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DSB ends food trolley sales on InterCity trains
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October 8th, 2013
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The state railway provider has lost close to a billion kroner on their food trolley concept since 2004
The state railway provider DSB has announced that it has ceased its food trolley services on the long-distance InterCity trains due to years of dwindling sales.
A DSB press release revealed that the majority of its customers did not use the service and it was therefore no longer financially viable.
“Our employees have worked hard every day in the trains, but we must admit that it is not possible to create a profitable business with the food trolleys in the InterCity trains,” Susanne Mørch Koch, the commercial head of DSB, said.
READ MORE: High coffee trolley attendant salaries latest chapter in DSB woes
Hundreds of millions lost
DSB’s troubles with the food trolleys have been well documented and BT tabloid revealed in January that the rail operator has lost close to one billion kroner on the trolleys since 2004.
According to the BT findings, the vast majority of those losses are a result of wages for the trolley attendants, who reportedly earn a whopping 475,000 kroner a year – or about 39,600 kroner per month.
Koch said that the decision was made in co-operation with the railway employees' union, Dansk Jernbaneforbund, and that employees who are affected will be moved to other areas of work within DSB.
The food trolleys won’t be completely scrapped however, as service will continue on the InterCityLyn trains, which have fewer stops and which customers often take on longer trips, DSB wrote.
The news comes just a few days after DSB received the last IC4 train from producers Ansaldobreda, signalling a possible end to their long-winded Italian train nightmare.
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