Transport operators DSB and Arriva have announced fare rises that will come into effect early next year.
From January 19, ticket prices will rise by an average 1.3 percent, while monthly travel passes will rise by 2.5 percent, though both Arriva and DSB argue that the prices remain attractive.
“Between 2008 and 2011, DSB and Arriva decided to listen to the wishes of commuters and freeze the price of monthly travel cards, so the price is being increased from a low level,” the transport operators wrote in a press release.
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Insane move
A monthly travel pass between Copenhagen and Odense will increase from 3,970 kroner to 4,070 kroner, for example.
The transport operators argue that commuters still save around 65 percent by purchasing monthly passes rather than ordinary tickets, but the chairman of the commuters' association, Poul Struve Nielsen, is not impressed.
“It’s crazy that prices for public transport continue to rise while the service levels get increasingly worse,” Nielsen told Berlingske, adding that the fare increases will simply encourage more people to abandon public transport in favour of cars.
Broken promises
The fare increases are particularly disappointing for supporters of Socialistisk Folkeparti, which campaigned to lower fares before the 2011 election – a promise that was promptly, and repeatedly, abandoned after they joined the coalition government.
DR Nyheder recently revealed that DSB violated its 2.5 billion kroner annual contract with the government by not keeping trains on time.
Over the past nine years, DSB has cancelled 70 percent more trains than they are allowed to, while only 89.5 percent of trains run on time, missing the minimum target of 90 percent.
