Speech while handing over 42.000 signatures to the Folketinget Traffic Committee 22.11. 2018

Here are approx. 42,000 signatures, collected primarily in Denmark and Sweden over the summer of 2018.

https://www.change.org/p/nattog-i-nordeuropa

Traveling from/to Scandinavia has increased and we are geographically relatively far from the rest of Europe. It has given rise to many more flights, all while the climate-friendly option of taking the train has deteriorated, no later than November 2014 when the last night train to Copenhagen was closed.

The interest in raising sustainability is increasing. More and more will not fly for the sake of climate. In 2014, we collected 10,000 signatures against the closure of the night train. Now we have collected a total of 40,000 signatures during a short period of time.

We will notify the committee that:

• There might be an operator of night trains south of the border who is interested in driving night trains vis Kolding to Copenhagen, it is Austrian ÖBB who has intentions to expand its network of night trains in Europe from 2022. 
• In 2022, DSB has electric locomotives that can haul a night train from Hamburg to Copenhagen via Kolding.

We ask you in the committee to: 

• Confirm that there must be climate-friendly alternatives to flights from/to Denmark south and that trains must be among these alternatives.
• Confirm that DSB's contract with the state (PSO) still contains an opportunity to establish night trains from Denmark if there is an operator who will run such a train in cooperation with DSB.
• Ensure that infrastructure owner Banedanmark can and will allocate the required track access if an operator may wish to operate a night train in Denmark to the German border via Kolding. 

Finally, we will use the opportunity to propose that the committee ask the Minister to draw up a report and put a strategy to strengthen the possibilities of traveling by long distance trains from/to Denmark.