Copenhagen

The Train Station at Copenhagen Airport

Today, Tuesday, is the BIG day. The day that has been planned for month. The day we have been waiting on for weeks. We are starting on the first leg to Melbourne.


Despite of the below mentioned, today's choice of transportation was DSB.
Suprisingly we started according to schedule. 


We arrived at Copenhagen Central Station only 10 min delayed after a quite comfy ride. Then we took a short ride by S-Train and Metro with Frederiksberg as destination to visit my sister Mai. Or we should have gone by public transportation but because of construction work at Nørreport we opted for a Taxi.


When you have told the address at which you want to go, to a Taxi driver, and you are "out of the Zone" in vacation mode, brain capacity running on 25%, looking forward to a cup of coffee, the last thing you expect to hear is the question: " Where is that?"
At first  I thought he was kidding. I could see he was not and answered: "At Frederiksberg". Then he asked: "Is it near Frederiksberg Alle?". Then I suddenly was back in the Zone, quickly regaining 100% capacity trying to recall the Map of Copenhagen for my inner eye. Having lived in Copenhagen for many years I could tell him the name of the roads he had to drive, the name of the side roads we passed, names of public buildings and big stores as well, well into my explanation he didn't bother to use his GPS. And we managed to find my sisters street.


In approximately 2 years I was commuting 5 days a week with Danish Rail 2 1/2 hours each way to and from work. So I do have experience in being a customer at Danish Rail.


By nature I am a very positive and optimistic person. But if you read on carefully, you might read between the lines that I am not a great fan of Danish Rail.


Danish Rail - in Danish named DSB - is an Independent Public Company owned by the Danish Ministry of transport. (If you do a 5 x why, this fact might be root cause for the below mentioned).


Dec. 2000 DSB signed a contract for 83 x 4 car diesel-mechanical multiple unit trainsets. The status on delivery can be found in this link: Background Report from Okt. 19th 2011.  Now some 11 years later they are still not in operation.


DSB started operating trains June 26th. 1847, and one would expect that at some point in time, after 165 years of experience, the change of seasons will stop coming as a surprise every year.


That does not seem to be the case.


They are somehow managing their operation the same way they are commissioning trains. At winter the train stops at first snowfall, even the thinnest barely visible layer of snow can stop the train trafic. At summer it is the heat, and every fall they are just as surprised by the leaves falling of the trees, as they are with the snowfall at winter.
If it is not Mother Nature, it is mechanical problems, or shortage of staff, or train doors that won't open, or train doors that won't close, or signal problems or ..... The list of excuses is endless.


Enough DSB bashing. It is not as bad as it sounds.


We had a nice evening together with my sister, and the main theme for the conversations was Australia.