Ministry mulls reducing train fares by cutting zones

Far left supports plan to reduce fares for commuters travelling the farthest by cutting outlying zones

Removing the outer zones from the Copenhagen public transport fare network could reduce travel costs for commuters without significantly lowering income for the state, according to Transport Ministry proposal obtained by metroXpress newspaper.

Reducing the number of zones from nine to seven would reduce the price of a monthly all zone transit pass from 1,215 kroner to 1,005 kroner. If there were only six zones, a pass would cost only 870 kroner, a saving of 345 kroner.

Fares to use public transport in Greater Copenhagen are calculated by the number of zones a passenger travels through. According to metroXpress the losses from cutting the outer zones would be minimal compared with reducing prices across the board. The report concludes that cutting outer four zones would cost the government 181 million kroner, while cutting just the outer three zones would cost 280 million kroner.

Government support party Enhedslisten has suggested cutting zones before and was pleased to discover the plan would cut fares without dramatically reducing ticket income.

“We were very surprised when we saw how cheap it would be to remove the two outer zones,” traffic spokesperson Henning Hyllested, said. “It’s definitely not scary to remove the zones.”

Reducing fares was high on the joint Socialdemokraterne election manifesto together with Socialistisk Folkeparti. Reduced bus and train ticket prices were supposed to encourage commuters to switch over to public transportation after a congestion charge was introduced for Copenhagen.

The government later announced they were going ahead with the congestion charge could not afford to reduce the prices for public transport.

According to metroXpress, the government is still debating how to proceed with the congestion zone which is why the transport minister, Henrik Dam Kristensen, has so far declined to comment publicly on the proposal.

But Radikale traffic spokesperson Andreas Steenberg, whose party is a member of the governing coalition with Socialdemokraterne and Socialistisk Folkeparti, has expressed his support.

“It’s a really good idea to focus on reducing fares so I think it’s a really positive suggestion,” he told metroXpress.

TOP STORIES

  • Chinese wind turbine companies sign pact to end race-to-the-bottom price war

    Chinese wind turbine companies sign pact to end race-to-the-bottom price war

    China’s 12 leading wind turbine makers have signed a pact to end a domestic price war that has seen turbines sold at below cost price in a race to corner the market and which has compromised quality and earnings in the sector.

  • Watch Novo Nordisk’s billion-kroner musical TV ad for Wegovy

    Watch Novo Nordisk’s billion-kroner musical TV ad for Wegovy

    Novo Nordisk’s TV commercial for the slimming drug Wegovy has been shown roughly 32,000 times and reached 8.8 billion US viewers since June.

  • Retention is the new attraction

    Retention is the new attraction

    Many people every year choose to move to Denmark and Denmark in turn spends a lot of money to attract and retain this international talent. Are they staying though? If they leave, do they go home or elsewhere? Looking at raw figures, we can see that Denmark is gradually becoming more international but not everyone is staying. 

  • Defence Minister: Great international interest in Danish military technology

    Defence Minister: Great international interest in Danish military technology

    Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen attended the Association of the Unites States Army’s annual expo in Washington DC from 14 to 16 October, together with some 20 Danish leading defence companies, where he says Danish drone technology attracted significant attention.

  • Doctors request opioids in smaller packs as over-prescription wakes abuse concerns

    Doctors request opioids in smaller packs as over-prescription wakes abuse concerns

    Doctors, pharmacies and politicians have voiced concern that the pharmaceutical industry’s inability to supply opioid prescriptions in smaller packets, and the resulting over-prescription of addictive morphine pills, could spur levels of opioid abuse in Denmark.

  • Housing in Copenhagen – it runs in the family

    Housing in Copenhagen – it runs in the family

    Residents of cooperative housing associations in Copenhagen and in Frederiksberg distribute vacant housing to their own family members to a large extent. More than one in six residents have either parents, siblings, adult children or other close family living in the same cooperative housing association.

Connect club

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.

Sign up here

Career

  • Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    On Friday 27 and Saturday 28 of September, The Copenhagen Post will be at International Citizen Days in Øksnehallen on Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Admission is free and thousands of internationals are expected to attend

  • Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Chisom Udeze, the founder of Diversify – a global organization that works at the intersection of inclusion, democracy, freedom, climate sustainability, justice, and belonging – shares how struggling to find a community in Norway motivated her to build a Nordic-wide professional network. We also hear from Dr. Poornima Luthra, Associate Professor at CBS, about how to address bias in the workplace.

  • Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality, home to Denmark’s largest infrastructure project – the Fehmarnbelt tunnel connection to Germany – has launched a new jobseeker support package for the accompanying partners of international employees in the area. The job-to-partner package offers free tailored sessions on finding a job and starting a personal business.

Want to advertise your job with CPH Post?

Contact us

Jobs