How to travel between Stockholm and Uppsala

Four years ago, I spent six months in Stockholm as an exchange student. One day, me and my friends visited Uppsala and had fika around the botanic garden, looked around the Carolina Rediviva library. After I finish my exchange programme, I came back to Korea and cannot stop thinking that I want to go to Uppsala and study at the library that I saw on that small trip in Uppsala. Now, 3 years after my trip to Uppsala, I came back to Sweden to study Statistics as a master’s student at Uppsala University. If you are in Stockholm or Uppsala, I would love to recommend you to travel Uppsala or Stockholm. You never know! One small trip might change your future 🙂

Uppsala is a university city, small enough to walk around and big enough to enjoy your social life. It is 70km far away from Stockholm and there are various methods to get to Uppsala from Stockholm. This is a brief summary of how to travel between Uppsala and Stockholm.

Travelling by SJ train

Travel time: 40 minutes, every 10 minutes

• Single ticket: Student (around)90kr Adult (around)105kr
• Ten tickets: Student 652kr Adult 760kr

Travelling by Pendeltåg (SL/UL)

Travel time: 55 minutes, every 30 minutes

If you have a UL ticket:

• SL Ticket on card: Student 22kr, Adult 32kr
• SL Ticket on app: Student 31kr, Adult 45kr

If you have a SL ticket:

• UL Ticket: UL app 75kr, SL app 96kr

If you don’t have both SL and UL ticket:

• UL Ticket + SL Ticket: UL app 107kr, SL app 122kr

Travelling by Flixbus

Travel time: 75 minutes, five times a day. Costs around 29 – 59kr.

1. SJ Train

SJ is the quickest and easiest way to travel between Stockholm and Uppsala. You can buy a ticket at the machines at the station, website, and apps. There are several different trains in Sj. Some trains are a direct train which only takes 30 minute to commute, but some train takes around 40 minute stops by Märsta station, Arlanda airport station, and Knivsta station.

Tickets can be purchased as a single ticket, but you can get a special discount if you buy 10-tickets in advance. Single ticket cost around 90kr for student and around 105kr for the adult. However 10-tickets cost 652kr for students and 760kr for an adult. So if you have a plan to travel more than five times within 90 days, then you ca buy 10-tickets and save around 25kr for each ride.

2. Pendeltåg

Pendeltåg is a commuter train which travels around Stockholm to Uppsala. Pendeltåg has various stops in Stockholm, so if you have the plan to visit places such as Stockholm Södra or Solna, then Pendeltåg might be a good choice for your travelling.

Pendeltåg is the most common and convenient methods, but it is kind of complicated to understand what types of ticket you need to buy. Also, the exact same ticket might cost different depends on where you because UL application is offering price if you are charging travel fund in advance.

SL is Stockholm’s public transport company and Ul is Uppsala’s public transport company. If you want to travel two with pendeltåg, you need to have both SL and UL ticket. Assuming that you don’t have both UL and SL ticket, Single ticket to travel between two cites will cost 107kr on UL application with travel funds, and 122kr on SL application.

If you already have a UL ticket (zone 1,2,5), then you only need to buy extra SL ticket. A plastic card for SL is called ‘access card’ and it costs 20kr at the convenience store. You can charge the amount that you want to use, and single ticket with access card cost 22kr for student and 32kr for an adult. However, if you choose not to buy card and rather buy a ticket on SL application, then single ticket cost 31kr for student and 45kr for an adult.

If you already have SL ticket, then you only need to buy UL ticket. As pendeltaåg is passing through Arlanda and Knivsta area, you need to purchase UL ticket with zone 1,2,5. Single UL ticket with zone 1,2,5 cost 75kr on UL application and 96kr on SL application.

For more detailed information about the Zones, the pictures above show the zones in Uppsala and Stockholm region. Most of the attractions in Stockholm are in zone A, but if you come to Uppsala you have to go through all the ABC zones in Stockholm, so you have to buy whole zone tickets. In Uppsala, all the sights are in zone 1, if you go to Stockholm, you will need a ticket for 1, 2 or 5 zones.

3. Flixbus

Flixbus is the cheapest way to travel between two cities. You can purchase a Flixbus ticket online ↗️ or though application. Prices vary by date and time. Time and price table are shown in the picture below.

Flixbut takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to travel between Uppsala and Stockholm. There wifi, plug and toilet on Flux bus, so if you are not in rush travelling, then Flixbus can be a good option.

Hope you have great time traveling Uppsala and Stockholm! If you have any question regarding how to travel two cities, please feel free to ask me though comments or email :)!