Confused About Trains and Train Stations in Copenhagen

Planned date of travel?

Here is how a Dane gets to Odense from near Norreport in Copenhagen by train:
Step 1: Walk to Copenhagen Norreport Station
Step 2: Buy ticket to Odense (and back).
Step 3: Find your train and travel to Odense.

There are like 2 direct trains per hour, plus several with a change. This is mass transit. No need to worry about tickets now. You can't buy tickets for June yet anyway. DSB tickets go on sale about 2 months prior to departure, and on this route there are no advance purchase discounts.

And the standard ticket is flexible, Ie, this is a ticket for a route, not a train. So if you buy a ticket to Odense and back you are free to just hop on any train back to Copenhagen at your own discretion.

https://www.rejseplanen.dk/webapp/?language=en_EN is a good source of planning travel in Denmark. I can find times and tickets for dates up to and including 1st June. If you wait a few days you can find for your date. You decide if you want a direct train or a slightly faster solution involving a train shift.

Rejsekort is a Danish travel card (a bit like London's OysterCard), but it is being cancelled by the end of this year as a physical card and replaced by a smartphone app - called "Rejsekort som app". Unfortunately I don't think it exists in English :-(

RejseBillet or Single ticket DSB are tickets bougt in the station or online.

When you buy a ticket you can also buy a reserved seat. I always do, as I am too old to risk standing for more than an hour and a half.

Hello hello,

As others have pointed out, you are simply too early. Domestic train tickets in Denmark are released 2 months ahead. That is the reason you can't buy a ticket yet.

Don't use Omio. They charge more for the tickets. Instead buy directly from the operator DSB, either dsb.dk/en or DSB's app.

A little clarification to the above answers: DSB Standard tickets (the flexible ones) have no discounts for advance purchase (adult fare Copenhagen-Odense 319 DKK). But the Orange or Orange Fri ticket does have advance purchase discounts, and can be significantly cheaper if you travel outside peak travel times - but you have to commit to a specific train departure with Orange/Orange Fri.

I also recommend a seat reservation too, especially if traveling during peak times - I am not too old to stand up, I just find the small uncharge worth it to be guaranteed my own seat and not having to move around for strangers with reservations.

I don't know if Rejsekort app is available in English, but DSB's app is available in English, and they have an identical feature called "check in".

This Rejsekort Check In is actually the same system as the Swiss Easyride. You do in deed "check in" before your trip, and check out afterwards, and then just use all public transit at will. The system then calculates the fare for you.

So if your trip is eg metro -> train -> other train - > bus you check in before getting on the metro, and check out after you got of the bus. It is really very easy.

Hello and thanks to all of you that answered! I am always amazed by the people on this website who are so knowledgable about traveling the world and believe me I totally appreciate all of your knowledge and help! I will be in Copenhagen June 10-12 and June 17-19. The dates in between will be in Oslo (by ferry because they were the only dates available when I booked them for Oslo). My main concern about getting tickets were to be sure I could get there by a certain time. I saw on the HCA site that you have to buy tickets in advance and they are timed tickets, so I didn't want to buy the tickets and not be able to get on a train to get there in time; that's why I wanted to get train tickets in advance. I will go to the website two months before I get there to see if there are tickets available. Again, I am so grateful that you have taken the time and give me detailed instructions. Thank you!

As our daughter lives in Copenhagen, we travel to Denmark frequently. I have the DOT app, the DSB app, and a Rejsekort card from previous trips. We planned to get the new Rejsekort app which looks super easy (and is in English).

Cost is where I get confused. It is not clear if the pricing is the same across all the platforms.

• For example, is the 5-day unlimited DOT City Pass a better value than using Rejsekort?
• Is there an advantage to purchasing an individual DSB ticket from Hellerup to Hillerød vs using the Rejsekort app that will automatically calculate the price of the journey?

If the pricing is the same, then it might be easier for narcuhc to use the Rejsekort app for both metro/bus travel while in Copenhagen and for the train to Odense.

Is there an advantage to purchasing an individual DSB?

Rejsekort: 41,60 DKK

Individual ticket: 54,00 DKK

According to https://www.rejseplanen.dk/webapp/?language=en_EN (I never buy individual tickets on the commuter train, so had to check)

Copenhagen - Odense:

Rejsekort / DSB app 'check in' feature: 327 DKK.

Standard ticket: 329 DKK.

Orange ticket: Can be as low as 89 DKK if you are lucky.

Children, youth and seniors get discounts.

Regarding Rejsekort Hellerup - Hillerød: 41,6 DKK is the off peak fare. Peak fare is 52 DKK.

Posted by l.p.enersen Glostrup, Denmark

Rejsekort is a Danish travel card (a bit like London's OysterCard), but it is being cancelled by the end of this year as a physical card
and replaced by a smartphone app - called "Rejsekort som app".
Unfortunately I don't think it exists in English :-(

Well that is disappointing. I would rather have a physical card instead of having to use my phone.

