celebrating the 90th anniversary of S-tog

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Journeys today on suburban trains through and around Copenhagen will be free to mark the 90th anniversary of S-tog, the S-train system that serves the city and its suburbs and outer towns.

The first train line in Denmark, from Roskilde to what is now the central station in Copenhagen, opened in 1847 and then, through the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, a network of train tracks were constructed to run around and across the city.

In 1926 a commission was set up to look at electrification of the train service. They presented their report in 1929 and the first sections, with electric trains running from Klampenborg to Hellerup and from from Vanløse to Frederiksberg, opened on 3 April 1934.

S-tog now has 170 kilometres (110 miles) of track and with 87 S-train stations … with 104 electric trains with eight cars and 31 trains with four cars … S-trains and the metro system together carry around half a million passengers a day.

To the north of the city centre there are S-tog lines out to Farum, Hillerød and Klampenborg with lines out to Køge to the south, to Høje Taastrup to the west, and out to Frederikssund to the north west of the city. These lines meet and cross through the central station that is still the main traffic hub with interchanges to regional and international trains but there is also an outer S-tog service that runs in a wide arc across the west and north parts of the city from what is now called København Syd (formerly Ny Ellebjerg) to Hellerup and that crosses and links all the radial lines.

From the start, S-tog trains were promoted as not just a transport system for workers coming into the city in the morning and heading back home in the evening but also as a reliable and cheap way for citizens to get out into the countryside or out to beaches and the coast.

In 1947 this radial system of train lines became the framework for a crucial new planning proposal for Copenhagen that was to control urban development and prevent sprawl. Stations along the lines were to be nodes for commercial development or were to serve new areas of housing. It was called the Finger Plan as on maps - or at least on schematic maps - it looked like a hand spread out with the old centre of the city as the palm and new development along the fingers - each with an S-tog line - and with green spaces between the fingers that were, where possible, protected from development.

S trains today at the station at Østerport

traffic lights

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Back in the new year, I was walking towards the National Bank in Copenhagen and traffic lights on the pedestrian crossing were against me.

Waiting on the pavement opposite side of Holmens Kanal, I realised that there were new, neat and slim traffic lights here with a less cluttered profile …. obvious against the plain stonework of the bank building. The lights themselves look larger but flatter - no heavy convex front as a lens - and they are bright and clear and no clumsy shades so presumably it’’s a narrow LED beam.

Tags on the traffic lights show that they are from the Austrian company Swarco. The PEEK label indicates they have the technology that gives emergency blue-light services priority.

Street furniture and road signs - particularly traffic lights - are a significant feature of any city-centre street scape and their size and exact position are determined primarily by the need for safety where traffic can be moving fast or where the arrangement of lanes and sight lines can be complicated and a visual distraction for any road user so they have to be obvious but, if they are badly placed or badly designed, they can have a huge and detrimental impact when silhouetted against important historic buildings.

This is a very busy junction with heavy traffic and, with various filter lanes, the roads are wide so lights for pedestrian crossings have to be well-placed and clear.

Over the last few months, these slim new lights have been installed at other junctions around the city …. here at the busy road intersection at Østerport railway station to the north east side of the city centre.

Swarco Alustar

a new metro line across Amager

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Reports in newspapers this week suggest that politicians at city hall have agreed on a new route for the next new line to be added to the metro system in Copenhagen.

Identified as the M5 line in previous plans, it is to run from the central railway station to serve Amager and Refshaleøen and the controversial new island of Lynetteholm.

Back in the Autumn of 2020, several options were published by Metroselskabet - the company that runs the metro - as they explored possible ways to extend the metro on from Orientkaj on Nordhavn to the new island of Lynetteholm and then, from there, down to Refshaeløen.

In a tight arc, the new line would have continued across Amager with major interchanges with the existing metro lines at Amagerbro and Islands Brygge before going under the harbour to the central railway station. It was also suggested, in the report, that there was also the possibility to extend the line on from the central station to serve the inner area of Nørrebro and the main hospital.

Two years ago, the priorities were to provide a metro service for the cruise ship terminal on Nordhavn and to serve the proposed housing on Lynneteholm along with an alternative route to reach the centre of the city from Amager that would relieve pressure on the original metro line from the airport and from Ørestad through Christianshavn to Kongens Nytorv that is now close to maximum capacity.

An obvious problem with those schemes was that there was a great gap in the middle where the new island might or might not be constructed ... the loop would only be fully operational when the two stations on Lynetteholm were open and it's housing completed and, current estimates suggest that will be sometime after 2070.

In addition, in order to work at optimal efficiency, any new line should have it's own service centre for it's own trains .... comparable to the service area at Metrovej in Ørestad for the original metro lines and Metro Service between Otto Busses Vej and Vasbygade for trains from the Cityringen.

In this, the most recent proposal for a new metro line from the central railway station, the line would take a wider curve across Amager to serve extensive areas of housing - both new developments and the revitalisation of older housing - where the only public transport is the bus services.

A new metro line from the central station would go under the harbour to a new station at Bryggebroen, at the south end of Islands Brygge, and then on to the existing metro station at DR Byen - rather than the original plan for an interchange at Islands Brygge metro station - and then to a new station on Amagerbrogade - further south than the interchange at the Amagerbro shopping centre proposed in earlier plans - and then on to an interchange at Lergravsparken - where passengers could change trains to get out to the airport. This new route would then continue north, close to the line of earlier route, to Prags Boulevard and Refshaleøen.

An area where the trains from this metro line could be serviced would be constructed out on the island of Prøvestenen.

This new metro line could be completed by 2035 but could then be extended on to Lynetteholm - if and when the island is finished - and, at the city end, the line could be extended on from the central station to inner Nørrebro and Rigshospitalet.

This is an important example of just how plans for major infrastructure projects have to evolve as other problems or other demands come to the fore or as the economic situation dictates.

 
 
 
 

Bispeengbuen - a new plan

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Yesterday, an article in the Danish newspaper Politken reported that planners and politicians in Copenhagen might have come to a decision on the fate of Bispeengbuen - the section of elevated motorway that runs down the border between Frederiksberg and the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen.

One of several major schemes to improve the road system in the city in the late 1960s and 1970s, Bispeengbuen was planned to reduce delays for traffic coming into the city from suburbs to the north west.

At the south end of the elevated section, at Borups Plads, traffic, heading into the city, drops back down to street level and continues first down Ågade and then on down Åboulevard to the lakes and, if it is through traffic, then on, past the city hall, and down HC Andersens Boulevard to Langebro and across the harbour to Amager.

Between the elevated section and the lakes, the road follows the line of a river that, from the late 16th century, had flowed through low-lying meadows - the Bispeeng or Bishop's Meadow - and brought fresh water in to the lakes. In 1897, the river was dropped down into a covered culvert and it still flows underground below the present traffic.

