HH Ferry route

Map of Øresund, showing locations of both the HH Ferry route as well as the Øresund bridge-tunnel

One of Scandline's three sister ferries, they never turn and hence lack natural prow and stern.

Sundbus Pernille during the short time she served ACE-link. In the background Kronborg Castle

Shakespeare's "Hamlet (The Prince of Denmark)" takes place at Kronborg, a very notable palace on the HH Ferry route at the inlet of Elsinore harbour

Former HH Ferries' Mercandia VIII of Superflex type. Note that it uses a single midship commanding bridge, and like other ferries at the route never needs to turn. A sister ship, Mercandia IV is still in use, since 2013 by Scandlines

The main harbour of Helsingborg, the fortress tower "Kärnan" is seen to the right in the background. To the right, the Town Hall. The two floor yellowish building closest to the water on the left, is the Sundbusserne terminal

The HH Ferry route (About the name: Helsingør - Helsinborg; Helsingør is Danish for Elsinore) is one of the world's most busy international car ferry routes. The short itinerary goes between Elsinore ( Helsingør) at Zealand, Denmark and Helsingborg, Scania, Sweden across the northern, and most narrow part of Øresund. Today the route is trafficked by car ferry shipping line Scandlines and a smaller passenger shipping line known as Sundbusserne^[1] ("The Sound Buses"). Scandlines' ferries have more than 70 daily departures from each harbour, every 15 minutes during most of the day, and even every 12 minutes during the most hectic summer weeks by the use of an extra ferry.^[2] As the distance between Denmark and Sweden here is only around 2.5 nautical miles (approx. 4 km), the crossing time is just 20 minutes.^[3] While Sundbusserne, currently (as of January 2015) departs every hour with their only "bus".^[4]

Scandlines uses four ferries, MF Tycho Brahe, MS Aurora, MF Hamlet and MF Mercandia IV ^[5] Also M/F Mercandia VIII is available and used when some of the other ferries are at annual service.^[6] The three first are sister ships and are especially built for this short route. These three vessels uses dual commanding bridges and lack natural prows and sterns (nor starboard and port side) and hence never need to turn. Aurora, Hamlet and Tycho Brahe are also built rather low (above sea level) and very wide. While Mercandia IV and Mercandia VIII are vessels of so-called Superflex type, and has one bridge only. But this is located in the middle of the ship, so although Mercandia IV and Mercandia VIII looks very different from the other three ferries, they as well don't need to turn.

Sundbusserne uses currently (February 2015) only Pernille, a passenger boat for around 200 passengers. A smaller bar is located at its prow, but astern two decks are available for passengers. All Scandlines' vessels have cafeterias, bars and shops, but Aurora also has an a la carte restaurant on board. This isn't intended for common travelers, but more for local residents and others who makes one or more immediate return journeys (passengers do not need to leave the ships in port). Double or even triple return voyages are not uncommon. Locally this has spawned a new word (a verb) - to "tura" (Swedish) or to "ture" (Danish), which simply means "making at least one return trip for fun".

Since the crossing takes 20 minutes, and the vessels only need 10 minutes in port, the same ferry usually is able to depart from either harbour once every hour.

In each city, the ferry terminals are directly connected to the main railway stations. Trains to Copenhagen depart every 20 minutes and arrives after 35 minutes. Also two different local train lines depart from Elsinore station. Both lines ends in Hillerød but one of them takes an indirect path, first along the North Zealand coast, but from Gilleleje the tracks turns to the south and passes through Gribskov, one of Denmark's largest forests. There is a very large time difference between the two different lines to Hillerød, around 20 minutes or 80 minutes.

In Helsingborg the ferry terminal is connected to an underground railway station and the entire building is known as "Knutpunkten", "The Junction". The total amount of passengers from trains and ferries makes it one of the most busy stations in Sweden, around 50.000 passengers (including them in cars and lorries) uses "Knutpunkten" every day ^[7][8] Helsingborg is located on the Swedish West Coast Main Line ("Västkustbanan"), but the first 25 km north of "The Junction" station (until Ängelholm), only consists of a single track railway, which also have some very sharp bends and a steep elevation in the northern part of the city.^[9] The interregional Øresund trains departures to Gothenburg and through Landskrona, Lund and Malmö across the Øresund Bridge to Copenhagen. Hence is it fully possible to make a full journey around Øresund by the use of trains and the HH Ferry route. Local Pågatåg also departures from "The Junction", in four directions.

