There’s haunted and then there’s something so eerie that the government has to step in. That’s exactly what happened in Sweden when a strange, silver metro train started showing up in the dead of night, reportedly collecting passengers who never came back.
Locals called it Silverpilen, meaning “The Silver Arrow.” It wasn’t part of any regular schedule. It appeared randomly, ran empty most of the time, and looked nothing like the other trains in Stockholm’s metro system. But what started as whispered speculation turned into full-blown urban legend when stories began to circulate that passengers who boarded it were never seen again.
And this wasn’t just harmless folklore. The rumors spread so much that it caused actual fear among commuters. Some metro workers even refused to work late night shifts. The panic grew to a point where the government had to publicly clarify that there was nothing to fear. That’s not something they usually do for urban legends.
What made Silverpilen so creepy wasn’t just its looks. It was the feeling it left behind. Cold. Empty. Silent. As if it wasn’t really meant for this world.
And the most chilling part? It was said to stop at a ghost station called Kymlinge. This place exists in real life but was never opened to the public. A half-finished, abandoned metro platform that somehow made the story even more real.
In this article, we’ll explore the mysterious history of Silverpilen, what really happened, why the public believed it was haunted, and why authorities couldn’t just shrug it off.
Because sometimes, even the most realistic legends start with something as simple as an empty train pulling into the wrong station.
A Train Like No Other
To understand why the Silverpilen ghost story took root so deeply in Swedish culture, we need to start with the truth behind the train itself. Silverpilen wasn’t made to scare people. It was built as a test model in the 1960s, an experimental version of the regular green metro trains used in Stockholm.
Unlike the others, Silverpilen was left unpainted, giving it a cold, metallic, silver look. This alone made it unsettling. Imagine being used to colorful or uniform transport, and then suddenly, a cold silver ghost rolls in.
Only eight of these C5 trains were ever built, and even fewer were used for passenger service. They weren’t deployed regularly, which added to the confusion. Some commuters would swear they’d never seen such a train before. Others believed they dreamed it up, only to find out later that it actually existed.
The inside of Silverpilen didn’t help either. It wasn’t maintained like other metro trains. It had unfinished interiors, buzzing fluorescent lights, and walls that gave off a faint echo. The experience of being on board felt sterile and off-putting, almost like you were in a hospital or some kind of underground lab.
When this train showed up unexpectedly, especially at odd hours, it stood out like a sore thumb. People started to take notice. And because it didn’t follow regular schedules, rumors began. Some claimed they saw it speed through stations without stopping. Others said it stopped at places not even marked on official maps.
The eeriness of Silverpilen’s real presence is what gave its ghost story a legitimate backbone. It wasn’t just a made-up tale told around campfires. This was a real train. One you might run into on your way home, late at night, with flickering lights and no one else on board.
The most powerful legends are always rooted in a little truth, and Silverpilen was the perfect storm. It existed, it was rare, it looked ghostly, and it felt like it didn’t belong.
So when people started saying it was haunted, the story practically wrote itself.
The Rise of the Haunting Legend
What began as murmurs among commuters quickly spiraled into one of Sweden’s most enduring urban legends. By the 1980s, Silverpilen was no longer just a rare metro train. It had become a phantom of the underground.
The tales people told were chilling.
Some said the train only appeared at midnight, zooming past stations without stopping. Others claimed it stopped, but the doors wouldn’t open, or worse, they would open but only for a moment, letting on just one lone passenger who would never get off again.
The most haunting stories involved people disappearing. According to urban lore, some individuals boarded the train and were never seen again. The train, they said, would take them to Kymlinge, the infamous "ghost station" a real-life, half-finished metro platform never opened to the public. Its existence made the legends feel disturbingly plausible.
“Only the dead get off at Kymlinge” became a phrase so popular it bordered on national folklore. The idea that there was an actual station, partially built and hidden away, where ghosts might disembark? It was the perfect fuel for mass imagination.
As the stories spread, panic grew. Not everyone believed it, of course, but enough people did that it began to impact the Stockholm metro system. Staff started reporting strange occurrences. Some claimed they heard the train arrive with no scheduled route. Others refused to do night shifts, especially near Kymlinge or on lines where Silverpilen might appear.
By the late 80s, the government and Stockholm’s public transit authority had to issue statements to calm the growing fear. They confirmed the train was real, explained its test function, and denied any supernatural activity.
But that only made things worse.
People saw the official denials as suspicious. Why would the government even bother addressing a ghost story unless there was something they were trying to cover up?