From the start, the elevated section was controversial as it cuts past and close to apartment buildings on either side - close to windows at second-floor level - and the area underneath is gloomy and generally oppressive. Traffic is fast moving and generates a fair bit of noise and it forms a distinct barrier between the districts on either side.

There has been an ambitious plan to drop the road and its traffic down into a tunnel with the river brought back up to the surface as the main feature of a new linear park. The full and very ambitious plan - for ambitious read expensive - was to extend the tunnel on to take all through traffic underground, to Amager on the south side of the harbour.

There has been talk of a less expensive plan to demolish the elevated section, to bring all traffic back down to street level, which would be cheaper but would not reduce the traffic and would leave the heavy traffic on HC Andersens Boulevard as a barrier between the city centre and the densely-populated inner suburb of Vesterbro.

This latest scheme, a slightly curious compromise, is to demolish half the elevated section. That's not half the length but one side of the elevated section. There are three lanes and a hard shoulder in each direction and the north-bound and city bound sides are on independent structures. With one side removed, traffic in both directions would be on the remaining side but presumably speed limits would be reduced - so, possibly, reducing traffic noise - and the demolished side would be replaced by green areas although it would still be under the shadow of the surviving lanes.

It was suggested in the article that this is considered to have the least impact on the environment for the greatest gain ... the impact of both demolition and new construction are now assessed for any construction project.

There is already a relatively short and narrow section of park on the west side of the highway, just south of Borups Plads, and that is surprisingly quiet - despite alongside the road.

On both sides of the road, housing is densely laid out with very little public green space so it would seem that both the city of Copenhagen and the city of Frederiksberg are keen to proceed. Presumably they feel half the park is better than none although I'm not sure you could argue that half an elevated highway is anywhere near as good as no elevated motorway.

The situation is further complicated because the highway is owned and controlled by the state - as it is part of the national road system - so they would have to approve any work and police in the city may also be in a position to veto plans if they feel that it will have too much of an impact on the movement of traffic through the area.

update - Bispeengbuen - 14 January 2020
update - a road tunnel below Åboulevard - 15 January 2020

note:
Given the brouhaha over each new proposal to demolish the elevated section of the motorway, it is only 700 metres overall from the railway bridge to Borups Plads and it takes the traffic over just two major intersections - at Nordre Fasanvej and Borups Allé -  where otherwise there would be cross roads with traffic lights. I'm not implying that the impact of the road is negligible - it has a huge impact on the area - but, back in the 1960s, planners clearly had no idea how many problems and how much expense they were pushing forward half a century with a scheme that, to them, must have seemed rational.

My assumption has been that the motorway was constructed, under pressure from the car and road lobby, as part of a tarmac version of the Finger Plan of the 1940s.

The famous Finger Plan was an attempt to provide control over the expansion of the city, and was based on what were then the relatively-new suburban railway lines that run out from the centre. New housing was to be built close to railway stations and with areas of green between the developments along each railway line .... hence the resemblance to a hand with the city centre as the palm and the railway lines as outstretched fingers.

Then, through the 1950s and 1960s, the number of private cars in Copenhagen increased dramatically and deliveries of goods by road also increased as commercial traffic by rail declined.

I don't know who the traffic planners were in Copenhagen in the 1950s and 1960s but, looking back, they barely appreciated old building or existing communities, and, presumably, looked to LA and, possibly, to the Romania of Nicolae Ceaușescu for inspiration. Their ultimate aim, in their professional lives, seems have been to design a perfect motorway intersection where traffic flowed without any delays.

They wanted to build a motorway down the lakes and when that was thwarted they proposed a massive motorway system that was to be one block back from the outer shore of the lakes - sweeping away the inner districts of Østerbro and Nørrebro - and with new apartment buildings along the edge of the lake - between their new motorway and the lake - that would have formed a series of semi-circular amphitheatres looking across the lakes to the old city. The whole of the inner half of Vesterbro, including the meat market area, and the area of the railway station would have become an enormous interchange of motorways where the only purpose was to keep traffic moving.

We have to be grateful that few of those road schemes were realised but there is also a clear lesson that, however amazing and visionary a major plan for new infrastructure may appear, it can, in solving an immediate problem, create huge problems for future generations to sort out.

approaching the elevated motorway from the south
the motorway from Ågade on the east side
the motorway crossing Borups Allé

the river close to the lakes at Åboulevard but now in a culvert below the road

Bispeengbuen under construction showing how it cut a swathe through the existing neighbourhood - city archive 50675

the earlier proposal to bury the road in a tunnel and bring the river back up to the surface as the main feature of a new linear park

small area of park on the west side of the road

clapping for Lynetteholm stops

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Work on dredging in the entrance to the harbour, for the construction of the man-made island of Lynetteholm, has been stopped because further reports are now required on the environmental impact of dredging polluted sludge from the site and taking it down the coast to the bay at Køge to dump.

There is growing criticism of the new island and it has become a contentious issue in both parliament and in the press because criticisms or, at the very least least concern, from the Swedish government about the construction work and the island itself was not revealed when a construction act for the work was debated and passed in the Danish parliament.

work to start on dredging for the construction of Lynetteholm January 2022

note:
When I wrote about Lynetteholm in the New Year, I had to confess then that I was not sure what the Danish term klapning meant or rather what it means specifically in this context when clearing the sea bed of sludge by dredging.

The word used in all newspaper articles was klapning but dictionaries and Google always gave me clapping as the English translation but neither word was used in general articles on dredging.

Finally I tracked down the answer.

When sludge is dredged up to clear a channel or, as here, to form a stable base for constructing a man-made island, the sand and mud can be loaded onto large open barges or ships and they sail down the coast where, over a designated site, they open large flaps on the underside of the hull to release the sludge. Those flaps can be opened and closed several times to dislodge everything .... hence clapping. Obvious now I know.

looking out from Nordhavn to the Sound
at the centre of the view is Trekroner Fortet - the Three Crowns Fortress - built in the 1780s to guard the entrance to the harbour

the new island will fill the whole horizon beyond the fort with just a narrow channel for boats to enter and leave the inner harbour

by 2070, when building work on the island is set to be completed, this view will be filled by the skyline of new housing for 35,000 people

 

an introduction to Kalvebod Brygge

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Planning is about the future. That's in the very word itself. We plan to do something ... planning is not retrospective. But it really is important to understand how we got here - why a street or group of buildings is as it is - to understand how and why what we have is good or bad and to use that to inform what happens next.

The history of Kalvebod Brygge is fascinating and complicated but, in terms of history, all relatively recent and all recorded on the maps produced over the last 100 years or so.

Primarily, the development of the south harbour is a lesson in how economic and political events often move faster than the best-laid plans for our streets and squares and, too often, a complicated scheme of renewal or development can take so long to realise that it is redundant or inappropriate by the time it is completed.