An important date for the Øresund crossings was 13 July 1952, as passports no longer were needed for travel between the Scandinavian countries and Finland.^[10]

History

Early history

Where land is seen across the water, mankind has been able to cross such waters since prehistorical times. And there are proof of traveling across the northern part of Øresund from earliest possible historical times, or since the Christianization of the Vikings (In Denmark from around 985 according to the larger Jellinge Stone). The oldest known historical text about travels across Øresund derives from the German history writer Adam of Bremen, who around 1070 wrote "From Zealand to Scania are many well used crossings, of which the shortest leads to Helsingborg." ^[11]

Danish and Kalmar Union King, Eric of Pomerania introduced in 1429 the Sound Dues. This charge were to be paid to Denmark by every ship that passed through Øresund. They were at the time mainly enforced in order to enforce disadvantage for the Hansa, but soon became an important income for Denmark for hundreds of years, and Elsinore became a flourishing and famous town. A proof of the latter is the fact that William Shakespeare unfolded his famous play Hamlet at Elsinore and Kronborg Palace.^[12] At the end of medieval times, Kronborg was a fortress (completely rebuilt during the early Renaissance) and until 1658 the Danes had a complete view across the narrow northern part of Øresund. It was not only from Kronborg they could watch ships, but also from the tower in Helsinborg, known as Kærnen. The Sound Dues were to last until 1857 - with exception for Swedish ships between 1658 and 1720 - when international complaints initiated economic and political agreements.^[13][14]

Fishers and ships that crossed Øresund were not passing through, and were hence not affected by the Sound Dues. Before 1658, ships could pay their commission both sides of the narrow strait which constitutes the Northern part of Øresund. After the Swedish conquest of Scania, the ships which were bound to pay the charges, needed to anchor just south of Kronborg Castle, as Sweden never has been allowed to take any dues. The from western and northern sheltered location just south of Kronborg, where ships anchored in order to pay the Sound Dues, are today the ferry berth of Helsingør.

Renaissance to 19th Century

In 1524 decided King Frederick I that Elsinore would be an exception for paying Royal taxes, but on the condition that "his people" should be shipped across the route for free. Due to wars this wasn't a great help to the population in Elsinore (source states nothing about Helsingborg, which still would be a part of Denmark for many years to come).^[15]

In 1630 the ferry route was put in system, as a "ferry team" was created, the size of the ferry crews and the fares become regulated by law. Contrary to other ferries within the Kingdom of Denmark, did the "Helsingør færgelaug" (Elsinore ferry team) got all rights to sail the route. It appears to have been a somewhat vaguer kind of monopoly. The ferry team also was awarded a part of the Sound Dues for ships that also used the ferries for parts of their cargo.^[16]

In 1836 a shipping line of unclear kind, began to use the paddle steamer "Maria" on the route. This wasn't well liked by "Helsingør færgelaug", who complained in defence of their 200 year old privileges. And the ferry men won in court. From 1840 "Helsingør færgelaug" got a legal monopoly on the route. But times were about to change with the industrial revolution.^[17]

The "Helsingør færgelaug" continued until 1882, when Christian IX formally abolished the monopoly. However in practice the monopoly was abandoned already by 1874, as Denmark's at the time largest shipping line had begun to operate on the route.^[18] The lack of monopoly doesn't necessarily mean competing though, as we will see.

Regular ferry history

The Danish steamer "Kronprinsesse Louise" (Crown Princess Louise) in Elsinore harbour in 1892. Shakespeare's famous Kronborg Palace in the background

From 1874 the monopoly instead went to "Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab" (The United Steamship Company), which probably is more known as DFDS.^[19] Fourteen years later, in 1888, private ownership was abandoned, as "De Danske Statsbaner" the Danish national railways or DSB took over the service. Although the monopoly was formally abandoned already in 1874, DFDS never attempted to compete with nationally owned DSB. As a railway company, DSB surely was thinking of a train ferry line already from scratch. However between 1888 and 1892 they only operated the ship Masnedsund, which apart from pedestrian passengers only transported mail. But four years later, in 1892, did DSB open its train ferry route (open also for pedestrian passengers). No less than three paddle-streamers for trains were taken in use, Kronprinsesse Louise (in 1892), Thyra (in 1893), Kronprins Frederik (in 1898) was in operation before the end of the 19th century. And the first ship to use a propeller, Helsingborg (in 1902) was of course also a train ferry. The ferry crossing became a part of the "classical" train line between Copenhagen and Oslo and later also night trains to Stockholm.^[20]

