S-train (Copenhagen)

The Copenhagen S-train ( da, S-tog), the S-train of Copenhagen, Denmark is a key part of public transport in the city. It is a hybrid urban- suburban rail serving most of the Copenhagen urban area, and is analogous to S-Bahn systems of Berlin, Vienna and Hamburg. The trains connect the Copenhagen inner city with Hillerød, Frederikssund, Høje Taastrup and Køge. There are 170 km of double track with 86 S-train stations, of which eight are in neighbouring towns outside greater Copenhagen.

The S-train is run by DSB S-tog A/S while Banedanmark owns the tracks and signals. Rail services are operated by "Fourth Generation" S-trains divided into 104 8-car train sets (Class SA) and 31 4-car train sets (Class SE).

The system operates in tandem with the separately owned Copenhagen Metro which operates in the city centre, Frederiksberg and Amager. The two systems carry 500,000 passengers daily with S-tog serving more than 357,000 passengers a day.

S-tog is complemented by regional trains, local diesel-powered trains within Metropolitan Copenhagen, an extensive bus network and two lines of shuttle boats called harbour buses. The city's bus terminals are often adjacent to an S-train or Metro station. The different networks use a common system for fare zones and tickets.

History

The lines used by the Copenhagen S-Train suburban rail system in Denmark are six radial and two connecting, rail lines built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as commuter transport to and from the residential areas around the city centre.

The S-line aimed to electrify the existing local rail network around Copenhagen. Preparations for the decision were made in the ''Electrification Commission of 1926'', following several other approaches to plans. The Commission presented a report in 1929, in which it proposed that short-distance lines from Copenhagen to Klampenborg, as well as possibly Frederiksberg-Vanløse- Hellerup, should be electrified first - then the line to Holte, when the double track Holte-Hillerød was taken into use for the ordinary trains. After consideration of the proposal by DSB, the section to Valby was added as the first stage for electrification of the section to Ballerup, and a bill was submitted and adopted in April 1930.

The first section opened on 3 April 1934, and ran from Klampenborg to Hellerup and Vanløse to Frederiksberg. It was the first electrically powered railway in Denmark.

Stations were marked from the beginning with an "S" similar to those in Berlin S train system. There is a debate around the origin of the name ''"S-tog''" ("S-train") with many citing that the name of the system came from a competition in the newspaper ''Politiken .'' The judges' panel cited a long list of possible explanations for the "S" in S-tog, including: "state railways", "city railway", "Greater Copenhagen", "sun", "lake", "forest", "beach", "snow", "skiing", "skating", "sleigh", all of which start with an S in Danish. Larsen and Poulsen, however, challenge that this basis for the system name as an urban myth and that DSB had already determined the name. The names, though, demonstrate that the initial marketing of the S-trains emphasized recreational day trips ''from'' the city ''to'' the countryside.

Hellerup to Hillerød, Svanemøllen to Farum were existing lines reorganized into the new network as was the line between Frederikssund and Valby. The section Valby – Vanløse opened in 1941, was extended to Ballerup in 1949 and then finally to Frederikssund in 1989. The system had single tracks between Ballerup and Veksø until 2000 and between Veksø and Frederikssund until 2002.

New tracks were established along the existing Valby – Høje Taastrup line between Valby – Glostrup, opening in 1953. It was extended to Taastrup in 1963 and then 1986 to its final destination at Høje Taastrup.

A completely new line: The Køge Bay line was built between Dybbølsbro and Køge in four stages: Dybbølsbro – Vallensbæk opened in 1972; Vallensbæk to Hundige in 1976; Hundige to Solrød Strand in 1979 and then finally to Køge in 1983.

The Frederiksberg – Vanløse – Grøndal line was closed with the arrival of the Copenhagen metro. The former Godsbaneringen Grøndal – Ny Ellebjerg route has been converted to an S-line.

Originally, no letters or numbers were used for the individual lines, but with the introduction of the summer timetable on 14 May 1950 the system moved to line letters.

The S-train system has been entirely one-man operated since 1978.

Network

The network consists of a central section through downtown Copenhagen that splits into three radial lines at each end, reaching the outer suburbs and neighbouring towns. The radial sections are connected to each other via that central section. The system is designed so that a train from any southern radial can continue along any of the three northern and vice versa. In the city centre, the trains run underground in two tunnel sections which are also served by regional trains. Elsewhere the tracks are in the open, occasionally above or below street level.

