The name is a hybrid of the Danish Øresundstog and the Swedish Öresundståg, both meaning "Øresund train".

The rolling stock, also known as Class ET in Denmark and X31K in Sweden, are electric passenger trainsets in the Flexliner family.

This has turned out to be insufficient, as differences in salaries and house prices between Copenhagen and Malmö have resulted in an unexpected increase of cross-border commuting.

Increasingly, people have to stand during rush hours, into Copenhagen in the morning and towards Malmö in the afternoon, which beside the inconvenience also raises safety concerns.

[6] On 27 June 2007 it was decided that DSBFirst was to assume responsibility from 2009 for the running of all Øresundståg services on the Øresund Line and connected destinations.

The Øresundståg operation has suffered from financial problems as well as delays and cancelled trains on both the Danish and Swedish part of its network,[9][10][11][12] notably during the 2010 winter.

But delays cause trouble to commuter passengers having fixed work hours and not wishing to add long margins, since they travel every day.

Between Gothenburg and Malmö (until 2012 to Copenhagen, but not to Helsingør), SJ AB (the Swedish national railway) operates competing trains.

There was a similar situation with DSB's "Intercity Bornholm" trains to Ystad, which did not accept Øresundståg tickets despite the "Øresundstog" rolling stock used.

In response to the European migrant crisis the Swedish government mandated ID checks on all trains coming from Denmark from December 2015.

Beginning on 4 January 2016, transport operators would be fined if any improperly documented people were found to be brought into Sweden.

As a result, DSB restructured the timetable, constructed a fence between the platforms at Copenhagen Airport station, and introduced its own ID checks in order to gain entrance to the Malmö-bound platform at CPH Airport station.

Since 4 May 2017 the line had changed to perform ID checks only at Malmö Hyllie station for trains travelling to Sweden.

[14][15][16] The trains used are the fourth and latest generation of the IC3 family of multiple units, specifically designed for use in regional traffic in areas connected by the Øresund Line.

However, as more passengers started commuting between Denmark and Sweden, there was a need for extra trainsets so in 2007 all X32 were rebuilt into standard X31 sets.