As belief deepened, Silverpilen transitioned from a local curiosity to a cultural phenomenon, spawning books, documentaries, and modern YouTube retellings. And all of it every story, every rumor grew from a silver train that really did show up without warning, looking like it belonged in the afterlife.
Why Sweden’s Authorities Had to Respond?
Urban legends are usually brushed off with a laugh, but Silverpilen wasn’t just your typical ghost story. As the legend picked up steam, the fear around it began to feel very real. And that fear started impacting the way people viewed the Stockholm Metro system itself.
By the mid-1980s, Silverpilen had already gained a reputation for being a ghost train. But it was the public’s reaction that made this story different. People began to express real anxiety about traveling on certain lines at night. Some riders claimed they saw the train flash by without stopping. Others shared stories of strange sounds and flickering lights that accompanied its passing.
Metro staff also got spooked. Workers reported hearing phantom train arrivals when no train was scheduled. Others said they refused to work late shifts, especially on lines where Silverpilen was rumored to run. The fear became a workplace issue that couldn’t be ignored.
Eventually, the transit authority in Stockholm had to make an official statement. They explained that Silverpilen was a real train used for test purposes or as a backup and that it was never meant to frighten anyone. They clarified that Kymlinge station was simply an unfinished project and not a cursed place.
However, the very act of making this announcement did the opposite of what it was supposed to. Instead of calming the rumors, it gave them more weight. People started asking why the government even needed to respond unless something about the story was true.
Some believed that authorities were covering something up. Others thought the train was being used for secret experiments or surveillance. Conspiracy theories grew alongside the ghost stories, adding layers of paranoia.
Silverpilen wasn’t just a story anymore. It had become a source of public fear and mystery that no official explanation could silence. And for a while, it genuinely altered the way people moved around their city.
4. Kymlinge Station: Portal to the Afterlife or Misunderstood Ruin?
If Silverpilen was the ghost train, then Kymlinge was its haunted destination. This half-finished, abandoned metro station sits quietly between two active stops on Stockholm’s Blue Line. While it never opened to the public, its existence is well documented. And yet, in the public imagination, Kymlinge became something much darker.
The station was originally planned in the 1970s as part of a suburban expansion. But the development project it was tied to stalled, and with it, so did the station. Construction stopped, and Kymlinge was left untouched. It became a modern ruin hidden underground, and that isolation gave it an eerie aura.
Because of its unusual status being built but never used people began connecting it to the Silverpilen sightings. According to the legend, the train would occasionally stop at Kymlinge, letting off passengers who had either died or were never meant to return to the normal world.
This is where the famous phrase began circulating: “Only the dead get off at Kymlinge.” It sounds like something from a horror novel, but it was a saying that started to appear in everyday conversations. People whispered it, joked about it, and some genuinely believed it.
The station’s abandoned look only added to the myth. Photos taken by urban explorers show long, dark platforms and unfinished concrete halls. There are no lights, no signs, and no signs of life. Just a strange silence that seems to hum with anticipation.
For a time, there were talks about finishing Kymlinge and opening it to the public. But every time the topic resurfaced, so did the ghost stories. Public resistance made officials cautious. No one wanted to be responsible for reopening what had now been dubbed a cursed stop.
In truth, Kymlinge is nothing more than a project that got stuck in limbo. But the combination of its real location, its abandoned look, and its eerie connection to Silverpilen made it the perfect setting for a supernatural tale.
5. Pop Culture’s Embrace: From Fear to Folklore
When a legend refuses to die, it often finds a second life in popular culture. That’s exactly what happened with Silverpilen. What started as whispered fear among commuters slowly evolved into a fully embraced part of Swedish folklore. And eventually, it became a recurring theme in books, television, and internet horror content.
Several Swedish TV documentaries in the 1990s and early 2000s explored the Silverpilen phenomenon. These programs interviewed commuters, metro workers, and urban myth experts. They featured grainy re-enactments, creepy music, and shadowy shots of empty metro stations. Instead of debunking the myth, these shows often made it more compelling.
Younger generations who had never seen the actual train started hearing about it online. Reddit threads, YouTube creepypastas, and ghost-hunting blogs picked up the story. The legend of Silverpilen fit perfectly into the growing internet fascination with liminal spaces places that are in-between, abandoned, or forgotten.
There were also short films and horror fiction based around the idea of a train that appears from nowhere, takes people to strange places, and then disappears without a trace. Even though the details were fictionalized, they kept returning to the same core setting a silver train and a station that no one really talks about.