The route was from its beginning a totally Danish matter (though some cars of the trains could belong to Norwegian NSB), first by 1931 did the Swedish counterpart to DSB, Statens Järnvägar or SJ involved. This was done through a deal which got the label "Midtsunds-trafikoverenskomst" (in Danish). DSB and SJ should from this year split all revenues and spending between them equally. The running of the HH ferry route was however still managed by DSB.^[21]

During the First World War the southern Øresund was mined by Denmark, Sweden and the German Empire at the request of the latter ^[22] but the northern and central parts of Øresund were not affected by this and the traffic could continue.

During the Second World War, Denmark, despite their neutrality, become occupied by Germany on 9 April 1940, known as "Besættelsen" in Denmark.^[23] In the beginning of this occupation the Germans expected the Danish society to keep working as usual. The ferries continued to sail, but with reduced number of departures.

Competing begins

It was first in 1955 that any Swedish shipping line got interested in competing with DSB on the route. It was the bus company Linjebuss AB which from then also became a shipping line. The new ferries become known as LB^[24]

From 13 July 1952, passports were no longer needed for traveling between Sweden and Denmark.^[25][26] This was soon extended also to Norway in 1954 ^[27] and eventually also whithin entire Scandinavian countries and Finland.^[28] And from the mid 1950s a golden era began as cars had become more common, people could afford holidays (and Copenhagen Airport has since passenger aviation began been the main airport also for southern Sweden). But also pedestrian passengers became more and more common.

DSB had the same year as LB started to compete put the new M/F Helsingør on the route and later followed her sistership M/F Hälsingborg. Both had dual railway tracks on board, located laterally along the center of the ships. To the left and the right were space for a few cars, lorries couldn't be shipped together with trains however. But a strange solution for the cafeteria and toilets, below car-deck, made these ferries notably unpopular. However M/F Hälsingborg ^[29] and M/F Helsingør ^[30] became the first ferries on the route which didn't need to turn.

LB challenged DSB with a rather different concept, M/S Betula was despite she was 26 years old, when she became first challenger on the route ever in 1955.^[31] Betula had a natural prow and stern, and hence needed to turn twice on the way from Helsingør to Helsinborg, if the cars, lorries and buses shouldn't need to drive off the ferry backwards. LB would continue with that concept as long as they sailed the route. In Helsingborg the vehicles drove on board through the stern, and then drive off through the opened prow in Helsingør. The earliest LB ferries had the cafeterias well above the car deck which was the difference between watching the sea or perhaps feeling a bit claustrophobic.

Helsingør Town wasn't to happy about the Swedish privately owned LB, the main trouble was the increased traffic that drove to the LB ferries. While the DSB terminal was built together with Helsingør's main train station, LB had to (by time) build two smaller terminals on the opposite pier. Which also was on the small road to Kronborg Palace. The LB terminals also caused ever increasing traffic through central Helsingør and was generally disliked by Helsingør's local politicians. But the town simply had to accept the competition from LB.

Just three years after LB established their line, in 1958, did Sundbusserne, small ships or "Sound Buses" (which couldn't carry cars, lorries or trains), began to operate on the route.^[32] Sundbusserne made the route "all-Scandinavian" as they sailed under Norwegian flag, LB under Swedish ones and DSB under Danish ones.

