The Swedish Railway Training Centre "Banskolan" is a subsidiary of the Swedish National Rail Administration "Banverket" and associated with the Swedish State Railways "SJ". The Centre, which was founded in 1955, is a non-profit organisation created to develop technology and manpower competence for Swedish and International Railways.

The Training Centre is situated in the Swedish southern province Scania (Skåne), the geographical centre of the EEC market. The Training Centre caters for basic, advanced and specialists training within virtually all areas of railway training.

Annually the Training Centre running 300 courses attended by more than 2 500 trainees. Courses and programs range from basic railway technology to senior management courses. A permanent teaching and administrative staff of 70 experienced specialists is a guarantee for effective teaching of high quality. In addition, some 50 external specialists are attached to the centre as part time teachers and instructors.

Customised programs specially designed for clients specific needs are designed at the training centre. Such programs have been developed for a number of railways in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.

The railway training centre plays a significant role in the continuos process of developing the Swedish and International Railways into competitive, effective and safe transport systems.

Education in the following areas:

Permanent way school

To make training as realistic and effective as possible, the permanent way school has its own track for practical training. New machines and equipment for track construction and track maintenance are often used in training by the school before they are assigned to the regions. This keeps the trainees and instructors in phase with technical development and competence needs.

The theoretical part of the training is carried out in modern and well equipped class rooms, laboratories and workshops. The Permanent way School constantly improve facilities and modify programs and courses to ensure that the training meets the competence demands resulting from improved standards, new equipment and clients specifications.

The school also participate in research and development of methods to improve maintenance, safety and track standards for high speed trains. Track welding has it's own facilities where welding theory, welding practice and metallurgical tests are performed. The school is a forerunner in refining methods and standards for track welding.

Railway electrical school

Swedish railways have, for nearly a century, together with the country's industry developed electric traction systems. Over 80 percent of rail bound traffic in Sweden is today operated by electric trains.

Electricity is a effective traction power and friendly to the environment. But electric traction systems also consist advanced technology and require skilled and competent manpower in many professions.

The training centre has developed comprehensive training programs for Engineers and Technicians in construction, maintenance and safety of electric powered railway systems to provide such skills and competence.

The Railway Electrical School has its own track and overhead line system for practical training, laboratories for testing and training workshops for maintenance training on systems and components. The school also serves as a testing ground for new maintenance methods and equipment.

Courses are designed as modules and range from basic electricity to advanced programs in switchgear maintenance, overhead line construction and high tension transmission.

Signalling school

The development of high speed rail traffic has placed new demands on both signalling techniques and people who operates and maintain the systems. The signalling School is continuously improving courses and training equipment to cope with these demands.

Courses, ranging from basic signalling to advanced computerised automatic traffic control systems, are conducted at the school on a regular basis and are annually attended by several hundred trainees.

Training programs in signalling are designed as a system of modules, which makes it possible to compose courses to suit every trainee's individual needs.

The school is using live full scale equipment for hands-on training. Signalling control units are conducted to a simulator consisting a complete miniature railway, one of the largest in Europe. Here, the trainees can monitor the operation of signal boxes, central switch stands, interlocking systems, points and track switches.

After completion of training courses at the training centre, on-the-job training is normally arranged in the regions to which trainees are assigned, supervised by regional instructors. Technicians and engineers are regularly attending courses at the school to get improved their knowledge and skills when new systems and equipment are introduced in their work.

Telecommunication school

Fast and reliable communication between stations, trains and control centers are important for the railway operation.

The Swedish Rail Administration and the Swedish State Railways therefore operate their own tele communication system of telephone, telex, telefacsimile, radio and data transmission.

The training centre's Tele Communication School is training technicians and engineers to run and maintain this communication network which has over 30 000 users. The capacity of the network is now being drastically increased as tele cables gradually are replaced by optic fibre technology.

The Tele Communication School uses a module training system in designing training courses. The basic courses include among other modules electronics, digital techniques, and soft soldering. After the basic program, trainees attend specialised training in the various areas of communication such as data, telephone and radio transmission.

Basic and general education