Commuters and other travellers on DSB trains should prepare for more frequent delays if the railway company does not find a solution for the technical problems most of its IC3 trains are having.
The 25-year-old trains – which have proven over the years to be so much more reliable than the modern IC4 trains – are increasingly experiencing technical breakdowns.
In fact, the number of travelled kilometres between each crash has almost halved in the past two years.
Experts are concerned
According to Otto Anker Nielsen, a professor at DTU Transport, the trains seem to be either worn-down or not well-maintained.
"If everything goes well, commuters can expect a similar situation to today for the next ten years," Henrik Garver, the managing director at Rådgivende Ingeniører, told Metroexpress.
"At worst, they can look forward to even more train crashes and delays."
Per Homann Jespersen, a traffic researcher at Roskilde University, is on the other hand concerned about the commuters' transport experience.
"If the problem accelerates, the technical crashes get more complicated, and DSB does nothing to prevent it, commuters may very well have a problem," Jespersen told Metroexpress.
DSB: no need to worry
All three experts agree, however, that DSB still has time to stabilise the situation.
Steen Schougaard Christensen, the maintenance manager at DSB, does not see a reason to be concerned.
"The train crashes may be caused by a long series of coincidences. There is no specific technical problem we should be worried about."
IC3 vs IC4: km between breakdowns*:
IC3:
2012: 804,600
2013: 663,900
2014: 431,400
IC4:
2012: 53,200
2013: 57,100
2014: 56,400
*A train / train-set that was cancelled due to a technical error while in operation, and that cannot complete its planned schedule
