Stockholm city has handed the new bus terminal built inside the Katarinaberget rock at Slussen over to Region Stockholm. The work took eight years and involved removing 330,000 cubic metres of rock. The handover allows the region’s transport administration to begin preparing the facility and its operations for the start of bus services.
What has been built
The terminal has 17 departure stops and 6 arrival bays, along with a waiting hall, technical rooms, entrances, lifts, escalators and evacuation routes. It also has roadways and systems for safety and operations. From the farthest arrival bay it is about 300 metres to the metro. Inside the rock, 2,500 metres of ventilation ducts were installed and 2,100 metres of ventilation pipes were made on site, which saved more than 200 transports.
The terminal includes a three-part artwork, The Red Thread, by artist Gunilla Klingberg, inspired by Almgren’s silk weaving mill on Södermalm. It consists of a sculptural wall at the eastern entrance, a terrazzo floor of about 4,500 square metres in the waiting hall, and a punch-card wall with built-in lighting in the passage to the metro.
The numbers
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Rock blasted and removed | 330,000 m³ |
| Blasting period | 2019 to 2021 |
| Membrane fabric | 45,000 m², about 36,000 bolts |
| Reinforcement in the ceiling | 200 tonnes |
| Largest wall cast in the rock | 17 m high, 18 m wide, 75 m³ of concrete |
| Painting of the waiting hall | about 50 days |
What happens next
Region Stockholm’s transport administration will prepare the terminal step by step with the bus operator and other parties involved. Once the practical conditions are in place, the preparations and traffic tests required before services start will be carried out. Region Stockholm will announce a start date once the conditions for it are clear. Erik Norling, head of the transport administration and CEO of AB SL, said the aim is to start services as quickly as possible while carrying out the required tests safely.
Part of the new Slussen
The terminal is to become a central part of the new Slussen, Stockholm’s second-largest interchange. Buses, the metro, the Saltsjöbanan line, walking, cycling and boat traffic meet there.