 

1912

1945

1967

Until the late 19th century, the harbour south of what is now Langebro was a wide bay.

In the middle of the 19th century a new railway from Copenhagen to Roskilde was laid out along the north beach of the bay, along what is now Sønder Boulevard. In commercial terms, the close proximity of water and railways is catnip for development … as much back then in the 19th century as it is now.

First a meat market and gas works were built out into the bay with wharves for the delivery of coal for both the gas works and then for a new electricity works built immediately south of Tivoli. That was superseded in 1932, when the coal-fired power station of HC Ørstedværket opened.

There were wood yards between the harbour and Ny Glyptotek when it was built in the 1890s but these were rapidly replaced with new streets and apartment buildings.

A new central railway station was built in 1911 and the railway was taken out on a wider curve on yet more land claimed from the bay and, for the first time, Bernstorffsgade, between the new station and Tivoli, became a main road though, initially, it did not continue much further than the south-west corner of Tivoli and certainly not as far as the harbour.

At about the same time, so from about 1890, the line of the shore of Amager, opposite, was also being pushed further and further out into the bay and both sides of the approach to Langebro became docks.

If you use the word port it usually conjurers up the image of ocean-going liners but this was docks .... vital, hard working but fairly grubby commercial quays for coal, grain, sand and building materials and soy beans and sugar. The sort of goods carried in freighters.

On the city side, these  commercial docks continued all the way up to Knipplesbro so across where the National Library and BLOX are now.

Rail tracks came off the outside curve of the main railway and ran all the way up the city side as far as Nyhavn and at Langebro the railway crossed over to Amager and ran down quays on the Islands Brygge side … all for goods and not for passengers.

The area where Kalvebod Brygge is now was mainly rail sidings and marshalling yards and, although it might seem incredible now, this was where, around 1969,  the city built the first container port. The main area for transferring containers from ships to railway trucks - then a very new system for shipping goods - was on new yards where the service depot of the metro is now.

There were soon huge new cranes along the quay for transferring containers but it was early days for this new form of shipping and there are accounts of early attempts to pick up and move containers with a fork-lift truck on each side in, what sounds like, a dangerous balancing act or containers were lifted up from the end which blocked the driver’s view of where he was going and it can’t have been that good for the cargo to have the container tipped up at an angle.

There was still a large building of circa 1910 that had been a pig market on the quayside although it had been used as a garage for some time. It was demolished in 1966 and work started on extending Bernstorffsgade down across the site of the market as far as the quay and then a main road, a dual carriageway, was constructed along the quay - and that is what is now Kalvebod Brygge - to be the main fast route into and out of the city.

This was part of wider plans to modernise radically the road system of the old city with wide and fast new roads. It was the period when there were even plans to build a motorway down the lakes as an inner ring road and the period when large blocks of old buildings in the north corner of the old city were demolished and the first glass and steel office buildings were constructed within the old defences.

But events and world economics and technology were moving faster than the plans and the dock was in decline. Not least, the problem was that the docks had to deal with larger and larger ships and these would all have meant the raising of Knipplesbro and Langebro and the opening of the rail bridge at Langebro to let them through. The docks in the south harbour went into decline and the focus turned to large new facilities at Nordhavn and on the expansion of other ports in Denmark

If the office buildings along Kalvebod Brygge can be criticised, it is because they are uninspiring and waste an amazing location but, by the late 1980s and into the 1990s, the city was facing bankruptcy and a new business area and any way to revitalise the harbour was better than any alternative. Award-winning architecture was not a priority.

on the city side, the commercial quays continued as far as Knippelsbro

the pig market that was demolished in 1966 for the extension of Bernstorffsgade as far as Kalvebode Brygge - Copenhagen Archive 42126

construction work for Kalvebod Brygge - Copenhagen Archive 91920
the building immediately below the end of the crane is what is now KB32

Bernstorffsage and Kalvebod Brygge in 1989 - the tower block is now a hotel and the car park to its right is the site of the new Scandic Spectrum hotel
the area of grass to the left is where the SEB offices are now
note the commercial/industrial building north of the police station - the building with a circular courtyard
that site too is now a hotel

a revamped Fisketorvet

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the main entrance on the north-west side is at the end of a long bridge over the main railway tracks from the suburban train station at Dybbølsbro

the main entrance to Fisketorvet from the west … here, Kalvebod Brygge, the main road into and out of the city from the south, is down in an underpass with high retaining walls for the slip roads

Construction work has started on a major revamp and upgrade of the Fisketorvet shopping centre at the south end of the harbour. The restaurant area at the north-east corner of the building is closed and the exterior is now under scaffolding.

There was a fish market for the city here from 1958 through to 1999 when it was moved to the North Harbour.

The shopping centre with a large cinema was designed by Kiehlers Architects and it opened on the site of the fish market in 2000. Inside it is light and really it’s not bad for a large shopping centre from that period with shops on well-lit malls on the level of the main entrance from Dybbølsbro and on the level above and a large supermarket on the south-east side at a lower level that is reached from a quay alongside a canal.

However, the exterior is certainly looking a bit tired and more than a bit dated. A series of six tall dark towers across the south end and down the south-east side towards the canal are stark and oppressive.

A new metro station will open in 2024 at the south-west end of the shopping centre, where there was a car park, and in the last three or four years new apartment buildings have been constructed in this part of the city so, presumably, major investment in the shopping centre, can now be justified.

The centre has a service road at the lowest level, on the side towards Kalvebod Brygge - a dual carriageway with heavy traffic that is a main way in and out of the city from the south - and there was parking at the lowest level. Like so many shopping centres of that period, it was inward looking - so punters were not distracted from the whole spending experience - but the plan now seems to be for new, outward-facing shops that will be built to make the centre more inviting and more open to the community around.

Havneholmen, the sharply-pointed island, has apartment buildings and office blocks built since 2000.
Fisketorvet is the roughly-rectangular block between the island and Kalvebod Brygge - the main road from the south into the city centre … the concave entrance front is obvious at the end of the long bridge over the road and the railway.
the new metro station will be across the south-west end of the shopping centre and is on a new metro line that will open in 2024 to run from the central station out to the south harbour and on to Ny Ellebjerg

Fisketorvet now …. from the north with the harbour for the old gasworks and the cycle bridge … and from the south

proposals by Schmidt Hammer Lassen for remodelling the exterior

it’s 50 years since the last trams ran through the city

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Today is an interesting anniversary because it's now fifty years since the tram service in Copenhagen was shut down with the last trams running through the city on 22 April 1972.

The first trams in the city were horse drawn but electric trams were brought in from the 1890s and the first tram routes were established by private companies but in 1911 the city took over the operation of the tram system.

New trams, tram terminals and street furniture for the tram service were then designed by the city architects department.

