Roslagsbanan

Stockholm's narrowest railway starts beside a metro station in the city and runs out through villa suburbs, past a lake and a racecourse, to fields where cattle graze beside the track. Roslagsbanan is built to 891 mm, three old Swedish feet. It is the last line of that gauge in Sweden still carrying passengers to a timetable, and no other railway in regular service uses it.

It was not meant to last. When the county took it over from the state railway, the line was worn out and the plan was a metro to Täby and buses beyond. Täby and Vallentuna held referendums on 23 March 1980, their residents wanted the railway, and the county rebuilt it instead: new trains from 1988, new signalling, long stretches of double track, and since October 2023 Stadler's X15p, the first new trains on the line in about thirty years.

Three lines share it. This page follows line 27, the longest, 41.5 km to Kårsta.

Two kinds of train run the line, and either may turn up. The X10p, built by Hägglunds between 1988 and 1995, is the train the 1980 vote paid for: boxy, blue with a white band, a top speed of 80 km/h, and noisy enough that concrete sound walls now line the track through Djursholm. The X15p from Stadler is a three-car unit 60 metres long, built for 120 km/h and run at 100, with 162 seats and floors level with the platforms. The first carried passengers on the 10:35 from Stockholms östra on 31 October 2023, and SL ordered ten more in August 2025 to replace the X10p, due in service from 2028.

Out of the city

The terminus, Stockholms östra, sits next to the Tekniska högskolan metro station; the line has not run further into the city since 1960. Two minutes out is Universitetet, opened in 2010 inside the Royal National City Park, and then the train crosses the Stocksund on a bridge doubled in 1996–97. At Djursholms Ösby line 29 turns off for Näsbypark; at Roslags Näsby line 28 leaves for Österskär, and line 27 heads north alone.

Double track, then one

From Roslags Näsby to Vallentuna the Kårsta line has had two tracks since October 2021. It passes Täby kyrkby, with its medieval church and Jarlabanke's causeway, and the long lake at Vallentuna. Beyond Vallentuna it goes back to a single track with passing loops, runs past the depot at Molnby, and the stations turn rural: Lindholmen, Frösunda, Ekskogen.

The end at Kårsta

Kårsta is where the rails stop, 52 minutes from the city on an all-stations train. The line once ran on to Rimbo and, until 1969, beyond it to Norrtälje; Kårsta to Rimbo closed in January 1981 and was lifted the next year. Lindholmen to Kårsta was due to go too, and survived only because the roads were too poor for buses.

What comes next

In 2017 the state, the county and the municipalities agreed to take the line underground from Universitetet to Odenplan and T-Centralen, the hub of the metro. Trains are expected to run there around 2038, and Stockholms östra will then close.

Trains run every day of the year and need no booking. Line 27 leaves Stockholms östra several times an hour, but most trains turn back at Ormsta or Lindholmen; the tables below are a selection of those that run all the way to Kårsta. On weekdays most of them are 27S trains, which skip Djursholms Ösby, Ensta, Visinge and Bällsta and take 47–48 minutes. They run every 40 minutes in the morning and afternoon peaks and hourly in between; from about 20:00, and all day at weekends, a train calls everywhere every hour and takes 52 minutes. On Friday and Saturday nights one more train runs each way, at 01:09. Times are from SL's journey planner for November 2026, read in October 2026.

Stockholms östra to Kårsta

Kårsta to Stockholms östra

The first train is at 05:21 (05:07 from Kårsta) on weekdays and 05:09 at weekends; the 00:09 is the last, except on Friday and Saturday nights. Check your date on SL's planner: SL · travel planner (opens in a new tab).

Roslagsbanan is part of SL, Stockholm's public transport, and takes the same tickets as the metro and the buses. A single ticket costs 43 SEK and is valid for 75 minutes on every SL service, which covers the run to Kårsta with time to spare; travelcards cost 180 SEK for 24 hours and 360 SEK for 72. Under-20s and over-65s pay a reduced fare, and children under seven travel free with a ticket holder.

There are no ticket barriers on the line, and no cash is taken on board. Buy in the SL app, or tap a contactless bank card or phone on the card reader on the platform before boarding. Checked against SL, October 2026.

An Interrail or Eurail pass does not cover Roslagsbanan. Interrail's table of the companies a pass is valid with — checked in October 2026, when it carried a last updated 21 October 2026 stamp — does not list SL, and names "all other regional traffic run by the municipalities" among the trains in Sweden that a pass does not cover.

The pass worth having here is SL's own. A 24-hour travelcard at 180 SEK, or 72 hours at 360 SEK, covers every branch of the line along with the metro, the commuter trains, the buses and the ferries to Djurgården, and costs less than five single tickets.

Conditions read on interrail.com (opens in a new tab) and sl.se (opens in a new tab) in October 2026.

The times below are taken from the 10:09 from Stockholms östra on a Saturday, which calls at Djursholms Ösby at 10:17, Täby kyrkby at 10:31 and Vallentuna at 10:39, and reaches Kårsta at 11:01.

They come in the order the line meets them: a castle in the villa town of Djursholm, a Viking-age causeway at Täby, a medieval church above a lake at Vallentuna, and at the end of the line a country church a walk from the terminus.

The whole of line 27 is an easy day out from Stockholm, so the place to stay is the city end. Both houses below are on the northern edge of the centre, one a short walk from Stockholms östra. Everything described is what the house says about itself on its own site, read in October 2026. No price, grade or star count appears here, because none has been verified.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about Roslagsbanan. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.