The first railways in Denmark were built and operated by private companies. The railways in
Funen and
Jutland were built by
Peto and Betts who also supplied the locomotives (built by
Canada Works,
Birkenhead). Most of the technical staff was also recruited from Britain, notably from the
Eastern Counties Railway. When Peto and Betts went into
insolvency, the Danish state took over
Det danske Jernbane-Driftsselskab (The Danish Railway Operating Company) as of 1 September 1867 under the name
De jysk-fyenske Jernbaner (the Funen and Jutland Railways), from 1874
De danske Statsbaner i Jylland og Fyn (The Danish State Railways in Jutland and Funen). The network was extended by new construction and by acquisition of the privately operated lines from
Silkeborg to
Herning (1 November 1879) and from
Grenaa to
Randers and
Aarhus (1 April 1881). The Danish state took over
Det sjællandske Jernbaneselskab (the
Zealand Railway Company) on 1 January 1880, forming
De sjællandske Statsbaner (the State Railways of Zealand). With the majority of railways on both sides of the
Great Belt thus owned by the Danish state, it was not until 1 October 1885 that the companies of Jutland/Funen and Zealand merged into one national railway company,
De danske Statsbaner (the Danish State Railways), the merger being finalised on 1 April 1893. After the merger, new lines were constructed and a new generation of rolling stock and locomotives were introduced by chief mechanical engineer
Otto Busse. After Busse's retirement, however, DSB ceased to design its own locomotives and increasingly came to rely on outside suppliers, mainly
Borsig of
Berlin. was opened in 1935. The 1930s were a decade of innovation and modernisation for DSB. New railway bridges were built across the
Little Belt (1935), the
Storstrøm (1937) and
Oddesund (1938), eliminating the costly and time-consuming process of transfer by steam ferry. The suburban lines in and around Copenhagen were electrified for multiple-unit operation at 1,500 Volts DC (
S-trains). Early experiments with
Diesel propulsion led to the development of the all-purpose MO class heavy
diesel-electric railcar equipped for
multiple-unit operation, after
World War II also fitted for
push-pull operation with a driving trailer. Several classes of mainline diesel-electric locomotives were also built as prototypes by
Burmeister and Wain of Copenhagen and
Frichs of Aarhus, but further development was cut short by the
German occupation and the consequent shortage of oil supplies, forcing DSB to rely on coal-burning steam locomotives for mainline duties. Coinciding with the opening of the
Little Belt Bridge in 1935, DSB introduced their new
express train concept known as
lyntog ("lightning trains"). These diesel-powered three- and four-coach trains, having a power car at each end with a power pack identical to that of the MO railcar series, featured a then-impressive top speed of 120 km/h as well as a high level of comfort, and they proved themselves DSB's most commercially successful initiative of the 1930s. World War II left DSB with a fleet of outdated and worn-out trains, and apart from a series of second-generation MO railcars and the class MT multi-purpose centercab engines built by
Frichs, domestic industry was unable to provide the kind of motive power required. Instead, DSB looked to foreign suppliers.
General Motors' diesel-electric locomotives had proved themselves in the US and Canada before the war. DSB's
MV class A1A-A1A diesel locomotives, built on license from GM and delivered from
NOHAB starting in 1954, were found to be very reliable and economically feasible compared to the steam locomotives, eventually putting the age of steam to an end as well as being a decisive factor in DSB's choice of motive power for nearly three decades. They were followed by the equally successful
MX class with a lower axle load for branch line services and the
MZ class for heavy express services. Based on three
diesel-hydraulic shunting locomotives built by
Henschel and acquired by DSB,
Frichs developed their own version of the class MH shunter, which replaced the steam-powered shunting engines. After the success of the
Deutsche Bundesbahn's
DB Class VT 11.5 class on
Trans Europ Express services, DSB acquired eleven power cars and matching intermediate cars to replace the first-generation
lyntog. The 1960s were marked by an increasingly poor economy for DSB, leading to a steady staff reduction throughout the decade. However, this was also accompanied by the appearance of new technology, notably the utilisation of electronic equipment, improving the safety and efficiency of DSB's railway traffic. In 1972, along with the celebration of the 125th anniversary of railways in Denmark, DSB introduced a new corporate design by architect Jens Nielsen, inspired by
British Rail and
Canadian National Railways, with red as the dominant colour (with engine rooms of locomotives painted black), replacing the traditional maroon livery with yellow winged wheel symbols. DSB's position was additionally strengthened by the
1973 oil crisis. Following the lead of the
Nederlandse Spoorwegen, British Rail and
Deutsche Bundesbahn, DSB in 1974 introduced a fixed interval timetable for its long-distance locomotive-hauled
Intercity trains as well as the commuter services to and from Copenhagen. On regional services in
Funen and
Jutland, the prewar design MO class
railcars were displaced by MR class DMUs, a licensed version of the Deutsche Bundesbahn
class 628. trains were introduced in 1990. In 1990, after a delay of several years, the
IC3 trains came into use, initially as
lyntog, and in 1991 as ordinary intercity trains. The IC3 trains, being a specimen of the
Flexliner type of multiple units, have a distinct appearance due to the rubber-framed ends, allowing access between trainsets when coupled together. The re-engined Flexliners are now (2014) nearing the end of their service life, but due to problems with the
Ansaldo Breda built successor class
IC4 they are expected to remain in service for another five to ten years. The
Great Belt Fixed Link was opened for railway traffic in 1997 (a year before road traffic), replacing DSB's
railway ferries. In 1997, infrastructural duties were branched off into a new agency under the Danish Ministry of Transport, Banestyrelsen (now:
Banedanmark), leaving DSB with the task of train operation. A new design was presented on 30 April 1998, as well as the announcement of the "Good Trains for All" plan, seeking to replace old and less comfortable trains by 2006/2007. DSB was turned into an independent public corporation on 1 January 1999. The goods department of DSB, DSB Gods, was merged with Railion (now
DB Cargo) in 2001, and DSB now solely manages passenger rail service, including the operation of railway stations. In 2003,
Arriva, in competition with DSB, won the tender for operating a number of regional railway services in
Jutland:
Tønder-
Esbjerg,
Esbjerg-
Struer,
Skjern-
Aarhus,
Struer-
Langå-
Aarhus and
Struer-
Thisted. In 2007, the
Øresundståg services were hived off into a separate company,
DSBFirst, but the contract was terminated in 2011 after financial problems. DSB operated services from 2009 in Sweden. In 2010, it purchased a 50 % shareholding in German operator
Vias from
Frankfurt Transport Company. All the operating companies in Sweden and Germany were sold between 2013 and 2019. ==Logo history==