At one stage the length of the tram routes through and around the city was just under 100 kilometres in total.

an unbuilt tram station for Rådhuspladsen March 2020
Bien at Trianglen July 2018

horse-drawn trams on Kongens Nytorv in 1913
Copenhagen City Archive reference 51787

a tram on Amager in 1966

 

tram designed for the city in 1910 by Knud V Engelhardt (1882-1931) - Denmark’s first industrial designer

 

three new stops for the harbour ferry

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Until the end of last month, Havnebuser - the harbour buses or harbour ferries in Copenhagen - have run from Refshaleøen, at the north end of the harbour, to Teglholmen in the south harbour with eight ferry stops. *

Now, there are two new stops in the south harbour and in April the service will be extended north with the ferries sailing on from Refshaleøen to Nordhavn and a new ferry stop at Orientkaj.

Islands Brygge, on the Amager or east side of the harbour, about 600 metres south of the bridge at Fisketorvet, and Enghave Brygge on the west or city side of the harbour, came into operation on 27 February.

These will serve new areas of housing, on both sides of the harbour, close to HC Ørestedværket - the power station, constructed in the 1930s, that is now an important and iconic historic building in the south harbour.

These new stops are almost opposite each other, so they also provide an important cross-harbour link for pedestrians and cyclists. The Enghave Brygge ferry stop will be less than 200 metres from a new metro station that will open in 2024 and Islands Brygge Syd is just 300 metres from the edge of Amager Fælled so there will be an important link from the city side to the large and popular open area of park.

In April, when the harbour ferry service is extended on from Refshaleøen to Nordhavn and a new ferry terminal at Orientkaj, the journey time from Nyhavn to Orientkaj will take 39 minutes.

Movia, the operating company, have added two new electric-powered ferries to their current fleet of five. The electric ferries came into service in 2019 and each can carry 80 passengers and with space on the front deck for eight bikes and four wheelchairs or prams.

These ferries provide an important and successful service for commuters but there is a growing problem with overcrowding because they are now also a popular water bus for tourists.

For safety, the number of passengers on each ferry is strictly controlled - at busy times people are counted on and counted off - so it is frustrating if you wait for a ferry but do not manage to get on because not enough passengers have disembarked. The ferries now run every 30 minutes so more ferries at peak times might help but differential pricing with preferential rates for commuters has to be considered.

the metro, the bus and the ferry January 2019
new ferries for the harbour May 2020

press release on the new stops from movia

the ferry stop at Nyhavn and the new apartments on Papirøen

 
 

* a ferry stop at Holmen Nord - north of Operaen and just south of Nyholm - was closed when it was found that the new electric ferries could not manoeuvre safely around the large number of hire boats in the tight space at the bridge where Danneskjold Samsøes Allé crosses over the channel between Tømmergraven - the inner area of water - and Flådens Leje and the main harbour

Inderhavnsbroen / the inner harbour bridge

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Inderhavnsbroen - the inner harbour bridge for pedestrians and bikes that crosses from Nyhavn to Christianshavn - opened in the summer of 2016.

It provides an important and fast link between the old city, on the west side of the harbour, and Christianshavn, Christiania, Holmen and the opera house on the east side of the harbour.

Until the completion of the bridge, the simple way to cross the harbour was to use the ferry between the Skuespilhuset - the National Theatre - and the opera house - a distance of about 600 metres door to door by foot and boat.

To walk or to ride a bike from the theatre to the opera house without using the ferry meant going down to Knippelsbro and then back up to Holmen - a distance of just over 3 kilometres.

With the Inner Harbour Bridge and the new three-way Transgravsbroen, it is still 1,500 metres from the door of the theatre to the door of the opera house.

By car it was even further. When I first moved to Copenhagen, cars could not drive over the bridge from Christianshavn to Holmen so the route meant driving over to Amager and then across the north side Kløvermarken and up to the causeway at Minebådsgraven and from there to Holmen and the Opera House ..... a distance of well over 6 kilometres.

Inderhavnsbroen was designed by the English engineers Flint & Neill who are now a subsidiary of the Danish engineering group COWI.

It has been nicknamed the Kissing Bridge because of the unusual way that it opens and closes to let large ships move up and down the harbour.

read more

Inderhavnsbroen from the south …. Havngade and then Nyhavn are to the left and on the right is Nordatlantens Brygge - the warehouse on the east or Christianshavn side of the harbour
the cranes are for new apartment buildings on Papirøen

 
 

the bridge from the east or Christianshavn side looking up Nyhavn towards Kongens Nytorv

the bridge from the east with Nyhavn beyond with the centre sections open for a ship to come through

 

cargo bikes

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Yesterday, there was an interesting article in The Guardian about using cargo bikes rather than vans for deliveries in urban areas.

It was prompted by the recent publication of a report on the benefit of using cargo bikes in London that was compiled by Ersilia Verlinghieri, Irena Itova, Nicolas Collignon and Rachel Aldred, and has been published by Possible - a UK based climate charity that is working towards a zero carbon society.

The article summarised important key conclusions from the report:

  • electric cargo bikes can deliver parcels faster than vans in a city centre - some 60% faster … cargo bikes can drop off, on average, 10 parcels in an hour to six parcels by a van driver

  • a delivery bike can pick up and deliver by tighter routes - taking more short cuts - and bikes can often cut around traffic congestion

  • delivery bikes can usually get closer, door to door, and waste less time trying to find somewhere to park

  • even with a power-assisted bike, there are considerable reductions in emissions and pollution

Research for the report included an assessment of routes used by the delivery service Pedal Me with deliveries from 100 random days over a season analysed and then compared with calculations of the equivalent mileage and time that vans would have clocked up.

For that sample alone, over just 100 days, cargo bikes saved four tonnes of CO2.

The conclusion was that "with the 100,000 cargo bikes introduced in Europe between 2018 and 2020 they are estimated to be saving, each month, the same amount of CO2 needed to fly about 24,000 people from London to New York and back."

I presume the conclusion was not that if there were more delivery bikes then more travellers could make more trips to New York because that really would be a particularly perverse form of carbon offset.

The important conclusion of the report was that "estimates from Europe suggest that up to 51% of all freight journeys in cities could be replaced by cargo bikes."

These photographs were taken on the inner harbour bridge and I thought that was a clever idea … most cyclists in the city move fast and the idea was that the slope, on the run up to the bridge, would slow them down a bit but I’d underestimated just how fit and fast the local cyclists are.

So it’s not my finest set of photos.

For a start, I should have set a wider aperture and shallower depth of field but then I’m more used to taking photographs of buildings and chairs that do not move.

And it was frustrating because, as I walked up to the bridge, three girls, dressed in their best, came past in the box of a Christiania that was decked out in pink ribbons and flowers on the way to a hen party and, as I headed for home, a bike came past with a second-hand Arne Jacobsen Swan Chair strapped to the front and I missed that too.

