since I'm now sitting here, waiting for my train, let me tell you the story of Kiruna, LKAB, and the iron ore line - and how these three are actually all just different parts of the same, one story.

The Ore Line, and its continuation as the Ofoten Line on the Norwegian side, is itself odd enough - ending in the northernmost standard gauge station in the world, the northernmost station in Norway, and well and truly removed from the entire rest of the Norwegian rail network. In practical terms, it basically exists solely to serve ore trains from Sweden, in service of the LKAB mines in Norrbotten County - first and foremost, the one in Kiruna. At the same time, these mines wouldn't exist in the way and at the scale they do today if it weren't for that line.

The Kiruna mine's scale is hard to comprehend even as you're basically standing next to it. The LKAB ore mines collectively supply 80% of the EU's iron ore, and Kiruna is the largest one in the world. It dwarfs the town that sprung up to operate it. Look at a satellite view, and you won't actually comprehend just how big it is. Look down a street in Kiruna in the right direction, and it seems as if it's right there. It's not, but it's so big that even in person, without the forced perspective of a photo, it seems it.

This mine produces a little under 27 million tonnes of ore every year, most of it shipped through the ice free port of Narvik. Since its opening in the early 20th century, it has produced nearly a billion tonnes of ore. Its operator, LKAB, has been 100% owned by the Swedish state since the 1950s.

To facilitate the movement of this much ore, massive ore trains are run, making up the vast majority of operations on the line. Every day, they run 11 to 13 ore trains, each with a weight of up to 8,600 tonnes, 68 cars and 750m long. They are hauled by IORE - double unit electric locomotives purpose made for this line, providing up to 700kN of tractive effort, making them some of the most powerful locomotives in the world.

The provisional railway station is actually a lone platform adjacent to one of the freight yards, giving you an even better view of the scale of the operation from there as you arrive or depart.

This line was built and is still owned by the respective railway infrastructure companies of Sweden and Norway. It runs between two and three passenger services a day, including a night train that continues on to Stockholm. These trains, however, require a lot of slack in their timetables as the line is entirely single track and they will commonly need to stop to let freight trains pass.

The ore trains actually regenerate about five times the energy they use on the Norwegian part of the line - enough to power the empty trains going back up.

Besides these regional services and the ore trains, a service called the Arctic Rail Express also runs here - it is a 27h direct service - the longest nonstop freight train in the world, only stopping for crew changes - running without service stop between Oslo and Narvik, transiting through Sweden. It has somewhat displaced previous freight services running on rail from Oslo to Bodø, the northernmost point reachable by rail, and then transferring to a ship.

However, the largest chunk of the operations on this line is the ore trains. These used to be pulled by NSB and SJ in cooperation; however, while SJ was willing to negotiate and drop prices for freight haulage, NSB was not, enjoying a 50% profit margin for profits of 60 to 70 million NOK on this line. LKAB initially threatened to move more shipping to the port of Lulea, but eventually decided to attempt to take over operations entirely.
With this threat, initially further price decreases were offered, and simultaneously Norway attempted multiple times to prevent their use of the line by means of regulation. however, due to Norway's EEA membership and open access rules established through it, LKAB was eventually able to force the establishment of a joint venture, owned 51% by LKAB and 24.5% by NSB and SJ respectively. LKAB would eventually go on to buy out the other members of the venture and transform it into a direct subsidiary, which operates the ore trains to this day.

However, the largest chunk of the operations on this line is the ore trains. These used to be pulled by NSB and SJ in cooperation; however, while SJ was willing to negotiate and drop prices for freight haulage, NSB was not, enjoying a 50% profit margin for profits of 60 to 70 million NOK on this line. LKAB initially threatened to move more shipping to the port of Lulea, but eventually decided to attempt to take over operations entirely.
With this threat, initially further price decreases were offered, and simultaneously Norway attempted multiple times to prevent their use of the line by means of regulation. however, due to Norway's EEA membership and open access rules established through it, LKAB was eventually able to force the establishment of a joint venture, owned 51% by LKAB and 24.5% by NSB and SJ respectively. LKAB would eventually go on to buy out the other members of the venture and transform it into a direct subsidiary, which operates the ore trains to this day.

The century-long mining operations have also caused subsistence in parts of the old town - because of this, the town of Kiruna is actually slowly moving, establishing a new center a few km east of the old location. As part of this, several historic buildings like the church seen in the earlier picture will actually be moved intact to the new center.

This is, however, not without opposition - the local Sami fear further disruption to their reindeer herding routes, which have already been altered due to the mine and rail line. They are apparently being heard more than they were when the mine was first established, but it seems unlikely they will have much influence on the outcome of this move.

Additionally, LKAB, as the landlord of the people being relocated, will increase their rents in steps over the next years, to a maximum increase of 25%, in order to "finance the renewal of the 1960s era housing stock" and the costs of the move in general.