Home News News by Country Top News Sport World Oddly Enough Investing Video AlertNet Humanitarian News About Thomson Reuters Danish rail firm says Sweden border checks will cost 1 million DKK a day

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Border checks on train passengers aimed at curbing the number of asylum seekers entering Sweden from Denmark will cost Denmark's rail operator DSB nearly 1 million Danish crowns (99,370 pounds) a day, the state-owned company said on Tuesday. Travellers have been able to cross borders between the two Nordic countries without passports since the late 1950s but from Jan. 4 all Sweden-bound trains will be stopped at Copenhagen Airport for mandatory identification checks. DBS said in a statement that the identification checks would cost an estimated nine million crowns a month, with an expected fall in passenger numbers likely to result in an additional loss of around 20 million crowns a month. "Combined costs for identification control and lost revenue is estimated to be around 1 million crowns a day in the first month," a spokesman told Reuters. The company also warned that if the checks remain in place for more than a month, "it might result in a fee on tickets to Sweden to cover extraordinary costs". Sweden has tightened border controls and asylum rules to try to slow an influx of migrants from war-torn Syria and elsewhere that it expects to reach 190,000 this year. The country says its traditionally welcoming asylum system cannot cope, and that other European Union states must take in more refugees. DSB said that, from Monday, it will empty all trains at Copenhagen Airport, the last stop before the bridge to Sweden, where all passengers will have to enter the terminal to show identification papers before re-boarding the train. It has established 34 staffed slots at the airport station where papers will be checked. The checks will extend travel time by up to 45 minutes, DSB said -- longer than the 34-minute train journey between Sweden and Denmark which around 16,000 people make every day. source:http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN0UC13G20151229?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FAFRICAWorldNews+%28News+%2F+AFRICA+%2F+World+News%29&rpc=401