More than 30 trains have been damaged in eastern Denmark after a fault in the traction power system caused widespread disruption and brought large parts of the rail network in Zealand to a standstill. At least 10,000 passengers were affected by the consequent delays and cancellations.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday afternoon, forced infrastructure manager Banedanmark to halt traffic across much of eastern Denmark after overhead wires collapsed in several locations.
“An incident yesterday meant that Banedanmark had a fault in their traction power system, which ultimately meant that they stopped train traffic on Zealand,” said Tony Bispeskov, head of information at state operator DSB, speaking to Danish broadcaster TV 2.
The disruption is believed to have originated from a fault in West Zealand. According to Banedanmark, a damaged suspension between the towns of Forlev and Vemmelev, some 100km west of Copenhagen, may have triggered the chain of events.
“We have inspected many kilometres of railway, and last night we managed to find a fault on a suspension in West Zealand,” said Nicolai Smidt Sigsgaard, deputy traffic director at Banedanmark.
The failure apparently caused overhead contact lines to hang too low, leading to collisions with the pantographs of passing trains. In some cases, the wires were torn down entirely, including a stretch of around one kilometre near Ringsted in the centre of the island.
‘I cannot remember anything like it’
The impact on rolling stock has been significant. More than 30 trainsets have been taken out of service for inspection and repair, with no confirmed timeline for their return. Bispeskov described the situation as highly unusual. “It is something that happens very, very rarely. I cannot remember anything like it,” he said.
Although the main fault was located and repaired late on Tuesday, residual damage to overhead lines has continued to affect services. By Wednesday, trains had resumed running at reduced capacity, with roughly half of normal services operating and many routes limited to one train per hour.
“Train traffic is running again, but there are fewer trains and there may be delays,” Banedanmark said in an update on social media. DSB meanwhile said it expected operations to recover to around 80% on Thursday, with a return to normal service anticipated by Friday.
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