From around 1960 a kind of "golden era" began at the route. Both shipping lines ordered more and larger ferries. LB put M/S Primula in operation this year^[33] By 1973 LB had replaced their first two ferries with four new ones M/S Carola 1964,^[34] M/S Betula (the second) 1968, rebuilt in 1985,^[35] M/S Regula 1971, rebuilt 1985 ^[36] and M/S Ursula 1973, rebuilt 1985.^[37] Betula (II), Regula and Ursula were sisterships, while Carola wxternally was a sistership to M/S Dana Scarlett, a ferry that mostly operated on the route between Landskrona and Copenhagen, 25–40 km further south.^[38]

Also DSB ordered new ferries, larger, more pleasant for passengers and which could take lorries and train simultaneously. However they kept M/F Helsingør and M/F Hälsingborg as well. The four sister ships M/F Najaden,^[39] M/F Kronborg,^[40] M/F Kärnan ^[41] and M/F Holger Danske.^[42]

By the middle of the 1970s LB departed every 20th minute from each harbour, with their four ferries, DSB every 15th minute with their six ferries, and so did the Sundbusserne. On top of that an older ship called Marina sailed every hour from Helsingborg to Snekkersten just a few kilometeres south of Helsingør's harbour.^[43] In all 12 departures from Helsingborg every hour during day time and early evenings.

LB operated also two other ferry routes, SL ferries operated at the central part of Øresund, between Landskrona and the northern Copenhargen port, Tuborg (owned by the Tuborg brewery) as well as a route from Helsingborg through Copenhagen Tuborg and Travemünde,Schleswig-Holstein,Federal Republic of Germany (The latter line was only used from either Helsingborg or Copenhagen, Tuborg to Western Germany, not between Helsingborg and Copenhagen). The three sister shipping lines were labeled as the LB/SL/TL ferries, where SL meant "Skandinavisk Linjetrafik" ^[44] (Scandinavian Line Traffic) and TL meant "Trave Line".^[45][46]

End of the "Golden Era"

The 1973 Energy crisis and higher oil prices affected the Øresund crossing routes, from huge profits the privately owned shipping lines got financial difficulties.

TL or Trave Line was the first to be closed down, this was in 1976.^[47] And LB's headquarters in Stockholm decided to move the SL ferries, which had sailed between Landskrona and Copenhagen Tuborg every hour or 90th minute since 1954 (crossing time was 70 minutes), to Malmö in an attempt to increase their profits ended already after 8 months only.

In October 1980 LB's headquarters in Stockholm decided to move the SL ferries from Landskrona to Malmö harbour, but they still sailed to Copenhagen Tuborg Danish side. This made the crossing time 20–25 minutes longer (much due to the flat island Saltholm and its surrounding shallow waters), and the already existing route between Limhamn (a borough in southern Malmö with a harbour of its own) and Dragør (just south of Kastrup Airport) had a crossing time of just 50 minutes.^[48] And already 8 months the SL ferries closed down. The move to Malmæ was an obvious mistake.

In the following year, 1981, LB merged with the shipping line which from 1960 had begun to operate in the southern part of Øresund between Dragør and Limhamn, Dampskibsselskabet Øresund A/S ^[49] and the new shipping line name became Scandinavian Ferry Lines or simply SFL,^[50] which now operated the HH route as well as the Dragør - Limhamn route.

The end of the train ferries

All goods trains were removed from the route in November 1986, as two large goods train ferries began to operate between Helsingborg harhour's western port (Swedish: Västhamnen) and the North harbour (Danish: Nordhavn) in Copenhagen. The huge goods train ferries were sister ships, the Danish M/F Trekroner, and the Swedish M/S Öresund^[51] were operated by DAN-link^[52][53] until the opening of the Øresund Bridge in July 2000. But the passenger train line Copenhagen - Oslo continued to be using the DSB ferries across the HH route until the bridge opened 1 July 2000. Ironically, the so-called Linx trains between the Danish and Norwegian Capitals went into bankruptcy a year later.

End of competing (cars and lorries)

In 1984 Helsingborg City Council and the Swedish government decided to replace the city's two railway stations with one. The single track from north was split up underground and connected to the railway from the south. It was also decided to move DSB's ferry terminal to SFL's. The new combined railway station and ferry terminal got the name "Knutpunkten", or "the Junction".^[54] Also in Elsinore SFL's two smaller ferry terminals would be demolished, located at the Kronborg pier, the SFL (and LB before them) terminals had caused a major traffic problem in the Danish town. All ferries from Elsinore should just like in Helsingborg leave from one single terminal. And also Elsinore station and ferry terminal was enlarged. The harbour wasn't expanded for more ferries, but the area just south of Helsingør harbour is usually calm enough to handle larger ships. Hence a space for two ferries was constructed on the outer side of the southern pier.

