Odense is facing significant economic challenges in public transportation. The city’s light rail and buses risk halting operations if a solution is not found for a financial gap of 270 million Danish kroner. Mayor Peter Rahbæk Juel (Social Democrats) has announced that he will try to find these funds within the municipality’s budget, specifically from a surplus in the municipality’s accounts for 2023. He made this statement to Fyens Stiftstidende on Monday evening, after it became clear that both Odense Light Rail and Fynbus are facing financial problems in the years 2025 and 2026.
Rahbæk Juel emphasizes that he does not want to dismantle the city’s public transportation and therefore sees a financing solution as necessary. He also points out that the funds will not be drawn from essential areas such as schools or elderly care. The municipality’s economic committee is expected to consider the proposal on Wednesday.
This is not the first time that Odense’s public transportation has received additional funds. Between 2022 and 2024, an extra 253 million kroner was allocated to the light rail and buses. If the new funds are approved, the municipality will have spent over half a billion kroner more than originally budgeted.
Odense Light Rail has pointed to the lack of passengers as a reason for the financial problems. A large part of the passenger base was expected to come from the new Odense University Hospital, but several delays in construction have negatively impacted passenger numbers. The light rail started operating in May 2022, but the project has been characterized by delays and budget overruns. When the plans were laid out in 2014, costs were estimated at 2.4 billion kroner, but the final bill amounted to around 3.6 billion kroner.
It is a challenging time for Odense’s public transportation, and it is now up to the municipality’s economic committee to find a solution to the problem.