Stockholm public transport tickets and fares: SL singles and travelcards, contactless, the penalty fare, ferries and Central Station

💡 The Short Version: An SL single ticket is SEK 43 for 75 minutes and a 24-hour ticket SEK 180, 72 hours SEK 360 and 7 days SEK 470. SL has no zones for visitors: one ticket works on the metro (tunnelbana), buses, trams, commuter trains and four ferries. A tap of a contactless card buys one single ticket for yourself only, and five singles cost more than a 24-hour ticket. The penalty fare is SEK 1,850 plus the fare. There is no touch out. Buy in the SL app, at a ticket booth or at an SL Center; there is no cash on board. Any SL ticket covers the Djurgården ferry and the Waxholmsbolaget boats to Vaxholm. Arlanda and the Arlanda Express have their own prices: Arlanda to the city.

Tickets and fares

SL (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik) runs the metro, the commuter trains, the trams and light railways, hundreds of bus lines and four commuter ferries across Stockholm County, and one ticket works on all of them. Prices are adult prices from SL. The discounted fare is for ages 6 to 19, ages 65 and over and students with an SL student card.

SL metro trains on an open-air stretch near Telefonplan. Photo: FrayMan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A 24-hour ticket is cheaper than separate singles from the fifth journey: four singles cost SEK 172 and five SEK 215. The 72-hour ticket is SEK 120 a day and the 7-day ticket about SEK 67 a day.

Contactless cards

Tap a Visa, Mastercard or American Express card, physical or in a phone wallet, at the reader. It buys a single ticket valid for 75 minutes, and tapping again within 75 minutes counts as a transfer. The ticket is personal: a card pays for one traveller. A phone and a physical card of the same account count as two cards, so use the same one for the whole journey. SL totals the day’s tickets after midnight and charges the card once, which can take several days to show. SL prints no daily cap for contactless taps, so on a day with five journeys buy a travelcard. A blocked card makes the ticket invalid even if the gate opens.

The SL app

“SL - Reseplanerare och biljetter” is free on the App Store and Google Play. It sells single tickets and travelcards from 24 hours to a year, plus Waxholmsbolaget tickets and a combined SL and Waxholmsbolaget ticket. Its journey planner and live departures cover every mode. SL’s customer service is open round the clock on +46 8 600 10 00, in English as well as Swedish.

The modes

An SL tram on Strandvägen, on the line that runs to Djurgården. Photo: Liberaler Humanist, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Djurgården ferry from Slussen lands at Allmänna gränd, beside Gröna Lund and ABBA The Museum; tram 7 and bus 67 also run to Djurgården. The inner-archipelago boats are covered in the Stockholm archipelago day trip, and metro art needs only a ticket to pass the barriers.

The Djurgården ferry, SL line 82, at Slussen. Photo: Dmitry G, Wikimedia Commons.

Fines and conduct

• The penalty fare is SEK 1,850 plus the price of a single ticket, SL’s own figure. You have 10 days to pay or appeal. Ticket inspection is carried out by ISS on SL’s behalf. Visit Stockholm’s page gives SEK 1,500, which is out of date.
• Keep the paper receipt if you leave a Waxholmsbolaget boat on an SL ticket and give it to the crew.
• Luggage and prams travel free. Nothing bulky or over two metres is allowed.
• Bicycles are generally not allowed. Off-peak they may go on commuter trains, though not at Stockholm City or Arlanda stations, and on commuter ferries if there is room.
• Pets travel free on a lead or in a carrier.
• Children: up to six children under 12 travel free with a fare-paying adult, every day. An unlimited number under 7 travel free with a ticket holder, and ages 6 to 19 pay the discounted fare. This is an SL rule: Waxholmsbolaget tickets do not carry children aged 7 to 11 free. A pram boarding by the exit doors of most buses is free, but you need a ticket on the metro, trains and trams, and on buses with readers at every door (routes 1 to 6).

Bikes and e-scooters

The city rents bikes from Bolt and Voi, 1,500 each, through their apps, and e-scooters count as bicycles: 20 km/h at most, on cycle paths and not on pavements, one rider, a helmet for under-15s. Stockholm bike tours has the rest, including bike hire.

Stockholm Central Station and T-Centralen

Stockholm Central Station is the hub for long-distance, regional and commuter trains and the Arlanda Express. Together with Cityterminalen it has more than 200,000 visitors a day, according to its owner Jernhusen. Cityterminalen, the long-distance and airport coach terminal inside the World Trade Center on Klarabergsviadukten, is joined to the station by walkways and lifts. For the metro, follow the signs to T-Centralen, where the lines meet.

• SL Center is in the entrance hall facing Vasagatan, and SJ and Mälartåg sell their own tickets.
• Lockers are in the lower and upper halls of the station and on levels 1 and 2 of Cityterminalen. A small box is SEK 49 per started hour up to SEK 299 for 24 hours, and a large box SEK 79 per started hour up to SEK 399. You can reach them only in the station’s opening hours. Staffed storage in the lower hall takes larger bags for a fee.
• The porter service is free from 08:00 to 18:00 every day. Book on +46 8 441 02 40, no earlier than 30 minutes before the train leaves or arrives.
• Rail journeys from Copenhagen end here. Sweden has notified border controls from 12 November 2026 to 11 May 2027, and the police check identity at Hyllie, the first station in Sweden, so carry your passport (EU citizens: passport or national ID card). The Malmö day trip from Copenhagen and the Copenhagen guide cover the other side of the route.
• Day-trip trains to Uppsala, to Märsta for Sigtuna and to Läggesta for Mariefred leave from here: day trips from Stockholm.

Taxis

Taxi fares are not regulated in Sweden: the “comparison price” on the car is not a maximum, so ask the price before you set off. Arlanda to the city has the airport rules.

Which to buy

• One or two rides: a SEK 43 single, or a tap of a contactless card.
• Five or more rides in a day: a 24-hour ticket, SEK 180.
• A long weekend: a 72-hour ticket, SEK 360.
• A week: the 7-day ticket, SEK 470.
• Vaxholm and the inner islands: any SL ticket.
• Arlanda: an SL single plus the SEK 157 station fee on the commuter train, or the Arlanda Express, which SL tickets do not cover.
• With a Go City pass: buy an SL ticket as well, because the pass does not include transport: Stockholm Pass: is it worth it?

Hotels near Stockholm Central Station are on every line, the cruise port to the city gives the bus and train routes for each berth, and what to book before you go to Stockholm lists the sights.