So, I’ve finally reached Stockholm a few days back. The weather these days (first week of october 2014) is not so harsh, though winters are supposedly on their way in. It’s keeping about 13 degrees C during the day while dipping to 3-5 degrees during the night.
What to wear? A sweater with a jacket is enough for now.
Anyway, I got an appartment in Huvudsta and the connectivity by public transport is very good. Not only here, but the entire city has excellent transport so one does not need a personal vehicle to get around. I’ve stayed here twice in the past few years as well and never needed to use anything other than the public transport.
The public transport in Stockholm is managed by the local company: SL (official website http://sl.se). It includes Metro (Tunnelbana), Pendeltåg, Bus and Boat. I’ve never used boat in the past because I never had to go to any surrounding islands, but the use of Bus, Metro and Pendeltåg is sufficient to get anywhere in the city as well as the suburbs.
You can find the rail map here:
Stockholm Rail Map
Details on what combination of public transport to use and at what times can be calculated very easily using the SL’s journey planner on their homepage (http://sl.se – Swedish version and http://sl.se/en – English version). Simply fill in the start and end points of the journey and click search (Sök). This homepage also shows you the current status of the various modes of transports so that any interruptions are known to the user immediately.
The public transport access card that I got made costs 790 SEK and is valid for travel for 30 days and across all zones in Stockholm. The cost of the smartcard itself is 20 SEK and is just a one-time fee and you can keep charging the card for 790 SEK when it expires. Like I said earlier also, all suburbs are included in this monthly plan. There is no limit to how much you can travel and the validity starts from the moment you first swipe it on the machines setup at entry to metro and pendeltåg stations as well as in the busses. There are price plans available for shorter terms such as 1 day, 1 week, etc. but my focus is on the 1 month plan because I am going to use this everyday for the rest of my time in Stockholm.
More information on journey tickets and smartcards here http://sl.se/en/fares–tickets.
More on Getting Around via public transport here: http://sl.se/en/getting-around.
Remember: you cannot buy journey tickets on board any of the vehicles and these must be bought or card recharged at various SL centres. Some local shops such as Pressbyrån and 24/7 sell the tickets and recharge your cards and charge no extra fees than the plans that you purchase. There is always the option of charging your card at many of the automated machines installed at all the stations and you can use your credit/debit or forex cards for this.
Overall, the public transport system in Stockholm is excellent and is really worth the price – which also happens to be a subsidized by the government.
In my next posts, I will discuss options for getting mobile connections, internet connections, etc.
My Swedish Journey 