Danish developments

In Denmark public transport plays a major role for traffic management as a whole in urban areas and between some of the larger cities. Public transport contributes to reducing the congestion problems in our large cities such as the Greater Copenhagen Area, Aalborg, Odense and Aarhus.

In Denmark local authorities are responsible for bus transport while suburban rail transport has mainly been a national responsibility. Only the Greater Copenhagen Area has a substantial suburban rail network.

A unique form of shared responsibility is used in connection with the Copenhagen Metro, where the local authorities and the state are partners in a corporation which uses the rises in land prices – due to land development – to pay for the metro and other necessary infrastructures. This principle has also been used to fund part of the total expenditure (of around 2 billion euros) which is the expected price for the new Ring-Metro in Copenhagen.

When the new ring-line is opened (expected in 2017) 85% of the households and workplaces in central Copenhagen will be less than 600 metres to the nearest metro station or suburban railway station. This will be an enormous improvement in access to rail based public transport.

Public transport in Denmark receives over 1.3 billion euros in public subsidies on an annual basis. This corresponds to more than 13 eurocents for each kilometre travelled by a passenger in the public transport system as a whole.

The fares in public transport have great significance for demand, and costs are important in terms of how much public transport you can get, given a certain budget. Therefore it is important to make sure that the transport is produced in the most cost-effective way. Denmark has come a long way in terms of market-orientation of public transport and in making the public transport sector more efficient in recent years.

The ongoing invitations for tender in the bus sector have meant that average prices per vehicle-hour for bus operations have fallen quite significantly since the early 1990’s. Similarly the Danish State Railways’ operating costs per passenger-kilometre have been reduced. Had it not been for these developments, higher prices and/or a lower supply of public transport services would have been required. Recently an invitation for tender for operating the regional rail services across the Øresund between the Copenhagen Region and the southern part of Sweden has been put forward.

We believe that continued quality developments may be ensured by enhancing the operators’ incentives to focus on service and precision as well as on efficiency.

We have also found in Denmark that a common ticketing and fare system for bus and rail services is an important tool to make public transport easy to use for the customers. The introduction of a contactless smart card in the years to come is hoped to facilitate the use of public transport – in particular for non-daily users.