The three northern radials are:
* Farumbanen (formerly ''Hareskovbanen'') ''(the Farum line)'' to Farum. ''(B & Bx lines)''
* Nordbanen ''(the north line)'' to Holte and Hillerød line to Klampenborg. ''(C line)''
The three southern radials are:
* Køge Bay line to Hundige, Solrød Strand and Køge. ''(A & E lines)''
* Vestbanen ''(the west line)'' to Høje Taastrup. ''(B & Bx lines)''
* Frederikssund line to Ballerup and Frederikssund ''(the Ring or F line)'' going between Hellerup in the north and Ny Ellebjerg in the south. The Ring line is connected to the Nordbanen (north line) and Klampenborg Line at Hellerup, but it is normally only used in connection with the Klampenborg line. The Ring line has an elevated section including Nørrebro Station, which offers a view of some of the most populous areas of the city, Nørrebro and Nordvest. The junctions of the Farumbane with the other lines at Ryparken and Svanemøllen include a short elevated section and a short northbound tunnel, respectively.

The average distance between stations is 2.0 km, shorter in the city core and inner boroughs, longer at the end of lines that serve suburbs.

Lines

Since December, 2020, there are seven lines running across the network. A, B, C and F run all week, E and H Monday to Friday and Bx is a support line that operates only during the rush hour.

All stations are served at least every 10 minutes until the evening. Train departures occur approximately every two minutes at the stations on the city core route as all lines but the F Ring Line use the same path. On most suburban lines, the trains depart every five minutes. On Sundays these time intervals are doubled.

Originally, no letters or numbers were used for the individual lines, but the timetables from 14 May 1950 for the Klampenborg, Holte and Frederiksberg lines were designated as sections 1a, 1b and 1c. Those lines became A, B and F respectively while simultaneously a new line C was created.

In 1963, a subordinate x (for extra) was introduced to rush hour lines with line Bx as the first. From 1979 to 1989, some lines which only ran during daytime on weekdays daytime, were characterized by doubling the line letter, Bb and Cc. From 1989 to 1993, they got ordinary line letters. Then, they switched to a system with a subordinate "+", A +, B + and H +. This system was dropped in 2007 with the introduction of 10-minute operation on the key daytime lines.

Stations

Of the 86 stations, 32 are located within the central ticket fare zones 1 and 2. Another 35 stations are located within the Copenhagen Urban area. Therefore, just 17 stations can be said to be located in suburbs.

Forty-six stations are elevated, twenty-one are street level, fifteen are below street, 4 have different levels and one is underground. Within the city core (zones 1 & 2) the stations are either elevated or lower than the street level.

Most stations consist of two tracks, each with its own side platform or an upper platform in between. At terminals and hubs, however, there may be several tracks and platforms depending on local conditions. Older stations are often designed with a station building where there used to be ticket sales, but after the 1970s gradually moved to unmanned stations with ticket machines, the design of new stations has typically become simpler. There are still kiosks with the possibility of buying tickets at some stations, but in a number of cases, the old ticket sales outlets have been re- purposed, or the buildings have been demolished.

At most of the termini other types of train are available for travel to the more remote towns in the metropolitan area (''L-tog'', diesel-powered local trains) or to the rest of Zealand and the other islands between the Great Belt and Øresund (''regionaltog'', regional trains). Trains across Øresund to Scania and its main city, Malmö, connect with the S-train network in the city centre.

Facilities

Since 2009 free Wi-Fi Internet access has been available throughout the entire S-train system

Ticketing

The S-tog along with buses, regional trains, and Copenhagen metro uses Rejsekort, an electronic ticketing system across Denmark. Passengers can also buy paper single-trip tickets at ticket vending machines with cash or Credit Cards or at 7-Eleven kiosks at the train and metro stations or with the 'DOT Tickets' iOS or Android app. The city is divided into travel zones, and the price of a journey depends on how many journeys are travelled through (minimum 2 zones). The price is the same no matter if you take a bus, train or S-Train, and a 20% discount is applied when traveling outside of peak times if using Rejsekort.

Both the City Pass and Copenhagen Card aimed at tourists are accepted on the system.

Future

A new station is scheduled to be built: '' Favrholm'' (expected 2022, close to Hillerød

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