
In Denmark's Train Dream, the Next Big City Is Only an Hour Away - pseudolus
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/07/denmark-train-travel-times-copenhagen-aarhus-odense/593557/
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lolc
I recognize this scheme because it's already implemented in Switzerland.
Trains are not high-speed but rail links have been optimized to multiples of
30 minutes. At hubs, trains arrive just before minute 0 or 30 and leave after
the clock has ticked over. At major centres, trains depart on a 30 minute
cycle in all directions.

Arriving at a hub you know you'll catch your connection to the next hub
without even consulting a schedule. Feeder trains are also synced up so you
get little layover in general. If you're sitting at a hub station, it's easy
to tell time by the ebb and flow of passengers.

Now what they should do is just run everything 50 percent faster at high speed
to get the cycles down to 20 minutes. Have everybody walk 50% faster at hubs
too. What could go wrong?

~~~
_nalply
The clock-face scheduling system is really neat and convenient for many
people, but sometimes really tight. A bus in Papiermühle (near Bern) leaves 1
(one) minute after arrival of the train. This works because the bus is waiting
at the train platform.

But sometimes you would like to buy something at the railway station or there
are older people or families with small children or you need to find out where
to walk to first. Then you are out of luck. Mostly you just wait 30 minutes
for the next train, but there are lines with one hour cadence and very rarely
with two-hour cadence.

~~~
cjslep
I haven't found it tight in my Gemeinde, which also has a bus home that
departs 1 minute after the train arrives. I view it as liberating: instead of
trying to rush in a grocery store I get an excuse to fill the time and shop
slower, text the wife if I need to pick anything else up, socialize with
locals in the store, etc.

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jVinc
For those who don't know Denmark, the title is really overselling the reality
here. Denmark is tiny. You can cross the entire country by car in 5 hours and
it only takes that long because water seerpates the major island and
peninsula. The largest city in denmark has a population of 600k. The entire
population of Denmark is less than New York.

Arguably there are no big cities in Denmark at all. Looking for lists of
populations of "big cities" across the world I can't even find one that
includes Copenhagen to make a comparison of just how far down the list it is.

In any case this is all just silly nonsense. The reason people don't prefer
the train vs. almost every other mode of transportation is because its
extremely expensive. Making it faster isn't going to solve the root problem.
But of cause just like everything else in government, the main aim of the
future is to build up huge infrastructure projects with individual companies
who stand to gain billions... and just so happen to have some senior exec
positions open for the politicians running the sham.

If they'd taken the money they would have spent on this large project and
instead just lowered fares, that would be an overall much better reality, but
then no individual company is making billions and there's no promise of that
sweet executive position.

~~~
robert_foss
> In any case this is all just silly nonsense. The reason people don't prefer
> the train vs. almost every other mode of transportation is because its
> extremely expensive. Making it faster isn't going to solve the root problem.

Citation please. This strike me as being very NA centric.

~~~
ronniegeriis
I, for one, have a car for this exact reason. Trains are unreliable, slow and
pricey in Denmark. Well, maybe not unreliable, but they're not reliable.

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brunnsbe
I've lived in Aarhus and I was quite surprised how small part of Denmark's
rail network is electrified, it’s only 642 km of 2560 km
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Denmark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Denmark)),
so almost all long-distance trains run on diesel which is quite remarkable in
a country that otherwise has a very green view on the environment.

Most of the long-distance trains are of model IC4, the delivery of these
trains took ages and one of the missing trains was found in Libya, Italy’s
former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had given it as a gift to the Libyan
dictator Muammar Gadaffi ([http://cphpost.dk/news/international/ic4-train-a-
gift-from-b...](http://cphpost.dk/news/international/ic4-train-a-gift-from-
berlusconi-to-gadaffi.html)).

~~~
Svip
The success of the IC3 from the 1980s lead politicians in the 1990s to decide
not to electrify the tracks, but instead count on diesel, and so the IC4
project was initiated. It was a bad decision then, particularly because the
IC4 project was vastly different than the IC3 project. So one could not count
on it having the same success.

It's a worse decision in retrospect. Fortunately, though, both the former and
the current government agree that the tracks need to be electrified along all
major routes, and that we should purchase electric locomotives that are
already rolling in other European countries.

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atoav
I always found the dutch railway system remarkable. It just works, you can
easily just live one city away and work in another. Not having to drag around
a car with you can be extremely nice.