If I have time, I might have a second go at this and will update the gallery.

 
 
 

The report has some useful graphics with one (reproduced above) showing different types of cargo bike with possible loads and average widths .... a crucial consideration for planning departments when upgrading busy cycle routes that may need wider lanes and wider spacing for any bollards that are there to deter or block access by motor vehicles.

Replacing just 10% of motorised deliveries in London could save “133,300 tonnes of CO2 and 190.4 thousand Kg of NOx a year” and "would reduce urban congestion and free a total of 384,000 square metres of public space usually occupied by parked vans and 16,980 hours of vehicle traffic per day."

By 2019, there were 4.1 million vans registered in the UK with 58% of all vans owned by a business but 46% of the kilometres covered by van deliveries are in urban areas and a Department for Transport survey shows a proportion of daily journeys - 39% of those collecting or delivering goods and 43% of vans delivering materials - were no further than 25 kms from their home base and that makes more deliveries by cargo bike feasible.

Cargo bikes deliver faster and cleaner than vans, study finds,
by Damian Carrington, The Guardian Thursday 5 Aug 2021
Possible
The Promise of Low-Carbon Freight: Benefits of cargo bikes in London

 
 

money made available to restore the Soup Tureen

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The city has just now announced that a block of money has been made available for a number of restoration projects and for work to improve a number of streets or public areas.

One of the projects will be the restoration of the pavilion on the major road interchange north of the lakes at Trianglen.

Dating from 1907, the building was designed by PV Jensen-Klint and was waiting rooms and public toilets where several major tram routes terminated or crossed.

The copper roof, with it’s distinct and striking shape, soon earned the building the nickname of Super Terrin or Terrinen although it was also known as Bien … the bee …. from the name of a kiosk here at one time.

Bien at Trianglen
Trianglen

the if or when and the how much and why of new islands and tunnels under the sea

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This week, politicians in Copenhagen have to agree a budget for the city for the next financial period and the main item on their agenda will, presumably, be discussions about moving to the next stage their ambitious plans to construct a large new island across the entrance to the harbour …. a major engineering project that has been agreed in principle by both the national government and by the city and agreed across most political parties.

Initial plans set the new island immediately beyond and close to the Trekroner Fort - built in the late 18th century to guard the entrance to the harbour - but the most recent drawings published show that it will now be further out into the Sound and will cover a larger area of about 3 square kilometres. There will be a large park along the eastern edge - planned to be larger than the well used and popular Fælledparken on the north side of the city - with homes on the island for 35,000 people and work there for at least 12,000 people although some assessments have suggested that as many as 20,000 new jobs will be created.

But the new  island is not simply the next version of Nordhavn - just larger and further out - but it is also an integral part of an expansion of traffic infrastructure on this side of the city and there will be extensive flood defences on the east or outer side of the island that faces out across the open Sound …. defences that will be an important part of the protection against storm surges that could flood the inner harbour as the climate changes and as sea levels rise.

The name for the new island - Lynetteholm - was, In part, inspired by the shape with a broad curve to the east side - the side facing out across the Sound - and is from the Danish version of the French word lunette and that has been combined with the Norse word holm for a low island that was usually in a river or estuary and was often meadow.

However, Lynette is not a new name in this area of the outer harbour because it was the name of a curved outer fortress built in the Sound in the 1760s that, with large guns set up there, was an important part of outer defences that protected the entrance to the harbour.

read more

① road link and tunnel to Nordhavn - north of Svanemølle and south of Hellerup
② tunnel to link Nordhavn to Lynetteholm and then on to the bridge to Sweden
③ alternative route for a traffic tunnel below the coast road of Amager
④ route for tunnel from Nordhavn to Sjællandsbroen - bridge over the harbour

⑤ if the elevated motorway at Bispeengbuen is demolished then there is a plan
to construct a road tunnel from Fuglebakken to Amager - including a tunnel
under Åboulevard and under HC Andersens Boulevard and on under the
harbour and possibly as far as Artilerivej

 

the end of the line for now but from here does the metro go north or east?

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60 metres beyond the platform at Orientkaj - this is the end of the line for now

In March 2020, a new section of the metro in Copenhagen opened …. the north end of the new M4 line with new stations beyond Østerport at Nordhavn and Orientkaj.

From Østerport, trains for Orientkaj follow the existing M3 track - the metro inner ring north towards Trianglen - but 500 Metres from Østerport, below the north end of the lakes, they branch off onto the new line and follow a curve to the east.

The new Nordhavn metro station is just under 2 kilometres from Østerport, below ground on the east or sea side of the suburban railway line so it’s on the east side of the suburban train station at Nordhavn and actually on the east side of the main coast road.

Immediately after the metro station at Nordhavn, trains rise rapidly up a steep slope and up onto a section of elevated track immediately before the second new metro station at the inner end of the Orientkaj dock.

For now, just beyond the platforms of Orientkaj, the track ends abruptly waiting for the next phase of work.

Maps of the metro - even those from as recently as last Spring - show the next stage of the metro line running on to new stations at Levantkaj, Krydstogtkaj, Nordstrand and then, finally, to Fiskerikaj, at the end of the line … so four new stations that will not only serve new housing that will be constructed in the last phase of building for Nordhavn but would also take passengers out to the terminal for cruise ships at Oceankaj.

That new line, as proposed, would form a large curve - running first east out to the cruise ship terminals and then north and west in a large arc - so it has been nicknamed “Lille Spørdmålstegn” or the Little Question Mark.

But now there is a real and a very large question mark over this whole next stage for the metro because all decisions are on hold waiting to see if a recent proposal to construct a large new island for housing across the entrance to the harbour goes ahead.

Constructing that large artificial island would not be completed until 2070 but it is also entangled with a complicated series of planning decisions that have to be made in the next year:

  • A new tunnel is to be built north of Svanemølle power station for road access to Nordhavn from the north but this could be extended down the east side of Amager, in a tunnel, to the airport and the bridge to Sweden. It would not only be a major eastern bypass for the city but would also provide road access to the new island from the north and south.

  • If the island is constructed across the entrance to the harbour then it would also be part of new storm-surge protection to stop water from the Sound flooding into the inner harbour and flooding the inner city. That flood barrier has not been allocated a budget and, already, some have raised doubts about an island being the best form for storm protection.

  • A large and expensive and relatively new sewage and water treatment plant to the east of Refshaleøen would have to be relocated and again that is not in the budget.

  • Because the island would be built out in to the Sound and because a major road bypassing the city would link to the airport and the Øresundsbroen - the rail and road bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo - an eastern ring road should be seen as part of a wider regional transport policy - including a proposal to build a rail and road link at the north end of the Sound, between Helsingør and Helsinborg - so both regional planning and environmental concerns in Sweden have to be taken into account.

