Denmark: Railway Information

DSB (Danske Statsbaner, the Danish State Railways, including the private train company 'Arriva') and a small number of railway companies cover the country with a dense network of train services supplemented by buses on quieter stretches.

Danish railway company

Logo Danish Railways

The national railway company of Denmark is called DSB (Danish State Railways - Danske Statsbaner). DSB website: English version / Danish.

Eurail Passes valid in Denmark are also valid on trains operated by the following railway companies: Arriva, DSB S-Tog and DSB-First.

Danish Rail Network

Hourly services of modern InterCity trains connect København (Copenhagen) and Zealand with the main towns. Furthermore a train leaves for Odense on the island Funen every half hour. The InterCityLyn trains reach Aarhus from København within 3 hours and Odense is only a 1¼ hours’ train journey away from København. InterCityLyn is a fast train with fewer stops.

The Denmark InterCity trains ( day train) have 2 categories:

  • "Business" (former 1st-class)
  • "Standard" (former 2nd-class)

S-tog

Eurail Passes are also valid on the S-tog or S-train, the suburban rail network of Copenhagen operated by DSB. It connects the city center with the inner suburbs of Copenhagen. The S-tog trains run partly underground. See Wikipedia for an overview of the rail network.

International connections

A tunnel / bridge link connects Copenhagen with Malmö in Sweden. Every 20 minutes a train service operates between Helsingør (Elsinore), Copenhagen and Malmö, and on the Swedish side of the Öresund trains will go to Helsingborg and Kristianstad. 
Connections to Gothenburg and Stockholm in Sweden: there are direct trains from Copenhagen to Gothenburg. For Stockholm you have to change in Malmö.

Travelling by night train one can use the return service from Denmark to Germany to the following stations:

  • Köln / Dortmund (Germany)
  • Stuttgart (Germany)
  • Munich (Germany)

Airport-station link

Copenhagen Kastrup airport has a train station situated at terminal 3, see the airport website. There are connections to København H (main train station of Copenhagen), Malmö (Sweden) and many other destinations.

Reservations

A Eurail Pass is valid on all domestic trains within Denmark. Seat reservation is not necessary, though advance reservation is recommended on the InterCity / InterCity Lyn trains if you want to be sure of a seat.

Seat reservation is required for some international trains: the X2000 between Copenhagen and Stockholm (Sweden) and ICE International trains to various countries. See the page Reservation fees international trains.

For night trains, like the CityNightLine, reservation is also  compulsory. Prices depend on the type of sleeping accomodation.

Eurail Aid Office in Denmark
For questions about Eurail, you can go to the international ticket desk at Central Station København (Copenhagen). It is open daily from 09.30am to 06.00pm.

Information
For general information about train travel in Denmark, you can contact the DSB Customer Centre: by phone +45 70 13 14 15 (daily 08:00  - 20:00 CET, English speaking staff) or by mail: salginfo@dsb.dk.

schematic rail map of Denmark