The Southern Main Line was completed in 1864. This reduced the travel time between Stockholm and Malmö from around 8 days by horse-drawn carriage to around 19 hours by train. However, longer train journeys were hardly free. At that time, a third-class ticket between Stockholm and Gothenburg cost more than a week's wages for a factory worker.

Many people longed to escape the increasingly crowded industrial cities. Ordinary people neither had the time nor the means to travel long distances, but they could go on day trips with special "excursion trains". Jonsered, located 15 kilometres east of Gothenburg, with its scenic location by Lake Aspen, early attracted travelers.

For the better-off middle class, the railway brought new destinations that had previously been reserved for the very wealthy. For a price equivalent to a few months' salary for a doctor, one could travel by train to destinations across Europe.

As the railway extended northward in Sweden, the middle class was also attracted to explore their own country. In the 1860s and 1870s, people often traveled to Dalarna to experience "the roots of Swedish culture," such as seeing the people of Dalarna in their traditional costumes. In the 1880s, with the help of the railway, one could explore the "untamed wilderness" of the mountains.

In 1886, first class cost a little over twice as much as third class. The price for second class was in between. About two percent of travelers afforded first class, while 80 percent were satisfied with third.

In twenty years, from 1866 to 1886, railway travel with SJ tripled. During the following twenty-year period, from 1886 to 1906, there was another threefold increase.