Local artists painted murals or created digital art based on Silverpilen. One popular piece showed the train arriving at Kymlinge with shadowy figures waiting to board. Another had it floating through an empty tunnel with no track underneath. It had gone from a story that scared people to one that inspired them creatively.
Some Stockholmers even wear the legend as a badge of honor. They’ll bring it up in conversations about weird urban tales, proud that their city has a ghost story that’s actually grounded in a real place and real history.
Silverpilen is no longer just a fearsome urban myth. It’s a cultural icon. And like all the best legends, it continues to evolve, shaped by the people who tell it, believe it, and pass it on.
6. Why Stories Like Silverpilen Matter (My Take)
The Silverpilen legend is more than just a spooky metro tale. It taps into something deeper, something human. At its heart, this story is about how we deal with the unknown, how ordinary objects like a train or a half-built station can take on a life of their own when enough people believe in the mystery surrounding them.
What makes Silverpilen unique is that it blurs the line between fact and folklore. It was a real train. Kymlinge is a real place. There was no hoax or staged illusion. That’s why it resonated so strongly. People don’t get spooked over something clearly fictional. They get spooked when a story feels like it could actually happen.
As someone fascinated by modern myths, I think legends like Silverpilen serve as emotional mirrors. Maybe the train represents our fear of being lost, of vanishing without a trace. Maybe Kymlinge symbolizes missed potential or the feeling of being stuck in transition, never fully arriving. These interpretations are what make urban legends powerful. They reflect our inner anxieties in physical form.
And when the government or a public institution steps in to respond, it validates that fear. It tells people that their feelings matter, even if the subject sounds irrational. The moment a ghost story gets an official explanation, it’s no longer just fiction. It’s folklore in motion.
Silverpilen’s staying power proves how powerful belief can be. A train built for testing purposes became a supernatural legend not because it was haunted, but because it felt haunted. That difference is everything.
These stories remind us that sometimes, the scariest places are not haunted by ghosts. They’re haunted by our imaginations and that might be even more powerful.
7. Are There Other Haunted Train Legends Worldwide?
Silverpilen may be Sweden’s most famous ghost train, but it’s far from the only one in global folklore. Across the world, trains have often served as a backdrop for the eerie, the unexplained, and the outright terrifying.
Take India, for example. The Begunkodor Railway Station in West Bengal was abandoned for decades after reports of a ghostly woman wandering the tracks at night. Locals believed she was a stationmaster’s daughter who died tragically and haunted the site ever since. Trains refused to stop there, and the station was officially closed until it reopened in the 2000s. Even today, some people refuse to travel that route after dark.
In Japan, the legend of the “Phantom Train” near the Kisaragi Station is a popular internet horror tale. A woman supposedly texted her friends in real-time as her train took her to a station that didn’t exist on any map. The texts ended abruptly. To this day, the story circulates online as one of Japan’s creepiest transport-related mysteries.
Even in Russia, rumors exist of a ghost train that appears in the Moscow Metro, said to be from the 1940s. It runs through tunnels that were sealed off long ago. According to urban legend, anyone who boards this train is never seen again.
These legends might differ in location and details, but they share a common theme. Trains are places of transition, of movement between two points. When something interrupts that journey, when a train doesn't behave as expected, it becomes a perfect setting for supernatural fears.
The legend of Silverpilen fits right into this global tapestry of haunted transit tales. It adds a distinctly Scandinavian chill to a theme that humans across cultures continue to explore what happens when the journey doesn’t end the way it should.
For more spooky train legends, don’t miss our upcoming article on “Haunted Railways Around the World You Should Never Ride Alone”.
Conclusion:
Silverpilen may have stopped running years ago, but its legend never did. What started as an odd, unpainted metro train became one of Sweden’s most enduring ghost stories. It frightened commuters, confused authorities, and ultimately became a cultural symbol of the unexplained.
In the end, the Silverpilen story tells us that urban legends don’t need to be invented. Sometimes, they emerge naturally from the cracks in daily life an unfinished station, a silver train that appears without warning, a whispered story passed down between passengers.
When enough people start to believe, the myth becomes something more. It becomes part of the city’s identity. It becomes a way to explain the unexplainable, to share fears in a form that feels both real and surreal.
So next time you board a late-night train, take a good look around. If the lights flicker, if the train doesn’t stop where it’s supposed to, or if there’s no one else on board, maybe just maybe you’ve found your own version of Silverpilen.
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