SF minister lashes out after new train chaos: 'I am not at all satisfied'

While the transport minister is blaming Banedanmark and DSB, the state-owned train company is highly dissatisfied with the Road Directorate, blaming them for today's train chaos.

Passengers in Odense heading to one of the replacement buses that DSB had arranged. 52 minutes ago.

The recent train chaos continued this morning with major delays and cancellations. This has now prompted the Minister for Urban, Rural and Transport Affairs, Signe Munk (Socialist People's Party), to strongly criticize both DSB and Banedanmark.

"I am not at all satisfied with what we have seen at train stations in Denmark these days. It is obviously frustrating for passengers to stand in this summer heat and experience so much trouble getting onward," Signe Munk writes in an email.

The SF minister adds that some of the problems have been "difficult for the Road Directorate and Banedanmark to foresee, but it is not satisfactory that there is a shortage of replacement buses, leaving affected passengers very delayed."

"I have requested an account of the situation, and although accidental errors can happen, I expect Banedanmark and DSB to become better at ensuring that passengers receive better assistance in such a situation," writes Signe Munk.

It has not yet been possible to obtain an interview with the minister.

Banedanmark has no comments on the minister's criticism.

DR is working to obtain a comment from DSB.

-----------------------------

DSB blames the Road Directorate

-----------------------------

Before Signe Munk issued her criticism, DR News interviewed DSB about today's train problems.

The cause was that the Road Directorate's track work on the railway across West Funen was delayed, according to DSB. The state-owned train company urged travelers this morning to postpone their journeys until later in the day, because it was difficult to secure enough buses to run between Odense and Fredericia.

A problem that was hardly made smaller by the fact that the Road Directorate informed DSB very late that the track work would not be completed on time, according to Tony Bispeskov, Head of Communications at DSB.

"At 3 a.m. tonight we received a message that, contrary to all expectations, the Road Directorate's project between Odense and Fredericia was not ready for trains to run. The intention was that an hour later, at 4 a.m., trains should be able to run," says Tony Bispeskov, adding:

"And with such short notice, DSB cannot procure the up to 50 replacement buses that were necessary," says Tony Bispeskov, lashing out at the Road Directorate for the very short notice:

"This is not satisfactory. It is not acceptable. We cannot ensure that our customers can get to their destinations with replacement buses on such short notice."

He elaborates that the original plan was for the track work to have been completed already on Monday morning.

"If we receive messages that the work will be ready on time, we naturally assume that as well."

But will you trust that next time?

"We still need to ensure good dialogue between us at DSB and the Road Directorate, which carries out the track work. And we will of course have a dialogue with them about that. First and foremost, we are deeply frustrated on behalf of the many customers affected by this," says Tony Bispeskov.

------------------------

Road Directorate apologizes

------------------------

Normally, it is Banedanmark that handles track work. But the Ministry of Transport has decided that the Road Directorate should handle the track work on West Funen. The Road Directorate does not wish to respond to DSB's criticism in an interview.

But in a written comment, it states:

"The track work, which was scheduled to be completed at 4 a.m. tonight, went as planned. However, around 2 a.m., it turned out there was a fault in the overhead power line system, and therefore we had to inspect the entire system again for safety reasons."

"Our assessment at that time was that the fault could be fixed within the given time, and therefore DSB was not notified in time to be able to arrange replacement buses. We regret that. And we will of course review all procedures and evaluate the process with DSB."

DSB's Head of Communications expresses understanding that "the Road Directorate is not accustomed to carrying out large railway projects."

"We just want agreements to be kept, because customers naturally expect the track work to be completed when we have said it will be completed," says Tony Bispeskov.

What will you do differently so that passengers can have confidence in DSB?

"We will ensure that the trains run as well as possible. That has been challenged here in 2026. Among other things, because the railway in Denmark is a large construction site. It has to get worse, so to speak, before it gets significantly better. And it will get significantly better," says Tony Bispeskov.

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.