Danish Railways becomes international

RAILWAYS: The Danish State Railways, DSB, has made a bid to operate two British railways. DSB aims to generate 20% of its revenues from operations abroad by 2007

Only two years after the Danish State Railways, DSB, became international and started operating train services in Sweden, it is prequalified to operate one of Great Britain’s most prestigious railway routes, the intercity stretch along England’s east coast from London to Inverness in Scotland. DSB is also prequalified to run Integrated Kent Franchise, which is currently operated by South Eastern Rail.

In record time, DSB has prepared itself for the winds of change which are blowing across Europe’s train services. Now more efforts will be focused on the internationalisation of the company. In addition to the two lines in Great Britain, DSB has been encouraged to make a bid for operating the Gjövikbanen in Norway. In Sweden, DSB operates a railway line in Stockholm with 39 stations and 32,000 travellers per day.

In connection with the prequalification for the two lines in Great Britain, DSB has entered a partnership with English, Welsh & Scottish Railway for the operation of the Intercity East Coast, and with the transport company Stagecoach concerning the line in Kent. The prequalification has also meant that DSB has established its own company in London.

“We see it as international recognition of DSB that we now are prequalified for the two large tenders in Great Britain,” says DSB’s group managing director Søren Eriksen. “We only get that approval because we can document that on our home ground in Denmark, DSB is a modern operator which puts the customer at the centre.”

DSB has the declared objective to generate 20% of its revenues from international operations by 2007. This is planned to be achieved primarily in Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and Germany which have Europe’s largest markets for train services. In Germany however, liberalisation of train services has progressed nothing like as far as in Great Britain, which thus will play a key role in DSB’s internationalisation.

As a train operator, DSB is involved in practically all aspects of train operation: train systems, journey concepts and marketing, rolling stock, workshop and preparation facilities, stations and terminals, and fare and ticket distribution systems. The company has considerable experience in provision of public transport services as its operations in Denmark are based on a contract with the Danish Ministry of Transport. Together with the other transport operators in Denmark, DSB has also developed the unique ticket system which allows travellers to combine different forms of transport on the same ticket. DSB is currently developing an electronic ticket system which will ease customers’ ticket payments.

If DSB succeeds in gaining the contract for the two British railway lines, it will mean a virtual doubling of the numbers of train kilometers the company will be running. DSB currently runs 60 million train kilometres a year in Denmark. The two British lines will add close to 55 million train kilometers run annually.