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Rail Service Stockholm to Copenhagen

Posted by (Southwest, Florida) on

I'm planning a trip and trying to understand the booking process for train tickets from Stockholm to Copenhagen.

I went to the the sj.se website and looked at travel times for a few Saturdays as I know I will be traveling on a Saturday. I found that this coming Saturday Sept 3, there are no high speed trains. On Saturday Sept 10 and 17, there are NO trains available. The two that appear to be running are booked and the rest are not available due to Planned Track work. On Sept 24 the same thing; although of the three trains running one is available at 16:15. Finally, on October 1, it appears that there is a more normal schedule; yet one train is already booked (at 9:22).

Is this this typical? That is, maintenance is often done on Saturdays and they shut down most of the service? How far in advance do they load the schedule? Three months? Six months?
I realize this is a popular route. So a guess try to book a month or two in advance?

Thanks. Tom

Posted by
6970 posts

The booking process is easy, visit www.sj.se and buy a ticket.

When are you planning to travel? There is a large planned track work in September when the line between Malmö and Lund will be closed for 10 days.

Normally a month or two in advance is a good time to book, unless you are planning to travel around Christmas or some other popular time.

Posted by
161 posts

I believe the Swedish Transport Administration has severe staff shortages. The goal is to have the planning done 4 months in advance but currently it is down to days sometimes. When they've done the planning, SJ must plan for their staff and trains. then tickets are released with correct times and bus replacements if necessary.
The single train with released tickets on Sep 24 is from another company, Snälltåget, they state that they will sell tickets before the planning is done. People will book flights or buses instead otherwise I guess.
Oct 1 9:22 I believe they will cancel it and have stopped selling tickets. There is one in the other direction that is likely using the same trainset. SJ has staff shortages too, especially drivers. I often see double SJ trains nowadays, previously I only saw them around big holidays like Christmas and Easter. So SJ often cancel one departure and double the previous or next departure instead.
But in general a lot of track works, I'm waiting for one of those weekends too. On the other hand, if planning was done longer in advance, neither you or I might have noticed it at all.

Posted by
325 posts

Thanks to all for your thoughtful replies. Very informative. I know I'm early as my travel date for Stockholm to Copenhagen is not until Saturday, June 17, 2023 but I'm trying to learn and understand how all this works. My goal is to be sure that I'm ready when it is time to execute my plan and to try to get a reasonable fare.

Thanks for your help!

Tom,

Posted by
6970 posts

It's always a good thing to be prepared!

But that is the weekend before midsummer, so don't wait too long to buy your ticket.

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