Philipp BirkenCarfree summer vacation with extensive train travel using #InterRail starts! We are going to Scotland to hike the West Highland Way. Raincoat is packed!
Today:
Malmö-Copenhagen-Hamburg-Cologne
Tomorrow:
Cologne-Brussels-London-Glasgow
1/n
First ride is an electric accordion bus. This is a standard one, but the town has even bought so called superbusses, which have two "accordions", not just one. This is part of an ongoing transformation of traffic: Electric busses, Bikes, less cars, more trees. I love it.
A week ago, the town has introduced a new line network. This is the first time we ride with the completely new line 9, which will take us to the central station.
2/n
Now on to the Öresundstrain, which will take us in 34 minutes to Copenhagen central station. These go every 15 minutes, making Malmö sort of a suburb of Copenhagen. They are not 100% reliable, unfortunately, so on such trips, we go early and then have breakfast in Copenhagen.
3/n
This train goes over the Öresund bridge, which just filled 25 years! It's a smashing success and has completely transformed the region, causing Scania to now be a part of the Greater Copenhagen Area.
The cars go on the top lane, whereas the train is on the lower lane. That means unfortunately that the view is not so great, but let's not complain.
After the bridge, the train goes into a tunnel starting on the artificial island Pepparholm, where we pass Copenhagen airport (and don't get out!).
Now on to breakfast at Copenhagen Central station!
4/n
On to the train from Copenhagen to Hamburg. This connects Scandinavia to the rest of Europe and it is run jointly by DB and DSB. It is also notoriously unreliable and it is rare that one arrives in Hamburg on time. Indeed, already wagon 8 is locked and travelers on that one are relegated to a replacement bus.
The 4.5 hours trip is slow. Also, the wagons being used are old and not very comfortable. Today, we have old german InterCity wagons, I guess from the 90s. Often, the wifi is turned off once on enters Germany.
But better times are ahead: Denmark is building a tunnel that will shorten the trip by two hours, a game changer for Scandinavia! The construction is currently on time, and due to finish 2029. So yay Denmark!
Both the german and the swedish government behave quite ignorant of this, and the followup construction in both countries is at best in a planning stage.
Nevertheless, good times ahead for train travel in northern Europe!
5/n
Tor Lillqvist@philippbirken I have taken the direct train between København and Hamburg, in both directions, five times this year, and it has been roughly on time each time. At most maybe ten minutes delay, and some times arriving in Hamburg a few minutes earlier than scheduled.
But yes, the rolling stock is old and often broken. And there apparently are few if any spare carriages, all available ones that can be used are in use.
@philippbirken The different electrification in Denmark (25 kV 50 Hz) compared to Germany (15 kV 16.7 Hz) means that also the electricity provided from the locomotive to the carriages is different, so they can't just take any random old domestic (Denmark only or Germany only) carriages into use. And presumably there are many specific technical requirements because of the Great Belt tunnel.
@tml Is that why they can't use the short ICEs they were using when going on the ferry? These were neat!
@philippbirken Might well be. I think I never used those, for some reason (small kids, likely) I apparently didn't do much interrailing during the time they were in use.
Kalle Kniivilä@tml @philippbirken Is there a reason for not using 50 Hz? Seems odd.
@kallekn @philippbirken There were technical reasons back in the days. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_kV_AC_railway_electrification
@tml @philippbirken "Norway also has two hydro-electric power plants dedicated for railway power with 16+2⁄3 hertz output"
Wow, had no idea. Seems somewhat irrational, but we do a lot of weird stuff for historical reasons.
Jonas Boström@kallekn It was very rational 100 years ago. Sweden first started electrifying with 15 Hz, but later increased the frequency a bit. @tml @philippbirken
@Jonas_Bostrom @tml @philippbirken I'm sure it was rational at the time. Most things are. But when the rest of the grid is 50 Hz it seems cumbersome. If only Sweden had not electrified the railways so early...
🤔
@kallekn It's not that cumbersome, and also has some advantages. Sure you can't just connect the railway to the grid with a transformer inbetween. But since you have to change frequency, it means the load is spread evenly among all three phases. @tml @philippbirken
@kallekn @Jonas_Bostrom @philippbirken It could be worse, you could have 1.5 kV DC. Or 600 V DC third rail;)
Aslak Raanes@kallekn @Jonas_Bostrom @tml @philippbirken In modern time frequency changers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_changer?wprov=sfti1# aren't mechanical which make things bit simpler.
If Denmark had started their electrification some years later, maybe when the Øresund bridge was planned, I would guessed that they would have used the same voltage and frequency as Germany, Sweden, Norway etc.
Many trains sets and locomotives can handle multiple voltages/frequencies but it add weight and complexity.
@kallekn @Jonas_Bostrom @tml @philippbirken It is simpler to just do a transformation to 25 kV and not to additional frequency changer, and that might be worth it if electrification is non-continuous as someone has suggested for partly electrifying the Nordland line.
On the other hand, higher voltage means longer security distance to the overhead line.
@philippbirken No, the small ICEs were diesel powered, so different voltage and frequency are not a problem for them. But they were not famous for their reliability and used a lot of fuel, and were also pretty short. @tml
@Jonas_Bostrom @philippbirken I thought Philipp meant that the ICE TDs might not have been approved for the Great Belt tunnel.
@Jonas_Bostrom @tml The german language wikipedia has a treasure trove of information about the ICE TDs and states that they used 2.2l per person per 100 km for Berlin-Copenhagen. So good riddance!
