locations along the rail network using innovative snow removal machines, to effectively enable an accessible railway.
– Practically, the contract means that Railcare has a number of snow ploughs, snow melters and personnel deployed around Sweden in order to be on-site where it is most needed in the shortest possible time, says Daniel Bolin, Operations Manager for the contracting business.
The snow melting machines were developed in collaboration with Trafikverket and are used at railway yards where they remove and melt the snow in large tanks. This allows the machine to remove the problem instead of moving it elsewhere. The snow ploughs are used for regular traffic, where there is more space to plough the snow to the side, without it creating problems on, for example, nearby tracks.
To be able to ensure that Railcare’s machines and employees are in the right place at the right time, Trafikverket NOL (National Operative Leader) and SMHI hold daily forecast meetings.
– We are stationed in Stockholm, Hallsberg, Gothenburg, Ånge and Långsele, and thanks to a close dialogue with Trafikverket and our solution-oriented employees, we can move quickly to where we are required, says Daniel.
At the end of November and the beginning of December, Railcare’s snow-clearing machines and employees were very busy as the snow came early this year. Dennis Eriksson, Machine Operator at Railcare says:
– Here in Stockholm, where I am starting from, our shifts have gone really well so far this winter. As an example, we cleared a total of 123 switches over two shifts with our smaller snow-melting machine. It is really fun to be able to contribute to both functionality and accessibility on the railway.
