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STOCKHOLM SNOWSTORM

WEATHER

Many still stranded after Stockholm blizzard

The blizzard that shook Stockholm this week could still be felt throughout Thursday as many travellers were left stranded nationwide, with authorities hoping services would be up and running again on Friday.

Many still stranded after Stockholm blizzard

“It feels like I have waited for days,” traveller Rutger Engsäll told The Local.

Engsäll was left stranded in the middle of Stockholm’s Central Station, stuck listening to repetitive updates on the speakers.

“I was supposed to go home to Malmö yesterday but the train was cancelled. Thankfully I got an overnight flat here in Stockholm,” he said.

“Now I just hope that the train I’m supposed to take will leave on time.”

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT TRAVELLERS AT STOCKHOLM’S CENTRAL TRAIN STATION HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE BLIZZARD

Wednesday’s blizzard shut down the city’s entire train system for a time, with several other train lines cancelled and delayed all nationwide as they couldn’t reach Stockholm.

Rail operator SJ expects most of the problems to be rectified soon.

“We plan to have the trains up and running as usual on Friday,” Elina Ili-Torvi, press officer at SJ, told The Local.

“There might be some delays and cancelled trains tomorrow, but hopefully most of it will be sorted out.”

While conditions around Stockholm appeared to be improving on Thursday, heavy snow continued to cause problems further north.

Motorists on the E4 motorway in Gävleborg County were stuck for hours after two separate accidents involving long-haul trucks left the roadway shutdown on Thursday before finally reopening in the late afternoon.

However, other trucks remained stuck on hilly sections of the E4 further north between Sundsvall and Härnosand, causing delays.

RELATED GALLERY: images of the Stockholm blizzard

A class 1 warning remains in effect for Sweden’s northeast coast, with forecasters at meteorology agency SMHI not expecting the warnings to be lifted until Friday morning.

Snow is expected to continue falling throughout the night, dumping as much as 30 centimetres in the region.

Crews at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport were forced to remove 200,000 cubic metres of snow in the wake of the storm, nearly as much as the 250,000 cubic metres removed for the entire 2011-2012 winter season.

While road conditions remain uneven and dangerous in some areas, Sweden’s rail traffic is functioning relatively well according to officials at the Swedish Transit Administration (Trafikverket).

“Rail traffic is up an running as it should be now. There are some delays from yesterday, but it is only SJ’s long-distance trains that are still running on a reduced schedule,” Monica Näslund, press officer at the agency, told The Local.

SJ and Trafikverket urge travellers to keep updated on the situation before heading to the station, however.

“Make sure to check on the web, either on our page or the page of the company with which you’re travelling,” said Näslund.

Eric Johansson/TT

twitter.com/thelocalsweden

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TRAVEL NEWS

Aarhus Airport to get easier connections with new code-sharing deal

Passengers travelling from Aarhus Airport using Scandinavian airline SAS are likely to find more convenient onwards connections from September.

Aarhus Airport to get easier connections with new code-sharing deal

Convenient connections to European hub airports in Amsterdam and Paris will become easier to find from Aarhus Airport from September.

A code-sharing agreement between Scandinavian airline SAS and Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines means that flight codes from those airlines – and more efficient connections via Copenhagen – will appear at Aarhus, the Jutland airport said in a press release on Tuesday.

The agreement gives Aarhus Airport passengers access to over 1,000 European destinations through so-called SkyTeam network.

For example, the code-sharing networks cuts journey times from Aarhus (via Copenhagen) to Amsterdam Schiphol to 2 hours 50 minutes, and to Paris CDG to 3 hours and 50 minutes.

“We are becoming more global. With only 30 minutes’ driving time from Aarhus, people in the region can save a huge amount of time flying from Aarhus Airport to an impressive number of Air France, KLM or SkyTeam destinations,” the airport’s director Lotta Sandsgaard said in the press release.

The agreement “has great significance for the international business environment in the Aarhus region and in a tourism perspective for a booming sector by attracting travellers from European and overseas markets,” she added.

The SK flight code, one of the codes which will be used at Aarhus under the agreement, is operated by Air France and KLM from their respective hubs. This means destinations including Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Porto, Newcastle, Southampton, Cardiff, Venice and Naples as well as Marrakesh, Tunis and Casablanca in North Africa can be booked.

Destinations including Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, Orlando, Cincinnati, Montreal, Vancouver, Detroit and Salt Lake City and more can also be booked with Air France and KLM to and from Aarhus Airport.

Travellers in Aarhus will also see new connections between SAS and Delta-operated flights to dozens of destinations across the USA and Canada via Delta’s North American network. The deal means they can travel to these destinations with one check-in at Aarhus Airport’s SAS counter.

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