Inlandsbanan Terminus

Northern end of the Inlandsbanan, one of the world's great wilderness railways

Gällivare is the northern terminus of the Inlandsbanan — the 1,288 km "Inland Railway" that runs from Mora in Dalarna up through the Swedish wilderness to here. It is one of the great train journeys in Europe: lakes, forest, reindeer crossings, and the crossing of the Arctic Circle at Jokkmokk where the train stops so passengers can step off and have a ceremonial drink. The trip takes two days each way in summer with an overnight stop in Östersund.

The station also sits on the standard SJ network — the night train to Stockholm leaves from here, taking about 17 hours — and on the Malmbanan line east to Luleå and west to Narvik, the route by which the Lapland iron ore goes to the sea.

things to do sight
A story
The Inlandsbanan was built between 1908 and 1937 as a strategic alternative to the coastal mainline, in case of a Russian invasion that would cut Sweden off from its iron-ore mines. The Russians never came, the line was never profitable, and SJ wanted to close it in the 1980s — but local councils took it over and now run it as a summer tourist train.