The arctic cold was felt on the country’s railways, where 14,699 train departures were canceled between December 1 and February 28.
In an open letter, SJ’s CEO Monica Lingegård described the winter as “the worst in over ten years for the Swedish railway”, and explained the chaos with persistent cold, extreme amounts of snow, and a railway in poor condition. “All you customers and the entire Swedish people deserve something better.”
An arctic cold outbreak made this year’s winter extra frosty
Now Flamman ( A Swedish Socialist newspaper) can show that the problems are deeper than that, and that Lingegård is hardly innocent. Train workers we have spoken to talk about a drive to save money that affects the working environment, safety and the punctuality of the trains.
The losers are both the travelers and the employees
On September 19, an anonymous letter with the heading “Whistleblowing SJ” is received to Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson and Infrastructure Minister Anders Carlson. The signatories claim to have a leading position.
“We don’t dare to tell you who we are because that would probably mean dismissal,” says the letter that Flamman has seen.
They are simply amateurs. If you have a workshop, you must have spare parts in good time.
Attached is also a letter that was sent to SJ’s board last spring, where serious problems with CEO Monica Lingegård were pointed out. They claim that she is “known internally for not listening” and that since she was hired in 2020, “the financial performance as well as punctuality, customer satisfaction and brand have had a very negative development”.
They also say that she handpicks “old friends” for high positions instead of outsourcing the jobs, such as CFO and HR director Monica Höglind. She, in turn, must have picked up her closest staff from their former workplace Samhall.
A culture has also developed
A culture has also developed where people blame cooperation organizations such as the Swedish Transport Administration instead of dealing with their own problems.
In the cover letter, profound problems with SJ’s vehicle fleet are described:
“Our single biggest problem is that our vehicles are not maintained and handled in a professional manner. […] In addition, the vehicles that we drive in traffic are in very poor condition. They have broken toilets, doors, lights, cash registers, basket tilting, etc.”
“The vehicle problems mean that we cannot run planned traffic. We lose revenue. Costs for replacement traffic, overtime, ob, time shift supplement, service recovery [kundersättning]hotels for customers, quality fees etc.
Designated. SJ’s CEO Monica Lingegård at Stockholm central station in connection with the company’s annual general meeting on April 25, 2023. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/ TT.
The whistleblowers also give examples of what communication looks like from the CEO: “We cannot influence punctuality. We are a victim of the Swedish Transport Administration’s problems.” And that the management blames the winter, instead of prioritizing getting the fleet in order.
“Inclusive leadership is needed where skills and abilities can be developed”, concludes the letter to the two ministers. “The CEO is most interested in himself.”
On Friday, SJ’s board met, with chairman Kenneth Bengtsson, to discuss the anonymous criticism. At the meeting, according to Dagens Industri, the board decided on a package of measures in four parts. In a joint statement to the newspaper, Kenneth Bengtsson and Monica Lingegård describe the situation as extraordinary.
The measures include reviewing the management team, conducting an extra employee survey, an in-depth trade union dialogue, and an independent legal investigation of the recruitments that have been made by CEO Monica Lingegård and her representative Christer Fritzson.
However, it does not stop at the testimony of the whistleblowers. Flamman can now reveal that last winter SJ ran the restaurant cars on the SJ-3000 trains without brakes, to save brake pads. This is what a train driver tells Flamman, who has been involved in the trade union for more than 40 years.
‘They are simply amateurs. If you have a workshop, you must have spare parts in good time. I don’t know how they have behaved. It’s been winter, and maybe a little more brake pads are needed.’
The experienced train driver, who wishes to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from the management, says that before last winter an “SJM”, SJ announcement was issued stating that the trains are allowed to leave the workshop without working brakes. Something that was previously unthinkable.
He also says that the constant savings requirements at SJ have become impossible to hide from customers.
