Swedish male train drivers can soon stop wearing skirts; shorts ban will be lifted

A bizarre set of circumstances temporarily forced male train drivers in Stockholm to wear skirts during recent hot summer days because their company policy banned shorts.

Yet due to widespread international attention over the weekend of the skirt wearing men, the train company Arriva bowed to public pressure and reversed their shorts ban on Monday.

"We noticed that a lot of our staff members see this as an important issue, so we have decided to give them what they want, so there will be shorts soon on the Roslagsbanen line," Tomas Hedenius, head of communications at train operator Arriva, tells The Local.

"I am not sure when exactly this will come into place, but we will have a discussion with the union this week."

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The shorts ban took effect in January and the rational behind it was that shorts looked too informal.

Yet as the temperatures started to rise this spring, driver Martin Åkersten and 12 other employees started to wear skirts, saying that temperatures in the cabin would rise as high as 35 degrees Celsius. The men intentional news when Åkersten took to Facebook to explain why they were sporting the interesting fashion trend.

"It feels really strange to think that it just started out as a small thing in my local newspaper and now it's gone out into the global media... it's a crazy feeling," Åkersten says.

"My intention from the beginning was just to explain to the people why we look like we do."

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Upon hearing the news that the ban will be lifted, Åkersten says, "That's fantastic news! This means the publicity helped."

"I'm not going to miss the skirt though. I like shorts - that's the whole reason I started this thing."

Åkersten initially told The Local that passengers would stare at him and his colleagues, but no one made negative comments.