Towards the end of "the old order", DSB finally replaced the "U-boats" M/F Helsingør and M/F Hälsingborg, which both had cafeterias below car deck, with ferries that had sailed on the Great Belt. They were M/F Dronning Ingrid and M/F Dronning Margarethe II.

In 1991, when the new ferry terminals were inaugurated, the operators, DSB (the Danish National Railways) in cooperation with its Swedish counterpart SJ, and privately owned SFL began to cooperate. This meant the end of competition on the route. Also the names of the operators changed from DSB and SFL to Scandlines ^[55] The Sundbusserne still existed, but could only carry pedestrian passengers.

The remodeled ferry terminals couldn't handle both SFL's former four ferries together with DSB's former six ones,^[56] instead three longer and wider ferries were ordered. The first delivered was M/F Tycho Brahe (1991) thereafter M/S Aurora (1992) ^[57] but the third sister ferry was delayed, as the Danish and Swedish governments had signed the deal to build the Øresund Bridge. In order to maintain the capacity, two larger former DSB ferries from Great Belt complemented the Scandline fleet temporarily. M/F Hamlet arrived in the mid 1990s.

ACE-link and Sundbusserne

Sundbusserne was sold in the autumn of 2006, the buyers were another Norwegian shipping line, Eitzen Holdings, and by May 2007 was the name shifted to Ace link. In 2008, a large investment in two notably bigger passenger ships failed though, and early in 2010 went ACE-link in bankruptcy. But soon a new shipping line "Sundbusserne af 2010" (The Sound Buses of 2010) was founded and has since used the original shipping line's boat Pernille.^[58]

The period of renewed competition

After complaints of high prices, Denmark enforced a new law in 1996. According to this law half of the terminal in Elsinore was expropriated in order to re-establish a second competing shipping line on the route.^[59] Hence could HH Ferries begin to compete with Scandlines. In Helsingborg they already had found a location for a new terminal. This was at a distance from the city centre, a remote and far from optimal location for pedestrians. However for cars and lorries the location didn't cause any problem. HH Ferries opened in 1996 using two so called superflex ferries, M/F Mercandia IV and M/F Mercandia VIII.^[60]

However after a larger cooperation bought Scandlines and through the purchase of the owners of HH ferries, suddenly both Scandlines and HH Ferries became two parts of one and the same cooperational group and the supreme management soon afterwards decided to close HH Ferries again. As of January 2015 Scandlines remains as the single operator of cars and lorries at the route.

The Øresund Bridge vs HH Ferry route

For drivers passing through the Øresund Area, using the ferries gives a 20 minute break, using the bridge is also notably longer

After Scandlines as new owners of HH-Ferries closed the latter shipping line, prices went up. For less frequent drivers and their passengers, the single and return prices with Scandlines are almost exactly the same as on the Øresund Bridge. But the driving distance, if using the bridge is notably longer. Also a brief coffee, tea or beer pause on the ferries might be worth considering. All cafeterias are open even in port, and during daytime due to the 12 to 15 miniutes between each departure, there is (almost) always a ferry loading new cars. The view at the bridge (especially regarding common cars) is poorer than what might be expected. On the other hand a window table on board the ferries is difficult to obtain. And short crossing time can doubtlessly feel stressful. It's difficult to say which way that is the faster. During peak hours, passing the motorway ring outside Copenhagen may cause queues. But that can certainly happen also on the Swedish side, where the number of lanes only are two in each direction. The most trafficked part during peak hours is in any event the Danish Køgebugtmotorvejen south of the Danish capital. This cannot be avoided (if keeping one self to the motorways) regardless of choice. For people living close to the HH route, return tickets prices equals the single ticket (half the price) - but the return travel must begin prior to midnight. Lorry and bus companies usually have special deals with Scandlines, and there are remarkably few of them on the bridge.

List of operators

• Helsingør Færgelaug, ("Elsinore Ferry Team"), 1630-1882
• Paddle steamer "Maria", 1836-1840
• DFDS, 1874-1888
• DSB, 1888-1991
• LB, Linjebuss International, 1955-1981
• Sundbusserne 1958-2007, 2010-
• ACE-link 2008-2010
• Scandinavian Ferry Lines, SFL 1981-91
• Scandlines 1991-
• HH Ferries 1996-2013

References