A spanking new railway, but only two trains per hour

Railway track operator Banedenmark’s woes seem neverending

Stephen Gadd

Sep 17, 2018

Once again the Danish railway system is in the spotlight for not delivering as promised.

A brand new stretch of track from Copenhagen to Ringsted announced with considerable fanfare in 2012, which has cost taxpayers around 9 billion kroner so far, will only have two trains running in each direction per hour, DR Nyheder reports.

Signal failures
The line was scheduled to open in December 2018, but because of problems with the signalling system this was then postponed until May 2019 in order to allow for five trains per hour. That is now no longer possible.

READ ALSO: Government wants to slash railway budget – again

The current stretch of track between Copenhagen and Roskilde has become a bottleneck affecting the whole country and the new track – able to support high-speed trains of up to 250 km/h – was supposed to alleviate the problem.

Cheap but not cheerful
Track operator Banedanmark blames the rebuilding of Ringsted Station where the budget has overshot by several hundred million kroner. Because of this, the track operator has been forced to choose a cheaper temporary solution and couple existing sets of points with new ones. This is now acting as a bottleneck for trains from locations such as Odense and Næstved until the rebuilding work is finished.

If and when it is running properly, the line has been built to handle 24 passenger trains per hour from the west of Denmark towards Copenhagen, which is a big improvement on the 17 per hour on the present stretch via Roskilde.

“Talents, start using AI tools now,” says Siri and Change.org founder

In an exclusive interview with The Copenhagen Post, the founder of Siri and Change.org, and currently VP of AI Experience at Airbnb, gives young talents advice on how to deal with the job market changed by artificial intelligence.
Testing free school meals for 20,000 kids and tax deduction for homeowners in 2025 Finance Act

The government has reached an agreement on next year’s Finance Act with SF and Radikale Venstre. A test on free school meals for a limited number of children will be introduced. Homeowners will get more options for deductions for home improvements
Make your voice heard as an expat

In my last op-ed, I made the case that we, expats living in Denmark, need to step up if we want to tackle the headaches that seem baked into expat life—e.g., counterintuitive laws and endless paperwork. With almost 16% of Denmark’s population made up of internationals, we actually have the numbers to influence real change. But after publishing the last op-ed, several readers contacted me and asked: Okay, but what can we actually do?
Danish politicians will double life science exports in a few years

“Strategy for life science” is a policy agreement to support the pharmaceutical industry’s opportunities to double exports to DKK 350 billion towards 2030
Royal House unveils new portraits of King Frederik and Queen Mary

Ten months after Frederik went from crown prince to king, new civil portraits of the new royal couple have been taken.
“Without internationals, we wouldn’t have the people we need,” says Fujifilm

Fujifilm’s Hillerød facility thrives with a diverse workforce, employing over 1,800 people from more than 65 nationalities. Morten Munk, Director of Global Alliance Management, highlights how the company’s rapid growth relies on attracting international talent due to Denmark’s limited pool of scientific professionals.

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.

5 Dec: A guided tour of Christiansborg

Career

“Talents, start using AI tools now,” says Siri and Change.org founder

In an exclusive interview with The Copenhagen Post, the founder of Siri and Change.org, and currently VP of AI Experience at Airbnb, gives young talents advice on how to deal with the job market changed by artificial intelligence.
“Without internationals, we wouldn’t have the people we need,” says Fujifilm

Fujifilm’s Hillerød facility thrives with a diverse workforce, employing over 1,800 people from more than 65 nationalities. Morten Munk, Director of Global Alliance Management, highlights how the company’s rapid growth relies on attracting international talent due to Denmark’s limited pool of scientific professionals.
“Now the biggest challenge is to retain internationals”, says Ferring

Mads Hougaard, senior HR director at the pharmaceutical company, explains that “it is also a challenge for society itself. I think collaboration between institutions, companies, and stakeholders could be beneficial.”

Want to advertise your job with CPH Post?

Jobs