‘Very, very complicated’: SJ reveals hidden hurdles of taking Denmark night trains in-house

From December, the state-backed Swedish Railways (SJ) will no longer be handing over its night train operations in Denmark to a private company. Instead, SJ’s own drivers will take over the sleeper route from Malmö to Padborg at the Danish-German border. Speaking to RailTech, SJ’s business manager Christer Litzell explains the decision to go in-house, why they’ve been using bedless sleeper cars as seaters, and what it takes to break into a potentially reluctant neighbour’s network. Unsurprisingly, “it’s very, very complicated…”