DSB faces fine for breaking contract

The transport minister will make sure that DSB is fined for having too many trains out of service on Kystbanen line

Commuters are getting tired of crammed trains on their way to work.

 

The state owned railway company, DSB, has faced criticism after 16 trains have been out of service during the summer, resulting in overcrowded trains on the commuter line Kystbanen, which runs from Helsingør to Copenhagen. 

 

“That is not the level of comfort we were promised," the spokesperson of the commuter association Pendlerklubben, Michael Randropp, told Berlingske newspaper. "There are incidents when people cannot get onboard the train, and occasionally passengers are huddled together in the most unacceptable way."

 

The department responsible for maintaining and repairing trains on Kystbanen, DSB Vedligehold, are only allowed to have nine train sets under maintenance at a time, according to a contract with the state. At the moment, 15 of the 16 train sets are still out of service, two of them are in for a longer period after damages caused by collisions with moose.

 

The new transport minister, Pia Olsen Dyhr (Socialistisk Folkeparti), agrees that the number of trains under maintenance is unacceptable and has called for a meeting with DSB next week.

 

“They will have to pay a fine if they have more than six trains under maintenance. We are dealing with a lot of money, so this is not a joke”, she told the news bureau Ritzau. 

 

The head of DSB Vedligehold, Steen Schougaard Christensen, acknowledged that the lack of trains are an inconvenience for commuters and said that conditions in July were particularly bad. “As soon as we reach September or October, we should have solved the problem with the lack of trains,” he told Berlingske.

 

In the meantime, commuters will have to huddle together for a little while longer.

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