– You skimp on everything. There are cameras on the trains that have been broken for four years. Some toilet doors on the X55s are completely worn out and can hardly be locked anymore. They empty the toilets as infrequently as possible, so it gets stuck instead, and it’s hard to get them working again. Have you ridden the X40, the double decker ones? Before, it was companies that washed the seats, but now they are always filthy. But they have given a damn about it for stupid budgetary reasons in order to feed money into the treasury, he says and continues:
– I always call and report errors, because what you write in the apps is not to get the problem fixed, it’s more for statistics.
He says the problems go far beyond being untidy. The winter delays are not due to the cold, but to the fact that the measures required to reduce the delays are not implemented. You need to change the heating to winter mode, build more “rejection facilities”, i.e. halls where you can defrost the vehicles, and build workshops in more places than just in Stockholm.
One actor owns the track, another the facility, everything is so fragmented.
These problems are not a natural law, but are due to the constant demands to save money.
– From 2000-2010, the railway went so damn well. Only experienced personnel drove. Today there is a surplus of drivers as there are so many broken and canceled trains. But no one cooks them.
Before, they could have paid breaks of a couple of hours, but management wanted to cut all unnecessary breaks. The result, however, was increased delays. The train drivers did not always have time to rush from one departure to another, and if one trip was delayed, so was the next.
He says the worst part about the constant deterioration is that it has damaged his professional reputation.
– Until five years ago, we had the best job in the world. Safety under responsibility. Now they will control everything from Stockholm and keep an iron eye on us.
Another train driver involved in the union tells Flamman that the drop overflowed when his driver’s cab was repaired with silver tape. He also wants to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, as he says that SJ’s current management cannot stand criticism.
Supervision. Stinsen in Linköping fears yet another snow chaos. Photo: Jeppe Gustafsson/Shutterstock.
– Then you feel: what is the treatment of me and my work environment, but also of vehicles that cost millions once upon a time? You cannot treat a fleet of vehicles in this way and think that it will be sustainable.
But the worst is not the cosmetic ones, he says.
I last drove on Sunday, and take out the vehicle list to see what current faults there are. Then I read about a directly troubling error registered before winter, which should have been fixed earlier, but which still stands – a wagon axle in extra need of a wheel change before winter. How can I, as a train driver, take responsibility for safety, if others do not take responsibility for their parts?
He says Seko has been raising issues like this for a long time in protection committees. This mainly applies to changes in the schedule due to a lack of vehicles.
This is partly due to locomotives that are in the workshop and are not repaired in time. Restaurant trolleys are often missing due to a lack of spare parts. As for the RC locomotives [tillverkade 1967–1988] lack the competence to fix them so they are often completely stagnant.
But the problems do not only apply to the older locomotives, but also to the fleet in general.
The vehicle fleet has been driven to the bottom. It is not the winter that has caused this. Rather, it is lucky for SJ that there will be a winter that they can blame, while the rest of us expected this result.
He confirms Flamman’s information that SJ has switched off the braking effect on some wagons to save on brake pads.
– A mantra when training to be a train driver is that safety is the highest priority. Then it is strange to reduce the braking effect on the trains. It is a sad development and another aspect of my profession that feels extremely boring. So far there is nothing that affects road safety, but when you notice how bad order it is, I don’t feel sure that it won’t have a consequence, like an accident actually happening. Everything from careless scheduling to damage to the trains, and everything lands again and again on individual train drivers, who are ultimately responsible for traffic safety.
Mikael Hedlund, chairman of Seko club 106 which organizes SJ’s train drivers in Stockholm, and board member of Seko SJ, tells Flamman that he recognizes the picture.
In the end, it is us who serve on board the trains who have to pay the price. Most often through a deteriorating work environment or by sacrificing our free time.
He also explains the situation with all the deregulations, and the multitude of actors disclaiming responsibility for errors that appear.
One company owns the course, another the facility, everything is so fragmented. This is how it works on the market in neoliberal Sweden. You learn that everything is so short-term, if we can save on something, we do it. Human existence on this planet is beginning to feel more and more like we are only here to wipe ourselves out. But that’s probably not what you had in mind when you asked the question.
Flamman is looking for Monica Lingegård and Arvid Fredman.
