Passengers on an Øresund train spent about three hours in the dark inside the Øresund tunnel on Monday evening, and Danish and Swedish authorities still disagree over who was responsible for getting them out.
The train lost its electricity, and with it its lighting, while inside the tunnel between Copenhagen and Malmö. According to reporting by DR, it remains unclear who held the responsibility for bringing the passengers out.
The trip between Copenhagen Central Station and Malmö Central Station normally takes between 33 and 35 minutes. DR reports that the train, which was well filled, came to a halt in the tunnel close to Peberholm, the artificial island in the Øresund. It was not in the section that runs under the water.
Conflicting messages about who would help
While the passengers sat in the darkened train, several contradictory messages arrived about whether help was on the way and who was supposed to provide it. DR reports that the first message was that a Danish diesel train was coming. Later the message was that the train stood on the Swedish side, so Denmark did not have the responsibility after all.
Banedanmark, which manages Denmark’s railway infrastructure, declined an interview with DR. The company wrote instead that evacuation is Skånetrafiken’s task. Skånetrafiken told DR that the plan had been for Banedanmark to collect the passengers with a diesel train.
The Swedish side pointed out that the power came back after a few hours. As stated by Skånetrafiken, the train could then drive to Denmark on its own, and evacuation was never relevant. Trafikverket, the Swedish counterpart to Banedanmark, had not responded to DR’s inquiries.
Commuter spokesperson calls the handling embarrassing
Ture Ertmann, spokesperson for the Øresund commuters, told DR that the episode was completely unacceptable. He said it was a clear example of an area where nobody had made a proper plan, and he called it embarrassing.
Per Ertmann, commuters should be able to expect that authorities have a plan for helping stranded passengers if an accident or a breakdown occurs. He said the focus had shifted to who should pay the bill and who should act. Meanwhile, as he put it, a large number of passengers were sitting stranded in a tunnel.
Ertmann also said he had no doubt that someone had not been paying attention. He hopes that responsibility will be clearly placed in any similar future scenario. The problem should be solved first, and the question of who should have done what can be discussed afterwards, according to him.
What the tunnel breakdown means for cross-border commuters
The Øresund line is operated across a border, and that means several authorities are involved in a single journey. DR’s reporting shows that Banedanmark handles the Danish infrastructure, that Trafikverket is the Swedish equivalent, and that Skånetrafiken is the transport authority on the Swedish side. For internationals who commute between Copenhagen and Malmö, this is the structure behind the conflicting messages passengers received on Monday evening.
What is not yet known is which of those bodies is obliged to carry out an evacuation when a train stops inside the tunnel. Neither Banedanmark nor Skånetrafiken accepted that role in their replies to DR, and Trafikverket has not answered. Ertmann has said publicly that he wants responsibility settled before a comparable incident happens again, but no authority has announced a revised plan.
