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TRAVEL LATEST: Denmark hit by record snowfall as Aarhus cancels rail and bus services

Heavy snow continues to impact travel across Denmark on Thursday. Here’s the latest on road delays and rail and ferry services.

TRAVEL LATEST: Denmark hit by record snowfall as Aarhus cancels rail and bus services
Buses and lorries have found the conditions tough going as snow piled up in Denmark this week. Photo: Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix

With heavy snow in northern and eastern Jutland and northern Zealand, and rain everywhere else from Tuesday afternoon through to Thursday, the wet weather and accompanying winds are causing disruption to travel.

As of Thursday afternoon, second city Aarhus remains significantly affected by the snow, with city buses and the Light Rail (Letbane) network both out of action.

Rail

National rail operator DSB said that services between Aarhus, Aalborg and Aalborg Airport will begin operating again on Thursday afternoon after almost two days of cancellations.

Trains began departing again around noon on Thursday, depending on the route and direction of the service.

Regional trains between Odense and Fredericia are to resume from around 2pm. Replacement buses had earlier taken over on this section.

The Struer-Fredericia service was also set to begin moving again from around 2pm.

DSB notes that services between Aarhus and Fredericia may stop at additional local stations Brejning, Børkop, Hedensted and Viby J, to enable staff to travel to work.

Local services in Aarhus remain stricken by the snow, however. The Aarhus Light Rail (Letbane), will not reopen on Thursday and will remain partly closed all weekend, according to the Dansk Trafikinfo account on social media X. Operator Midtrafik is hoping to be able to reopen the L2 line of the rail between Aarhus Central Station and University Hospital on Friday, but L1 will be closed until Monday.

City buses in Aarhus also remain out of action on Thursday, with an update scheduled for 7am on Friday ahead of a possible resumption of services on Friday morning.

Local operator Arriva earlier cancelled the Aarhus-Langå-Struer; Aarhus-Herning-Struer; and Struer-Herning-Vejle routes, but these are also resuming from around noon onwards on Thursday according to Arriva’s website.

In Copenhagen, the S-train is running normally despite the severe weather, DSB said. Services across Zealand earlier disrupted by the blizzards are now also returning to normal, but there may still be some extended journey times, particularly between Næstved, Køge, Copenhagen Central and Helsingør. 

Roads

The Danish Roads Directorate (Vejdirektoratet) has urged drivers across the country to drive in accordance with the prevailing weather. Work to clear motorways and other roads in the East Jutland region, both of snow and vehicles involved in weather-related accidents, was ongoing overnight, after many motorists found themselves completely stranded by the blizzard.

As mentioned above, roads in central Aarhus remain affected on Thursday afternoon, with city buses not running until at least Friday morning.

East Jutland Police is still asking motorists to avoid all unnecessary journeys throughout the district. That advice will stay in place until at least 2pm today. Similar advice and timelines apply in Southeast Jutland Police municipalities Horsens, Skanderborg, Hedensted and Vejle.

“We are now advising against ALL road journeys in East Jutland. There are major challenges on the roads – including on the E45 [motorway], where many motorists have sat in queues for many hours. Several lorries are stuck on the motorway at Hadsten. So think twice – stay at home,” East Jutland police said in an update on social media X early on Thursday.

The E45 motorway has now reopened on the northbound side near Aarhus and Hadsten, but traffic is moving slowly. The northbound E45 remains closed between Kolding and Skærup, according to an update at around 1:40pm Thursay.

North and West Jutland have meanwhile lifted advisories against non-essential driving in those areas.

In an update on its website, the North Jutland transport operator NT said that city buses in Aalborg, which were cancelled completely late on Wednesday, were now beginning to run again.

“Not all routes are running and some services are only running parts of the route”, NT states.

“Major disruptions or cancelled journeys” are likely throughout NT’s network in North Jutland, the operator also said.

READ ALSO: For how long will weather disrupt transport in Denmark?

Ferries

A number of ferry services have been suspended or disrupted, including the ferries from Aarhus to the island of Samsø. The Aarhus-Sælvig ferry is disrupted at the time of writing, while another route to the island, Aarhus-Hou, experienced cancellations on Wednesday. Passengers should check the latest status with their ferry operator (this applies for all ferry departures in Denmark currently).

International services between Hirtshals in North Jutland and Larvik and Kristiansand in Norway are all delayed on Thursday. Those services were suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Several ferries to and from Baltic Sea island Bornholm have been cancelled on Thursday, including 6.30 and 10.30 departures from Rønne on Bornholm and at 8.30 and 12.30 from Ystad in Sweden. Ferries will however sail according to the original timetable hereafter, ferry operator Bornholmslinjen said.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Denmark’s DSB ticket app updated to allow multiple check-ins

The DSB app, which can be used to pay for rail and bus journeys across Denmark, has been updated so that users can use it to pay for accompanying passengers.

Denmark’s DSB ticket app updated to allow multiple check-ins

Denmark’s national rail operator DSB has announced an update of its app to enable users to buy multiple tickets on the same journey.

DSB’s app, launched in April this year, allows you to pay for your journey and to check in on buses, local trains or metros. Over two and a half million journeys have since been paid for using the app, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

To use the DSB app, you can use the “check in” function in the app and then “check out” when your journey is complete. Your fare will then be paid using the payment card you link to the app.

This will now also apply when you add additional passengers before checking, using the new function.

If you forget to check out at the end of your trip, the DSB app does this automatically after 15 minutes, preventing you from paying an incorrect fare.

READ ALSO:

“There has been great demand from customers to be able to travel together using the Check-in function. Now you only need one phone to take care of tickets for everyone on trains, buses, metro, and light rail,” DSB’s customer manager Charlotte Kjærulff said in the statement.

As much as 77 percent of online ticket purchases with DSB are now completed on the DSB app, according to the company.

“We are continuously developing our app with the aim of putting everything the customer needs for their journey in one place.We want it to be easy for customers to find the right ticket for their journey,” Kjærulff said.

Many transport users in Denmark still use a physical Rejsekort when checking in and out of public transportation. The Rejsekort is also being replaced by an app, which was fully rolled out earlier this month. The Rejsekort app is currently awaiting the results of a probe by the national data protection agency.

Both the DSB and Rejsekort apps are likely to increase convenience for many public transport passengers who have previously been reliant on having credit on the physical card and remembering to bring it with them.

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