I’m going to be upfront to say that this will be a good review. Recently I took a flight from Chicago to Stockholm and I wanted to talk about the convenience of the Stockholm Arlanda Express train. I will be talking about my trip to Stockholm in a later post because it is a fantastic city to visit!
Arlanda Express
The Arlanda Express is the express train that tourists or locals can take from the airport into Stockholm City. It’s convenient because it leaves about every 10 minutes and you can hop on any train after buying a ticket.
Cost
I think the great thing about the Stockholm Arlanda Express is that although it is pricey, you can purchase reduce tickets online in advance. In 2019 the price for a return journey ticket was about 60 dollars. If you buy in 7 days in advance it’s reduced to around 40 dollars, so worth to book in advance. These can be bought through their app or their website.
To be fair the express train is pricier than other metro systems but it’s certainly less than what you would pay with an uber and a taxi. If you know you’re heading to Stockholm in advance than just go ahead and book online and then hop on the train. It’s super simple and you’re saving money.
Booking
Like I mentioned briefly before booking is super simple. I would go to the Arlanda Express website to book in advance if you know what days you’re flying in. You don’t need to fill in a certain time or anything.
The cool thing about booking online or through the app is that you will receive an email and a code in the email. They will review the code on the train and that’s all you need to prove you paid. No fuss with paper tickets, although you can print them out if you want, and no worrying about misplacing them. You simply take the next train available, take a seat, and show them your code. That code includes multiple people traveling with you as well.
How Quick is the Arlanda Express?
When we landed in Stockholm we had to wait through customs like all flights. I believe that was a longer wait then the train ride from the airport into Stockholm. Stockholm Airport is already fairly efficient so all we did was walk from terminal 5 by following the signs, went down some escalators, saw the next train leaving for the city center, took a seat and that was that.
Now from terminal 5, it does take only 20 minutes to get to Stockholm Central station. The train travels 120 mph at the peak and there are no stops except at terminals 2, 3, and 4. From Stockholm Central, it’s easy to connect just about anywhere in the city using the trams, metro or bus.
Overall
It’s a great experience and an odd one from someone from the United States. It’s rare we have efficient travel like this and there is room from improvement in major cities across the United States. I get that Stockholm is smaller but that doesn’t excuse cities like Chicago and New York with outdated and subpar train service. Where Chicago is loud, outdated and dirty the Arlanda Express was quiet, modern and clean. This was just the start of a wonderful time in Stockholm and I’ll get into my time there in another post.
More Info on Stockholm
I’ll be releasing my experience in Stockholm and hopefully providing some travel tips. But below are some guides I found on Amazon that may help further with your travels.
