New EU cross-border rail services between Copenhagen and Stockholm

22.05.2024 - 11:51 / traveldailynews.com / Theodore Koumelis

Snälltåget has initiated a new long-distance daytime rail service between Copenhagen and Stockholm, operated as an Open Access service, independent of taxpayer funding.

Last week, the independent operator Snälltåget started a new long distance daytime service between Copenhagen and Stockholm. Being operated in a commercially driven “Open Access” manner, there is no burden on the taxpayer. But there could be many more services like this – growing cross-border rail – if only the conditions to encourage more commercial-driven services were in place.

The five years of the next EU Parliament and the next EU Commission (2024 until 2029) will be crucial – carbon emissions from transport are rising, while public budgets are increasingly under strain. For long distance rail, there is an obvious solution – to encourage more commercially driven Open Access services, such as Snälltåget.

There could be many more of these, assuming certain conditions are in place:

ALLRAIL Secretary General Nick Brooks: “on many EU routes, commercially driven Open Access trains are already the default for long distance journeys, providing services at all times of the day and also to smaller places” 

The new EU Parliament and EU Commission must use various initiatives – e.g. the upcoming EU Track Access Fee and Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS) proposals – to encourage that such services will grow EU cross-border rail in the future.

Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.