Kystbanen

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Kystbanen
The Litra ET-FT-ET (Denmark)/X31K (Sweden) train sets are the ones used on Kystbanen
Info
Type	Railway
System	Danish railways
Terminals	Copenhagen H Helsingør
No. of stations	14
Operation
Opened	1897
Owner	Banedanmark
Operator(s)	Danske Statsbaner
Character	Passenger and freight
Rolling stock	Litra ET-FT-ET
Technical
Line length	46 km
Track length	92 km
No. of tracks	Double
Gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)
Electrification	25 kV 50 Hz AC
Operating speed	120 km/h

Kystbanen or The Coast Line is a regional railway line between Helsingør (Elsinore) and Copenhagen in Denmark. It was opened in 1897, and it is today one of the busiest railway lines in Denmark.

Its original terminus was Østerport station, but when the station was connected with Copenhagen Central Station in 1917, the terminus moved there. When the Oresund Bridge opened in 2000, service extended to Malmö in Sweden, though the section between Copenhagen and Malmö is a separate railway, the Oresund Railway.

The railway services some well-known sights and locations such as Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, and Dyrehavsbakken in Klampenborg.

1 History
2 Rolling stock
3 Stations
4 References

[edit] History

Plans for a railway between Copenhagen and Helsingør have been proposed since the childhood of railways. Nordbanen was built though Helsingør in 1864 and in 1863 the connection between Copenhagen and Klampenborg as a sort of daytrip and tourist route. In 1890 the Minister of the Interior, Hans Peter Ingerslev (Højre), a proposition of a state railway between Klampenborg and Helsingør, but it went four years of discussion and negotiations before the surveyors could stop their work and the construction workers enter the field.

The Ministry of War wanted to have a railway to Vedbæk, as long as it wasn't built so close to the coast that it could be bombarded by a foreign naval fleet in Øresund, and as long as the railway could be removed quickly. The Forestry Department didn't have any objections against the railway as long as not even a single tree was cut down. A number of citizens also were active in the debate about the choice of route and placing of stations.

Because of rules decided by the Ministry of War, the railway had to go in a large curve out over the lakes to Nørrebro and onwards towards the Øresund Coast at Hellerup. Hellrup station was built in the 1860s because it was were Nordbanen and Klampenborgbanen split, and not because there as such was a need for a station at the place.

The stretch between Østerport and Hellerup was first taken into use with the opening of the Coast Line in 1897. Østerport was the initial terminus of the line, was originally called Kystbanestationen, Østerbro, København Ø and Østbanegaarden. Architect Heinrich Wenk, who drew many of the stations on the railway, was also responsible for the Eastern Station, that after decree from the Ministry of War was constructed as a temporary building. First 20 years later the line between Copenhagen Central Station and Østerport was taken into use, and the Coast Line got its present form on December 1, 1917.^[1]

[edit] Rolling stock

The unique feature of Kystbanen is that despite that there is only between three and six minutes between each station, it has not been operated by S-trains. Lately the line has been operated by modern and comfortable trains, including DSB's first electric locomotives, litra EA (on Kystbanen since 1986) and the new electric regional train litra ER and litra IR4, that both started service Kystbanen in the mid 1990s. Today the main service on the line is Oresund trains that operate between Helsingør via Copenhagen and Copenhagen Airport to Malmö in Sweden and ER trains between Nivå and Kastrup. In rush hour these trains are supplemented with higher speed commuter train operated with various stock, including double decker trains.

The replacement of steam locomotive with diesel multiple units started in 1935, but was first completed in 1965. Originally Kystbanen was operated by litra K and litra O steam engines and later by litra S engines that were acquired in the 1920s. From about 1960 the main stock was the diesel electric locomotives MX, MY and later MZ and ME.^[1]

Electrification of the railway started in Nivå in 1982 and was completed on March 19, 1986 when the electric operation was initialized with litra EA locomotives.