The possible extension of the Metro across the Øresund Bridge to Sweden would prove to be immensely popular.
A report from Swedish infrastructure expert Lennart Serder showed that the vast majority of travellers going across Øresund would prefer taking the Metro rather than the train.
“A Metro route across Øresund would provide a solid relief effect. Two thirds of the train travellers would move over to the Metro,” Serder told News Øresund. “That also means that the trains would be able to go across the bridge every twenty minutes and not every ten, which would in turn open up the bridge to more traffic.”
Today, over 30,000 people move across Øresund by train on a daily basis, but the prognosis showed that the number of daily passengers would double to 60,000 by 2030 if the Øresund Metro is built.
“What will remain on the Øresund Bridge is the traffic to the airport and Ørestad. Travellers heading to central Copenhagen will move to the Metro and for those who come from north in Scania, it can be quicker to take the Metro from Malmö instead of waiting on the train,” Serder said.
One important reason that a Metro line would attract so many passengers is because the travel time between Copenhagen and Malmö is expected to be halved to just 15 minutes, according to calculations.
Serder's report comes just weeks after it was revealed that integration in the Øresund region continued to drop. A final report is expected to be presented sometime in early December at a conference in Copenhagen.
As of now, no political decisions have been made concerning the construction of an Øresund Metro line.
In related news, Metroselskabet recently embraced global traditions and christened the massive drilling machine that is to drill the tunnels for the Metro City Ring.
‘Nora’ is 100 metres long and weighs 800 tonnes and was given its name in a 40-metre metro shaft in Nørrebroparken.
Pernille Østrem, the priest charged with naming the beast of a machine, is a neighbour to the Metro site in Nørrebro.
“When you’re down here, you can see how huge it is, for the city as well. It is a symbolic task and it feels special to be a part of,” Østrem told metroxpress newspaper. “But it’s nice to have a name when we curse the noise that the construction emits at night.”
The christening marks a new phase for the Metro construction, and Nora will commence the tunnel-drilling for the new City Ring within two weeks.