This is becoming one of the most complicated and, certainly, the most contentious infrastructure plan for the city.

new metro stations at Nordhavn and Orientkaj
Lynetteholm
the if, when, how much and why of the new island

 

Forundersøgelse Metrobetjening af Lynetteholm /
Metro Services for Lynnetholm Preliminary Study

If you want to follow and to understand the planning issues that are involved or if you are interested in the engineering problems that will have to be resolved then I would recommend a report from the metro company - Forundersøgelse Metrobetjening af Lynetteholm / Preliminary Investigation of Metro Service to Lynetteholm.

It can be downloaded from their web site and sets out in some detail and with good maps and illustrations, the options and possible routes for extending the metro line on from Ørientkaj.

This is far from a simple matter of drawing lines across a map.

Any new metro lines will have to link into the current service and this means also looking at an opportunity to extend the metro system into parts of the old city that are not served by the current metro lines.

In addition, the current line out to Ørientkaj runs in sections along existing lines and uses existing service facilities but there is now an opportunity to build new depots and to make sure that new services do not have an impact on the running of the existing lines.

Not only could a new service out to the new island form important new and fast links across the city but it will have to thread it’s way through and under or over existing infrastructure and any new interchanges will have to work in a rational way with what is happening in the streets and squares above.

For some new interchanges on the system - like at Islands Brygge - there are three or four options for the site of a new station above ground and several options for how connections and platforms will link below ground.

If the construction of Lynetteholm does get approval, the island will not be completed until 2070 so any new lines or new stations would either have to wait until then or new lines might be phased and built so that the line out to stations on the island would be simply the last stage that closed the loop.

Forundersøgelse Metrobetjening af Lynetteholm /
Metro Services for Lynnetholm Preliminary Study

 

If Lynetteholm is given a green light then the new island will influence any future extension of the metro

 
 

Before the construction of a new island was proposed, this was plan for the new M4 line of the metro system.

It shares a long section of track with the metro ring between the central station and Østerport. A short new section of track out to Ørientkaj has just opened and the long south section of the line that will provide a service out to the south harbour and on to the major railway interchange at Ny Ellebjerg is underconstruction but will not open until 2024.

The new stations will have distinct designs that reflect the character of the areas that they serve. The station at Havneholmen is on the south side of the shopping centre at Fisketorvet and work has started on an extensive restoration and upgrading of the centre. It is also close to the site for a new bus station for the city on Carsten Niebuhrs Gade on a site parallel to the railway and on the opposite side of the tracks to the station at Dybbølsbro.

 
 

M4 Blå linje

This option to extend the M4 line to the new island is possibly the most straightforward.

A line out the north coast of Nordhavn might or might not be constructed but the M4 line would be re aligned to go first to a new station at Baltkakaj and then on to the cruise ship terminal and then, when the island was constructed, trains would go in tunnels under the new and constricted entrance channel for the harbour to two new stations on Lyntteholm and then on to Refshaleøen and Klovermarken that are not served by the current metro but will have extensive new areas of development and housing over the next twenty years.

The line could be extended beyond Klovermarken to provide a fast service across the top of Amager and then back under the inner harbour to the central railway station to relieve pressure on the existing metro stations at Christianshavn and Islands Brygge where passenger numbers are close to capacity.

 
 

M5 Lilla linje


This option is more radical.

The metro line out to Nordhavn would be completed as planned but there would be a new and potentially faster service out to Lynetteholm directly from Østerport station with a new long tunnel under the inner harbour.

If Lynetteholm gets approval then the plan is for housing for 35,000 people and work for almost as many so passenger numbers would be large.

From Lynetteholm, the new line would also be extended down to Refshaleøen and on across Amager to the central railway station to form a sweeping curve that forms a large reverse C.

 
 

M5 Vest Orange linje

This option takes the curve of the new metro line the other way so in effect starts on Lynetteholm (or ends on Lynetteholm as the last stage of a phased construction ending in 2070).

It would serve the major regional hospital - the Rigshospitalet on the south side of Fælledparken - and part of the inner area of Nørrebro that are not served by the current metro lines and with a new interchange at Forum where the exhibition centre may be redeveloped and the line will then go on to the central railway station and again across the top of Amager but in this option it will end at Prags Boulevard where there is extensive new housing.

A new metro station at the central railway station may be constructed on the inner, city side of the railway tracks and would be under Bernstorfsgade …. under the very busy street and the bus station between the railway station and Tivoli.

Whichever option is chosen, it looks as if the citizens of Copenhagen can look forward to 40 years or more of engineering works, earth moving and high green hoardings.

 

recent criticism of Nørreport

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Recently, there was an article in Politiken, the Danish daily newspaper, that criticised the square above Nørreport station because it’s looking tired and slightly scruffy.

In part, of course, the remodelling of the area completed five years ago has been a victim of it’s own success.

When COBE, the architects responsible for the remodelling, took on the commission, their first task was to look at how people moved across the space when the station entrances were on an island with traffic moving along both long sides of the space so, wherever you were coming from or going to, you had to cross a road to get to steps down to the trains that at this station are below pavement level. By closing and paving over the road on the city side and by pushing all through traffic, including buses, to the long west side, then, in effect, the problem was halved.

This is still the busiest transport interchange in the city and, for that reason alone, it can not be a place where people can or should be encouraged to stay so it can’t really be too inviting. There are seats and people seem happy to stand around waiting if they have arranged to meet someone but that it is about it. It is and has to be a transit space.

The article criticised the sunken areas where bikes are left but actually they work remarkably well given the phenomenal number of bikes left here. Generally, few bike spill out over the paving where pedestrians walk and very few pedestrians find it clever or necessary to cut between the parked bikes and when I checked, over a couple of different days, they were not full of litter as suggested.

Paving and metal drainage and service covers that divide the huge area into an overall chequer or square pattern are certainly looking worn and dirty and cracked. In part this is because heavy vehicles sometimes need access and can cause damage but possibly the main problem with the paving is the colour and the lack of texture. As with the paving on Købmagergade - the long pedestrian street that starts at Nørreport and runs down to Strøget - the Walking Street - the paving is too pale and too smooth. Areas of older stone setts in the historic centre tend to have much darker greys and even some purple tones and that seems to provide a better visual base for the buildings and, in a practical way, show dirt and stains less although nothing can disguise the blobs of chewing gum. A bin it and don’t spit it or flick it campaign is desperately needed.

 
 

Nørreport does work well at night with soft light from the ventilation towers that makes it feel safe but the light is not so bright that you feel as if you are moving around under the glare of security spot lights.

Maybe some areas of paving can be improved and possibly some new trees at the north end might help to screen off Gothersgade and give a sense of enclosure but more general planting is not necessary …. it has to be understood that this area should not be treated as if it was an enclosed space like a square because it is simply the centre section of a long but wide road.