Well that is disappointing. I would rather have a physical card instead of having to use my phone.

They will make an alternative for users who can't/won't use their phones for it. But I haven't yet seen any reports on what that alternative will be.

Thank you everyone for the details on the different transportation platforms. Very helpful!

I have used Rejseplanen in the past but dropped it because Google Maps does a great job and is very easy to use to figure out metro routes. But taking a look at Rejseplanen again, it seems like the app UI has improved since I last tried it. I will certainly use it for excursions outside of Copenhagen on our upcoming May/June trip.

Thanks all!

I have a couple other train questions:

1. Can you buy a round trip ticket to a destination or do you have to buy a one way ticket each way?
2. Can you get to Odense and Malmö from the Nørreport Train Station or must you go to the main train station?

Can you buy a round trip ticket to a destination or do you have to buy a one way ticket each way?

Yes, you can. But there is no benefit to it compared to buying two one way tickets.

Can you get to Odense and Malmö from the Nørreport Train Station or must you go to the main train station?

To Malmö, yes. To Odense, also yes. But for Odense there are more and faster connections if you change at Copenhagen Central Station. Your options will be shown when you look up your journey on DSB's app/website, Skånetrafiken's app/website or the Rejseplanen website/app mentioned above.

EDIT: In Skånetrafiken's app, you choose between a one way ticket, and a 24 hour pass you can use as much as you like for the price of two one way tickets. So the latter can be a good deal if you return within 24 hours - and if you want to visit both Malmö and Lund, just buy a 24h pass Copenhagen-Lund, as that will also cover Malmö.

Has anyone been to the Nørreport Station? Can I buy a direct train ticket going to Odense and Malmö there or do I have to go to the central station for a direct train ride? In other words, if I get on a train going to either of these destinations, do I have to transfer to another train?

Sorry for the previous post. Sometimes I can be so dense! I think I understand now.

You wrote "I saw on the HCA site that you have to buy tickets in advance and they are timed tickets, so I didn't want to buy the tickets and not be able to get on a train to get there in time; that's why I wanted to get train tickets in advance." We were there last May. We bought our HCA tickets online once we arrived in Odense. It wasn't really a problem, although I think we did have to delay maybe 20 minutes later than what would have been ideal (so we had a pastry and a coffee). And if I remember correctly, the timed tickets didn't mean you had to arrive at the HCA museum at that precise time, just that you couldn't arrive earlier. You might want to double-check on that.

Thanks perkyjonesmerch. After checking here and learning a bit more, I did buy tickets to the HCA museum online. I was also able to get orange tickets to and from Odense to Copenhagen. I am allowing 3 hours to visit the museum. Do you think that will be enough time to see everything?

3 hours should be enough for the museum. (I just looked at time stamps on my photos and that seems to be how much time we spent inside. And I am one of those people who likes to read most of the exhibit labels!) Equally enjoyable was walking around the streets near the museum looking for the statues with HCA connections (there was a map to get us around).

3 hours would be more than enough for me. If you find time heavy on your hands, I strongly recommend the Danish Railway museum in Odense. In my opinion it is much better than the HCA museum.

perkyjonesmerch- "Equally enjoyable was walking around the streets near the museum looking for the statues with HCA connections (there was a map to get us around)."

Where did you get a map of the statues? I saw online there were a lot of HCA statues, but I couldn't find a map with the street names.

Also, how far would you say the statues were from the museum?

Thanks, l.p.enersen. If I need something more to do, I'll check out the Danish Railway museum.

@narcuhc : you asked about a map of the statues. I am not positive but vaguely remember having something on my phone. However, it is no longer installed so I can't be sure. There is a map on this website (click on the "map" tab):
https://www.visitodense.com/tourist/what-do/find-fairy-tale-sculptures-odense
and a PDF version here: https://www.visitodense.com/sites/visitodense.com/files/2019-07/eventyrskulpturer.pdf

If you look at the PDF map, some of the statues are super close to the museum - 2, 3, 4.
7 - 10 were the furthest (the sea horse was one of my favorites), but there's an ice cream shop across the street. :^)

Hello again, perkyjonesmerch; thank you again! I saw this "listing" of the HCA statues, but I didn't notice the map that you could print until you posted it here! I just printed the map with the statues listed. That's exactly what I was looking for. Did you walk around looking for the statues? If so, do you remember how much time you spent do it?

Glad the map is helpful! Sorry, I don't remember how long we spent, but yes, we were on foot the entire time. I was going to check photo timestamps, but we went for dinner in the middle of it - diverging from the statue zone - so that might not be helpful.

(formerly posting as "perkyjonesmerch"; i finally figured out how to change my display name :^)

Thank you, Tricia J. It's nice to know you were on foot the whole time, so at least I know all of the HCA statues are acessible by walking. I'll just use the map and see what I find.