History of rail transport in Denmark
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The history of rail transport in Denmark began in 1847 with the opening of a railway line between
The Danish national railway operator,
Early steps
In the 1830s, England and North Germany planned to construct a railway line between the cities of
In 1840, technician
On 2 July 1844 Det Sjællandske Jernbaneselskab (The
Expanding the main lines
Following ratification of the Danish Constitution in 1849, there was political will to improve trade routes to England and provide better connections between Copenhagen and the rest of the country. The primary means for this was to extend the Copenhagen-Roskilde line to Korsør, on the west coast of Zealand. During the 1850s, sufficient funding to extend the line to Korsør was secured, and the new segment was opened on 26 April 1856.
Before the
Zealand
The first railway lines on Zealand was constructed by the privately owned company of "Det Sjællandske Jernbaneselskab" DSJ (lit.: The Zealandic Railway Company), until it was taken over by the state in 1880.[citation needed] This ownership change was not without issues, and in several cases DSJ refused to build additional lines or make necessary upgrades, without financial guaranties. The last lines to be built by DSJ was "Nordvestbanen" (lit.: The Northwest Line) connecting Roskilde, Holbæk and Kalundborg, and "Sydbanen" (lit.: The South Line) connecting Roskilde, Køge, Næstved, Vordingborg and Nykøbing Falster. The last parts of the line on the island of Falster, was sold almost as soon as it opened for traffic.
Jutland and Funen
In Jutland and on Funen, the state decided on a somewhat different approach to build the railways. Here the state financed and owned the lines and infrastructure right from the start, whilst trusting the daily administration of lines and trains to the private company of "Det danske Jernbanedriftsselskab" (lit.: The Danish Railway Operations Company). In 1862, the first line in Jutland was inaugurated, connecting the towns of Aarhus and Randers. Other lines criss-crossing Jutland north-south and east-west - including the island of Funen -, soon followed. The last railways to be laid, before major changes were made, connected the north–south mainline on the east coast known as "Den Østjydske Længdebane" (lit.: The East Jutlandic Longitude Line) and the north-south mainline on the west coast known as "Den Vestjydske Længdebane" (lit.: The West Jutlandic Longitude Line). The line connected the towns of Lunderskov and the new port of Esbjerg specifically.
By 1880, all major railway lines and companies in Denmark proper, had been bought up by the company of "De Jydsk-Fynske Statsbaner" (lit.: the Jutlandic – Fuenic State Railways) owned by the state and the company of "De Sjællandske Statsbaner" on private hands. In 1885 these two companies merged to form the state owned company of "De Danske Statsbaner" (it.: the Danish State Railways) also known as DSB.
See also
References
- ^ "Arriva Denmark". Arriva plc. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
Sources
- Koed, Jan (1997): Danmarks Jernbaner i 150 år. Forlaget Kunst og Kultur. ISBN 87-7600-199-7. (in Danish)
External links
- Danish railway history from Banedanmark (in Danish)
- DSB: History and nostalgia (in Danish)
- Winchester, Clarence, ed. (1936), "Denmark's modern transport", Railway Wonders of the World, pp. 1369–1374 illustrated description of Denmark's railways in the 1930s