It’s good to have at least some urban areas in the city that are designed to be busy and bustling spaces.

 
 

a new link between the platforms of the central railway station and the new metro station

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A key part of ongoing construction work to complete the new metro station at København H - the metro station at the central railway station in Copenhagen - has opened with access to a wide tunnel under the platforms of the train station so that passengers can go directly from the metro trains to the platforms for suburban and national and international trains.

Until this tunnel opened, passengers from the metro had to go up to street level and then cross over a road and go up a flight of steps to get to the main station concourse before then going back down to the train platforms that, at the central station, are below street level. 

Now, as you come up the escalators from the metro platforms, there is a large circulation area just below street level and, from that lower circulation level, you can walk straight ahead into the tunnel where there are steps and lifts up to each of the train platforms.

I’m not sure what to call this lower part of the metro station. The lower concourse?

When the first underground stations on the original metro line opened nearly twenty years ago it was the area where passengers bought tickets and where there were maps and information panels so it seemed reasonable then to call it a ticket hall. 

Now, almost twenty years later, virtually everyone has an app on their phone and even the rejsepas - the plastic travel card - seems old fashioned so fewer and fewer people are buying printed tickets. 

As long as you check information about which platform you want for which suburban train service, it’s a quick and easy way to avoid the people milling around on the busy station concourse and, the other way round, if you arrive in Copenhagen on a train then now there is a quick way down to the metro.

If people wonder about the general process of planning and designing then most would surely think about what happens out at street level - the part they can see - but this example shows just how much thought and work and money goes into threading together the new and the old parts of the infrastructure of a densely built and busy city.

Nyhavn

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Recently, while doing research for a number of posts on buildings around Råshuspladsen, I’ve been using the vast collection of historic photographs from the city archive that are now available on line and, although not actually looking for it, I came across this photograph of Nyhavn … a photograph of the view from the ‘new’ harbour looking towards the more open water of the main harbour.

It was taken sometime after 1900 and probably before 1910 and for me it sums up what is so fantastic about Nyhavn and about the survival of so many major historic buildings along the quays on either side.

For over 200 years, this part of the city was at the heart of commercial trade with merchants living here and with warehouses and workshops that continued to thrive even when, from the end of the 18th century and through the 19th century, they were superseded by the larger warehouses of Christianshavn and Larsens Plads and the line of large brick warehouses between Amalienborg and the harbour.

In the book Historiske Huse in det gamle København, published by the National Museum in 1972, forty four buildings in Nyhavn are included with short summaries of their date; their builder (if recorded) and with details about important later owners. Despite alterations, most of the buildings on the north side, date back, at least in part, to the construction of the harbour in the 1680s. On the south side was the palace of Charlottenborg, that survives, and then further down the harbour buildings from the naval dockyard and the first botanical gardens. It was only in the middle of 19th century that the larger apartment buildings along the quay below the bridge on the south side were constructed.

The photograph shows that the ships moored here - designed and constructed for specific cargoes or different trading routes - were as beautiful and as amazing as the buildings. And, of course, it was the ships that generated the income that provided the money to build and then later to improve the houses as the wealth of the city merchants increased and as tastes and styles and fashions changed.

Some will argue that the harbour has been swamped by it’s own success and has been or will be destroyed by the ever-larger numbers of tourists and the restaurants that are here to serve them but, of course, some will argue that it is only the income from tourism that now means the buildings can be maintained and that they now have a valid role.

The important thing is that they do survive and that they are well maintained not just as exteriors, so simply as a backdrop, but rather as incredibly important historic buildings and interiors that contain the physical and tangible evidence for how people in the city lived and worked and traded and the evidence to show how and why they were successful.

 

the Metro to Nordhavn

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At the end of March, the north part of the new M4 line of the Metro opened for trains to run from København H - the central railway station - to Orientkaj, out at the north harbour.

This new service follows the Cityring to Østerport but then, just north of the station, there is a large junction or intersection at the north end of Sortedamsø and immediately below the lake where the new line heads out to the north east. It goes under the main railway line and railway station at Nordhavn and under the main coast road - Kalkbrænderihavnsgade - to a new underground metro station just north of Nordhavn Basin.

Trains then climb steeply to the start of a new elevated section of track to terminate at a new elevated station at Ørientkaj, just over 2 kilometres from Østerport.

For now, the track stops just 70 metres beyond the new station but it will be extended on to serve new but as yet unbuilt housing and businesses at the outer or north part of Nordhavn and there are plans for it to continue to the terminals for cruise ships and, possibly, on further, back underground, to take passengers under the harbour and to Refshaleøen.

Going in the other direction, trains starting from Ørientkaj now terminate at København H - the central railway station - but the south end of the M4 line out to Sydhavn - the south harbour - is due to be completed in 2022 and then trains on the M4 line will continue on to Sluseholmen and on to what will be a major interchange with the suburban rail service at Ny Ellebjerg.

The new metro station at Nordhavn follows the same form as the other stations on the new Cityring …. so with the train tracks set apart and with a central platform between them. There is what is essentially an open concrete box above the platform that is rectangular in plan, the width of the platform and the length of the trains. This contains very open escalators, rising from the centre of the platform and free of the walls of the box and, just below street level, there is a large circulation area below street level where there are ticket machines, information panels and maps and so on with the open escalators at the centre. There are steps up to the street and, at many stations, access to underground bike storage at that level below the street. All the stations also have lifts - most with glass superstructures at street level and stops below at the ticket hall/circulation area and then at the platform.

But, here at Nordhavn, there are some distinct differences from that arrangement.

First, and perhaps most obvious, there are no skylights over the escalators. The public square above the station is only crudely laid out for now, with temporary paths for access, so it’s difficult to see how this will be organised and difficult to see why the distinct pyramid-shaped sky lights of so many of the other stations have been omitted here. These pyramid-shaped skylights over the escalators are important because they provide at least some natural light right down to the platform.

And where the other stations are set to the orientation of the streets or squares above - so with entrances and staircases and elevators that are either at each end or, in some, at the centre of each side - here at Nordhavn the tunnels and the station platform are set at an angle to the streetscape above. The east exit and entrance to Nordhavn runs out at an angle from the corner of that main hall just below street level as a short tunnel with steps to take passengers up to the street above but there is also a long pedestrian tunnel, for passengers to walk under the road and under the suburban railway, to connect the metro station to the suburban railway station and that runs out at an angle from the diagonally-opposite corner at the main ticket hall level immediately below ground. So, the main circulation area, immediately below the pavement, has a strong and distinct diagonal axis.

A unique feature in the new metro stations is a moving pavement for the main part of that long tunnel between the metro station and the suburban train station.

