Communications

Where the land meets the sea
Västra Götaland includes Scandinavia's largest port and harbour installation and Sweden's second largest airport. Almost 50% of all goods exported from Sweden are shipped through the region's harbours, and nearly one in ten of the total workforce is engaged in some form of transportation. Västra Götaland's thoroughfares are traffic arteries both for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, and include stretches of European motorways E6 and E20, trunk roads R40 and R45, the main railway line between Stockholm and Göteborg, the main coastal railway line to Oslo, the line running along the shores of Lake Vänern, and the River Göta and Trollhättan Canal, which provide access to Lake Vänern for shipping. The major thoroughfares in the Göteborg region are used by some 60 000 commuters every day.

Västra Götaland has direct ferry links with Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Norway, and from Göteborg-Landvetter International Airport there are direct flights to a large number of European destinations.

The role of IT in development is becoming an increasingly important one, particularly for sparsely populated areas. Its good telecommunications help to make Västra Götaland a single, tightly knit entity.