~~~
HeavenFox
And you can pay for ALL public transit in the WHOLE COUNTRY with one card.
Meanwhile in the U.S. we struggle to do that even in one city - I'm looking at
you, New York!

(Yes I have a MetroCard, which already has the worst form factor among all
transit cards in the world, and why I can't pay for LIRR, Metro-North or NJ
Transit with it is beyond me)

~~~
aclimatt
At least NYC is finally fixing that with Omny. Full rollout won't be for a few
years but it'll support the entire regional transit system like Clipper in the
Bay Area does.

[https://omny.info/](https://omny.info/)

~~~
bobthepanda
It’s also worth noting that it will support standard NFC payments, so you
don’t even need a separate card; standard contactless cards or mobile pay will
do.

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jmkd
I sadly fear for this lofty ambition. The purchase of IC4 trains from Italy
has to be one of Europe's worst (or at least barely told) transport
procurement debacles. The 83 trains were the wrong size for Danish tracks and
took 13 years to get passengers on some half-working versions, while most
never worked at all and others went missing only to turn up in other
countries: [http://cphpost.dk/news/some-danish-trains-falling-to-
pieces-...](http://cphpost.dk/news/some-danish-trains-falling-to-pieces-on-
the-tracks.html)

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dusted
Typical politician-think.. Thing is, people in major cities rarely need to
travel to other major cities, and people outside major cities most often need
to travel to the closest major city.. (dane, works in nearest major city, 30
km drive from home)

~~~
easytiger
Yea. Sounds like pointless grand standing.

A country of about 5.5 million people. About half all live near one particular
city.

2.7 million people have a job.

Most of those live near the place they work. Tourists aren't going to these
places

No indication that the inter city links are operating anywhere near capacity,
or there is a real need to do this. Are politicians tired of having to go back
and forth from the capital to their region perhaps?

~~~
KozmoNau7
There is a _lot_ of traffic between Copenhagen and Aarhus in particular, and
from most of the major cities to Copenhagen Airport.

A good proportion of that traffic is by car, and by reducing train travel
times, it becomes more desirable to take the train and leave the car at home.

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cannedslime
Instead of being able to travel from Aarhus to Copenhagen in one hour, I would
much rather prefer that I didnt have to WAIT for one hour everytime I have to
catch a connecting train at Bramming station...

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chromeguy66
I think Switzerland's train/railroad system is much more impressive although
sometimes it seems a lot of money is spent on it.

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bradknowles
Denmark is so small that traveling one hour in any direction is likely to
either put you in the ocean, or in another country. Or maybe put you through
the ocean and then into another country.

~~~
freddie_mercury
"It takes four hours and 21 minutes by train from Copenhagen to the northern
city of Aalborg, a distance of 258 miles"

Was it really necessary to try to make a clever comment based on the headline
alone? Did that advance the discussion and make us all smarter, better people
in some way?

~~~
easytiger
It takes four hours because they are on different Islands that aren't near
each other or connected well. You are insinuating that it is just a slow
train.

There isn't much you can do other than spend tens of billions building a
bridge or tunnel. Cars often get the ferry to make that journey.

A train has to travel in the opposite direction, across several islands and
then back up. 4 hours is pretty good considering that. Even then there is so
little demand for this journey it is infrequent.

[https://goo.gl/maps/SZeteqJRc1ng49go8](https://goo.gl/maps/SZeteqJRc1ng49go8)

~~~
24gttghh
Actually, it seems to only take 2h:50min by train Copenhagen to Aarhus[0],
while by car it takes 3 hours with the ferry from Sjællands Odde to Aarhus[1].

[0][https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Copenhagen/Aarhus,+Denmark/@...](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Copenhagen/Aarhus,+Denmark/@55.7258931,9.9314748,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x4652533c5c803d23:0x4dd7edde69467b8!2m2!1d12.5683372!2d55.6760968!1m5!1m1!1s0x464c4cb15397788b:0x8c4dd7d9912ea2af!2m2!1d10.203921!2d56.162939!3e3)

[1][https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Copenhagen/Aarhus,+Denmark/@...](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Copenhagen/Aarhus,+Denmark/@55.7279206,9.9425642,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x4652533c5c803d23:0x4dd7edde69467b8!2m2!1d12.5683372!2d55.6760968!1m5!1m1!1s0x464c4cb15397788b:0x8c4dd7d9912ea2af!2m2!1d10.203921!2d56.162939!3e0)

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blingbling88
congratulations! it's a wonderful thing!
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