
The cost of The Bridge between two nations - atomical
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20181122-the-cost-of-the-bridge-between-two-nations
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dijit
The Oresund Bridge is really rather marvellous, it adorns the coastline from
every beach in Malmo and it's generally a pleasure to use (when the wind isn't
so strong that the trains are cancelled.)

It is rather expensive to go via car (50eur) but the trains are reasonably
priced (10eur), and it's extremely common for people in (even in my company)
to commute from Denmark to Sweden.

I can't imagine how many people from Sweden go to Denmark each day as the
wages are higher.

I don't think it would be nearly as nice to live here without the bridge,
since you can be in CPH Central from my apartment in under 40 minutes, and to
the airport in roughly half of that.

It doesn't just connect the two nations, it connects this region of Sweden to
the rest of the world too.

~~~
SyneRyder
_> It doesn't just connect the two nations, it connects this region of Sweden
to the rest of the world too._

Indeed - I discovered Malmö when they hosted the Eurovision song contest in
2013, and after flying into CPH airport from Australia, the Oresund was my
first experience of Sweden. It feels like such a significant symbol of Malmö
life that I'm surprised they didn't sell tourist collectibles of the Oresund
when I was there (much like the Harbour Bridge is a symbol of Sydney, and you
can buy little metal Harbour Bridges in every tourist store there).

The Australians I travelled with to Malmö in 2013 & 2014 still talk about it
fondly, especially Max Burger & also Emporia. I need to find a
profitable/business excuse to travel back to Malmö again sometime soon.

~~~
simongray
just FYI: Øresund/Öresund is the name of the strait between Denmark and
Sweden. You should probably tack on "bridge" to make it clear you're talking
about the bridge specifically :)

~~~
SyneRyder
Ahh yes, thank you! Every time I post in a thread about Malmö & Copenhagen I
learn something.

Last time I tried talking about the TV show The Bridge using its original name
(Bron/Brøn, I hope I got it right this time!), but I think I used an umlaut
instead for the Danish spelling, and apparently that means something
different...

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vanderZwan
I find the headline and intermediate headers of this article weirdly
disconnected in tone from the rest of the content. They all seem to question
whether or not the bridge is a net positive, yet the rest of the article is
basically everyone saying the bridge is fantastic (and speaking as someone who
studied IxD in Malmö but regularly met up with people from CIID in Copenhagen,
it really is great!). But it fits with the UK's own weird "tsundere" attitude
to connecting with mainland Europe I guess.

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Symbiote
The "travel time by transport type" on the diagram is rather misleading.

The journey time by train from city centre to city centre is around 35-40
minutes, but that's compared to a journey time by car of 10 minutes — just the
time to cross the tunnel+bridge.

The equivalent car journey is around an hour, assuming no traffic.

~~~
jstanley
That's rather misleading as well: if you're taking a train you need extra time
to get to the station and wait for a train. If you're taking your car you just
get in it and drive.

~~~
kurtisc
This reminds me of commuting on a poor bus route. Arrive 10 minutes early
because you have to be on it - wait 10 minutes after it's due because it's
always late.

~~~
Symbiote
The trains in Sweden and Denmark are generally much more reliable.

For example, in this case the trains run every 20 minutes anyway. If you're
familiar with which platform the train leaves from (it's always the same one)
then arriving just a couple of minutes before departure time isn't a problem.

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YeGoblynQueenne
I wonder how easy it is to work in Denmark or Sweden (and particularly Malmö
and Copenhagen) without being too proficient in the local language. Would it
be possible to live in Copenhagen, say, for a couple of years and get by
primarily in English, until you can learn Danish well enough? What about
Malmö?

~~~
maxxxxx
The Swedes and Danes I have met all had excellent English so I suppose it
should be possible. But the real question is: Why would you spend years
somewhere without learning the local language? Your life will always be
limited and learning a language is not that hard.

~~~
PunchTornado
why learn a new language that you are going to forget in a year after moving
out of the country? If you only spend a couple of years in the country I don't
see the point. I worked in many European countries as a software engineer:
France, Germany, Italy. Forgot everything about those languages. Now I'm in
Singapore for 3 years, I don't even bother.

~~~
emj
You will forever be a complete stranger if you don't even try to learn the
local language. If you live in Singapore learning Malay is recommended it is
an very easy and forgiving language. Being one of the most spoken languages in
the region I think there are over 100 million speakers of different variants,
and probably a lot more that can communicate with it.

