Banedanmark (; previously Banestyrelsen) is a Danish agency that is responsible for the maintenance and traffic control on all of the state owned Danish railway network.

History

In 1997, Banedanmark came into existence, having been branched off from DSB as a

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

. Between 2004 and 2010, Banedanmark was a state-owned company that was controlled by the Danish Ministry of Transport. During 2010, Banedanmark was reorganised, once again becoming a government agency under the Danish Ministry of Transport. One of the first projects overseen by Banedanmark, although most of the construction work had already been completed prior to its creation, was the

Øresund Bridge The Øresund or Öresund Bridge is a combined List of road–rail bridges, railway and motorway cable-stayed bridge across the Øresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is the second longest bridge in Europe and combines both roadway and r ...

, a combined railway and motorway bridge spanning the

Øresund Øresund or Öresund (, ; ; ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Denmark–Sweden border, Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width var ...

strait between

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The bridge, which was recognised under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) framework as Priority Project 11, was opened to traffic in 1999. During 2008, Banedanmark announced plans for the conversion of signalling across the entire Danish railway network to European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2. This measure was necessitated by the near obsolete nature of parts of the network's signalling. In 2009, the Danish government approved funding of €3.3 billion over several years to Banedanmark for the project; at the time, the projected completion date was 2021. This programme makes Denmark the first European country to attempt a complete conversion of a national network to ETCS Level 2. Additional funding for the initiative was provided by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The resignalling work was put out to competitive tender, and contracts awarded to

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...

for Western Denmark and

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

for Eastern Denmark in July 2012. At the same time, Banedanmark was also undertaking the progressive electrification of several unelectrified lines; accordingly, the organisation originally planned for the ETCS rollout to be synchronised with these electrification efforts as to minimise cost and the infrastructure changes required. However, during the late 2010s, the ETCS programme reportedly ran into issues with the retrofitting of existing rolling stock to use the new signalling system; the IC3 fleet of long distance diesel multiple units proved to be a particular source of problems, thus the end date of the rollout was postponed considerably. Freight operators were also reportedly unable to upgrade some of their locomotives to be ETCS compatible yet. These difficulties were in part compounded by the sweeping scale of the programme; no other nation had attempted such a conversion before and was regarded as one of the largest resignalling schemes in the world. During August 2022, it was announced that work to replace legacy signalling with ETCS on the Holstebro - Herning and Vejle - Skanderborg lines in Jutland had been completed; it was anticipated that the ETCS rollout would continue through to 2030. Advantages of the new signalling included better train punctuality, more stable operation, and more detailed traffic information. Another major undertaking involving the agency was the Fehmarn Belt fixed link, a immersed tunnel between the Danish island of

Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the List of islands of Denmark#List of 100 largest Danish islands, fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Kattegat, Belts and Sund area, it is part of Re ...

with the German island of Fehmarn; it is one part of the wider Priority Project 20 of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), which shall construct a high-speed rail line between

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. The full line consists of several railway lines, both new-build and upgraded existing ones, that will facilitate trains travelling at minimum top speed of 200 km/h across all sections. These include the Copenhagen–Ringsted Line, which was opened on 31 May 2019 and will be upgraded to 250 km/h operations in 2023, the Sydbanen (Ringsted–Rødbyhavn), to be electrified and suitable for 200 km/h operations by 2024, and the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel (Rødbyhavn–Puttgarden) itself, which is projected to be completed during 2028. In the 2010s, it was decided to roll out

communications-based train control Communications-based train control (CBTC) is a railway signaling system that uses telecommunications between the train and track equipment for traffic management and infrastructure control. CBTC allows a train's position to be known more accura ...

(CBTC) on the

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

suburban rail network serving

. The benefits of this system, which is to be certified to operate at Grade of Automation 4 (GoA4), facilitates full automation of the network, more accurate passenger information, and enables the driverless operation of trains, although this latter benefit is not expected to occur much before 2037. During September 2022, Banedanmark announced the installation of CBTC equipment across the S-Bane had been completed, although some work remained to fully commission all of its capabilities.

References

External links

*
Details on the company
from the CVR register
Ministry of Transport
{{Rail network infrastructure companies Railway companies based in Copenhagen Railway companies established in 1997 Railway infrastructure managers Government agencies of Denmark