The walls of the box down to the platforms have the deep red cladding of other metro stations where there is an interchange between the metro and suburban trains and that deep red is also taken through the tunnel between the metro station and the suburban rail station as narrow vertical panels or stripes. In contrast, the flight of steps up to the square has striking black and white stripes.

I’m curious about this colour coding. From the train, passengers can just see the red above the platform so it might remind them to get off the train here for a railway interchange but how are visitors to the city to know that? And locals, who might have spotted the colour code, probably know where they are going anyway.

 
 

Just beyond the station at Nordhavn, trains emerge from the tunnels and run within hefty concrete channels that rise up steeply past Sundkaj to the new station at Ørientkaj that is just before Levantkaj where the track stops.

Of all the metro stations on the system, Orientkaj stands out with its strong style that owes more to engineering than to architecture.

Like the other stations, the platform at Orientkaj is set between the tracks - rather than on either side, outside the tracks - but the platform area and the tracks on either side are within a large glass box that has spectacular views straight down the dock to the Sound.

The platform area and its roof are supported on hefty concrete work with a broad V shape of supports rising from the ground and with a massive concrete cross beam that supports the platform but extends well beyond the platform with shallow notches in the top that take the troughs of the concrete track. Above, and supported on the ends of the cross beam, are large n-shaped concrete superstructures that seem to support the box of the platform. The design has echoes of the cranes on the docks that move containers along the quayside … so is this a clever visual game? Is the box hanging from the supports or simply paused before sliding on along the track?

Of course, the starting point for the design of the station may well be more mundane and more practical than anything to do with romantic evocations of the gantries of cranes for shipping containers …. it could be simply that, set at the head of the basin and close to the open sea, the glass box was needed to protect passengers and trains from the worst of the weather.

Unlike stations on the older above-ground sections of the Metro - on the lines running down to the  airport and to Vestamager - there is a central tower here with two elevators together rather than single elevators at each end of the platform.

And instead of the industrial, gantry-style metal staircases down to the pavement at those first above-ground stations, here there are dog-leg staircases with solid parapets covered with small white, hexagonal tiles and the staircases are set at an angle rather than being straight and parallel to the tracks.

This has a vaguely Art-Deco feel that might or might not be a reference to the white beach-side architecture of Bellavue and Bellavista by Arne Jacobsen that is just along the coast to the north.

Copenhagen Metro
Arup on the extension to Orientkaj

 
 

can Lynetteholm be car free?

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A recent article in the newspaper Politiken has suggested that the proposed development of Lynetteholm, on a new island to be constructed across the entrance to the harbour, will not be designed to be car free even though the initial plans included good links by public transport.

A new report has concluded that by making the residential areas completely car free, property and land values would be reduced so the sums do not stack up for the returns required to make the project viable.

The report by the consulting engineers Rambøll and MOE Tetraplan looked at three scenarios for the new island from almost completely car-free (10 to 15 cars per 1,000 inhabitants) through partially car-free (120 to 130 cars) and also without restrictions imposed so with average car ownership of 250 cars per 1,000 residents.

If the development goes ahead, there would be homes on Lynetteholm for around 35,000 people and jobs for 35,000.

However, this new island is not simply a development for homes and jobs but also has a complicated part in the construction a barrier that is necessary to protect the harbour from storm surges and there should also be recreational areas along the new shoreline that will attract people from all over the city.

Initial plans for the island included a link to the metro that would be a 'relatively' straightforward extension of the recently-opened line to Nordhavn but the new report has concluded that a metro line would only generate the level of service required, if there were no cars on the island and if the line was built to complete an arc across Amager so to continue round to the metro station at Christianshavn and then on under the harbour in a new tunnel to the central railway station and that, of course, that would add very considerably to the cost.

The report also suggests that the harbour ferry service, that now terminates at Refshaleøen, should not just be extended to Lynetteholm but, if the area is to be completely free of cars, would have to run every ten minutes rather than every 30 minutes with the present service.

Lynette after.jpeg

new ferries for the harbour

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Copenhagen is to have new, battery-powered, ferries for the regular service up and down the harbour.

Movia, the operating company, have taken delivery of five of the ferries and they are now being put through the last stages of testing before going into regular service and I'm not sure I like them.

Don't get me wrong. They are exactly the right way to go for the environment and it’s impressive technology. After all, they are large vessels that will carry around 90 passengers and they will have to work hard through every day on a 7 kilometre route from Teglhomen to Refshaleøen. Batteries will be completely recharged at night but will be topped up at each end of the route on the brief turn around.

So my objections?

Well there are two but basically they come down to much the same thing. Because they don't sound right and they don't look right so they don't feel right.

I will have to wait until they are in service before I see inside and can judge what they are like for passengers but recently, as I was taking photographs of the CPH container housing at Refshaleøen, one of the new ferries snuck into the dock and snuck seems like the right word.

At first, I thought it was drifting but then it came round the corner of the quay sideways, like a crab, and pulled forward to the ramp with little more than a gentle hum but quite a lot of bubbles. It's going to take some getting used to …. I realised then that I like the churning water and the deep throb of the engine you get on the old ferries and maybe that’s simply because they sound as if they really can take on the weather and the rain and everything that the harbour and the Sound will throw at them. The old ferries are reassuring - not in a comfort blanket way but you know what I mean.

I like standing on the back platform of a ferry as the churn of the water and the sound of the engines drown out any inane chatter around me so, even on a busy day, I can focus on the view and the light over the harbour - from dazzling sun to lowering steel grey of an imminent storm - and I suspect I'm going to miss that. For a start, the new ferries do not have an open platform at the back.

And the new ferries look too swish - so sharply angled rather than reassuringly rounded - so stylish but somehow not solid. They don't look as if they were built in a shipyard but somehow look as if they were manufactured in a nice clean factory. No obvious plates of heavy metal and rivets from ship builders who know how to build a vessel that would survive most things that could happen at sea … and I know it’s a sheltered harbour but at the north end, around Refshaleøen, it's more open and exposed and more like real sea than the tamed and domesticated water at the south end of the harbour.

I have to confess that, of the ferries now in service, I even preferred the older ferries with their steps at the back of the cabin, only marginally less steep than a ladder, with a hefty iron door at the top to get to the back deck and a bulkhead you had to step over rather than the more recent version with fully-glazed patio doors that knew you were approaching so opened automatically … well at least they did as you moved from inside to outside but with a well disguised button to get from outside on the deck to back inside.

The new ferry I saw 'dropped' its ramp down and even that glided and hovered and it looked narrower and looked light and for some strange reasons, that I don't quite understand, I know I'm going to miss the ramps of the old ferries that drop down onto the pontoon with an almighty clang that makes everyone jump - even hardened commuters who use the ferry twice a day every day - but, somehow, that's a solid and reliable sound.

Basically, the new boats don't sound or look like a workhorse ferry but like a tourist water bus.