At the behest of the transport minister Magnus Heunicke, national train operators DSB won’t be getting rid of the affordable ’folding seat’ tickets after all.
Heunicke met with DSB yesterday to urge them to reconsider doing away with the special tickets, which allow young people aged 16-26 to travel across the nation for just 89 kroner.
”We are talking about a tiny percentage of DSB’s overall ticketing income, so it means very little for DSB,” Heunicke told TV2 News. “But it means a lot more for the young people who have been using the tickets to get home.”
Popular among young students
According to Politiken newspaper, almost 60,000 ‘folding seat’ tickets have been sold over the three years that the seat type has existed.
“It’s my job to maintain the ownership of DSB on behalf of the Danish public and its about getting the most public transport for the money,” Heunicke said.
Story from yesterday:
DSB is cutting the klapsæde-billet, the folding seat ticket, that allowed youngsters between the ages of 16 and 26 to travel across the country for 89 kroner. The tickets gave young people the right to sit in the folding seats in the front and middle carriages of InterCity trains.
“Allowing people to sit in those seats conflicted with passengers who needed space for a suitcase or a bike,” DSB spokesperson Christian Linnelyst told DR Nyhder.
Linnelyst said the seats themselves would remain, but the opportunity to purchase them would disappear as of 7 October.
No way to go home
Several young people who took advantage of the cheap seats have claimed the move will strain them financially.
“It will be more expensive for students to go home and see their families,” Andreas Munk Jensen, the president of Syddanske Studerende at Southern Denmark University, told DR Nyheder. “DSB has a responsibility to give young people a chance to travel around the country.”
READ MORE: DSB ends food trolley sales on InterCity trains
Linnelyst said that even though the folding seat ticket was going the way of the dinosaur, there were still plenty of cheap rides to be had.
“If you book in a timely fashion, an orange ticket costs just 149 kroner,” he said.
