Skånska Järnvägar

On 18 July 1971 a steam train left Brösarp for S:t Olof, run by a society of volunteers that had moved to the station only that spring. The state railway's own passenger trains were still on the line: SJ ran its last one on New Year's Eve that year. By the time the line closed, the people who meant to keep it had already been running it for five months.

They have kept it ever since. Skånska Järnvägar calls itself Sweden's oldest standard-gauge museum railway, and all the work on it is unpaid. In 2002 the society bought the track from the state, and today it runs steam, a 1950s railbus and a dining car of 1946 over 13.4 km of Österlen, the far south-east corner of Skåne: round the Brösarp hills, past two medieval churches, within sight of Hanö Bay and through deep beech woods to S:t Olof.

The line was built as the Ystad–Brösarp railway, opened in September 1901 from Tomelilla, on the line to Ystad, to Brösarp, where Östra Skånes Järnvägar had arrived from Kristianstad the year before. It never paid: most passengers went no further than Tomelilla or Ystad, and the goods were grain, sugar beet, firewood and pit props for the mines. The state bought it in 1941 and put railbuses on it, but the car won. Tomelilla to S:t Olof lost its trains in the 1940s and 1950s and was lifted; the passenger service north of S:t Olof lasted until the end of 1971.

The train

Two steam locomotives work the line. E2 1183 was built at Motala in 1914 and S1 1914, a tank engine, by NOHAB in 1952. Behind them run wooden coaches built between 1898 and 1942 and the dining car of 1946, about 150 metres and 275 tonnes in all. Each round trip burns some 600 kg of coal and 4 cubic metres of water. When the risk of forest fire is high, or an engine is out of order, a heritage diesel of 1955 takes the train instead. On some summer days a Y7 railbus, built by ASJ in Linköping in 1958, runs its own trains in between.

Brösarp to S:t Olof

From Brösarp the line winds round the grazed slopes of Brösarps backar, past fields and through deep beech woods. Ravlundabro is a request stop, and between the medieval churches of Ravlunda and Vitaby the view opens to Hanö Bay. After Vitaby the train runs on to S:t Olof, 13 km and about half an hour from Brösarp.

The top speed is 40 km/h, and 30 when the engine runs tender first. Nobody is in a hurry: the whole return journey, with the stop at S:t Olof, takes about an hour and a half.

The railway runs on chosen days, not every day: in 2026 the regular season ran from 14 June to 30 August, and the year ends with the autumn-holiday trains and two Christmas Sundays. Tickets can be booked ahead, or bought at the stations and on board if there is room. Times and days below are the operator's 2026 timetable, read in October 2026; the 2027 season has not been published yet.

Brösarp to S:t Olof

S:t Olof to Brösarp

Steam trains ran on Sundays from 14 June to 30 August, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 July to 8 August. Railbus trains, with limited seats, ran on Sundays from 28 June to 30 August and on the Tuesdays 21 and 28 July. Ravlundabro is a request stop. The dining car normally runs in steam trains 3–4 and 5–6 on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Still to come in 2026: on Saturday 31 October steam trains leave Brösarp at 12:30, 14:45 and 17:05, the last one in the dark, past Vitaby church lit with candles; on Sunday 1 November at 10:00 and 12:30. The Christmas trains run on Sundays 6 and 13 December, to the steam timetable above, and do not call at Ravlundabro or Vitaby.

Check the day before you go: Skånska Järnvägar · timetable (opens in a new tab).

The usual ticket is a return, there and back from whichever end you start: 225 SEK for an adult and 60 SEK for a child of 3 to 11 travelling with an adult; under-threes ride free. A day ticket, 400 SEK or 100 SEK for a child, covers every train on one running day. Dogs may come along. Book in the operator's web shop, then show the confirmation at the ticket window in Brösarp and it is swapped for an old-fashioned card ticket; seats can also be bought at the stations and on board if there is room.

The dining car is booked in the same shop, and its ticket includes the journey. Refunds can be asked for up to 72 hours before departure. Checked against Skånska Järnvägar, October 2026.

An Interrail or Eurail pass does not cover Skånska Järnvägar, and is not worth buying for it. The railway is a museum line run by its own society, and it is missing from Interrail's table of the companies a pass is valid with — checked in October 2026, when the table carried a last updated 21 October 2026 stamp. Buy the return or day ticket from the railway itself.

A pass can still bring you most of the way. The same table lists Skånetrafiken's Pågatåg regional trains, which reach Kristianstad, Ystad and Simrishamn. From there the last leg to Brösarp is a SkåneExpressen bus — lines 3 and 4 stop at Torparebron, about ten minutes' walk from the station — and the bus is paid separately.

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

The times below are taken from the 10:00 steam train from Brösarp, which calls at Ravlundabro at 10:07 and Vitaby at 10:17, and reaches S:t Olof at 10:32.

They come in the order the line meets them: the grazed hills at Brösarp, and then three medieval churches, at Ravlunda, at Vitaby and at the pilgrim village of S:t Olof.

The railway starts in Brösarp, a village on the old road between Kristianstad and Ystad that has kept a coaching inn since the 17th century, and that inn is the place to stay. What it says about itself is from 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 Skånska Järnvägar. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.