I Rode EVERY Light Rail System in Denmark!

[@kathrynelrod5570]

It’s a shame Denmark has the render distance turned down so low.

[@MeepMu]

Yeah sorry during server maintenance we fall back to some older hardware so we have to turn the render distance down.

[@MulleMap]

they do it so that they lag less, were used to it

[@LaugeHeiberg]

It is for non-danes only. We pay an extra premium to have "Tilfældigtdanskordkuntilforvirring"

[@NATIK001]

It's like playing the original Morrowind, or indeed Silent Hill.

[@AugustKjelmannNielsen]

we have no mountains to block the view

[@MrMilesdad]

When Miles was 7 years old, we went to Denmark. We ran to a train at a station that was ready to leave and we were panicking we'd miss it. We finally got in and we sat down still out of breath. The 7 year old Miles said, "we're on the wrong train". "No, we're not!" I insisted, thinking what does a 7 year old know? Well, it's no surprise now but the 7 year old was right. We were on the wrong train. Fun fact?

[@MilesinTransit]

Now that is a fun fact

[@EricaGamet]

MilesKnowsFacts™

[@mdhazeldine]

That's hilarious. haha

[@ayrton7007PeCaPepepepe]

Miles born with a rail map of Denmark in his hand.

[@markkajc]

Thats me in the video! Finally part of the Miles In transit cinematic universe, thanks for a great day Miles.

[@MilesinTransit]

Thanks so much for showing me around, Mark!!

[@phronsiekeys]

Points for use of the word "stroad"

[@bluewhaleadventures152]

Best new character in MIT 2024! Announcing each stop with Miles was a highlight.

[@mdhazeldine]

Are you Danish or British? I'm British and you sound like you're from the UK, but with excellent Danish pronunciation. lol

[@markkajc]

@@mdhazeldine half and half, born in the UK, but lived in Denmark for 15 years. Spoke both languages since birth

[@Valjean666dk]

You could just record 30 mins of heavy fog and claim you were travelling Denmark.

[@stevencigar9897]

Det gode gamle danske vejr!

[@troelspeterroland6998]

The reason why the immediate surroundings of the Odense tramway are so modern is that there used to be a four-lane road surrounded by ramps and car parks which had cut the city centre in half in the sixties. So the tramway project was part of a planning scheme that revitalised the city centre and fused it back together.

[@MilesinTransit]

Yeah, I was looking at old street view - it's really impressive how much they did!

[@musikdude5846]

@@MilesinTransit Which one did prefer? Aarhus or Odense? Great video btw.

[@madsmatras5691]

@@MilesinTransit it took them around 10 year to do it, so yeah it was a lot of work.

[@martinpoulsen6564]

Revitalized is definitely a stretch, which I'd much have preferred, over the gentrification that has happened.

[@madsmatras5691]

@@martinpoulsen6564 i don't know i think revitalized fit pretty well here. what has been build definitely brought more life to the center than the big road that was there before.

[@ov_079]

That ferry being car-only is brutal and a crime against humanity

[@MilesinTransit]

Northernmost metro line in the world!

[@grantori]

14:10 Good thing its not car only. Ive taken it on foot, and taken af train from the dock in Sweden.

[@hoej]

When you enter the train, the "History... or poetry" poster is actually the name of the train. Odense Letbane asked for names for their trains. The light rail in Odense opened very recently while the area around Ikea, Bilka, and the complex with parking in front was built in the 80's or earlier, back when cars were the future of mobility.

[@hoej]

I often travel Odense-Aarhus and on my regular departure (6:35) the train splits in Aarhus.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

The "baby train" at 0:17 is a part of the Siemens Desiro family, specifically a Desiro Classic! They've also been used in Malaysia (for the KLIA Ekspres from their main Sentral station to the airport), Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Austria, and the US on the Sprinter in California. Odense is a pretty cool name as it's derived from "Odins Vé", meaning "Odin's sanctuary", as the area was known as a sanctuary for worshippers of the Nordic god Odin! Odense has a pretty good system, hitting up the city center, a stadium, a university, a mall, and even IKEA! Transit to a shopping mall is very much important, it helps keep malls operating and encourages people to rely less on cars for errands! Malls should have a community around them, malls should be built for people, not cars! Newport Centre mall in Jersey City for example is served by jitneys, the PATH, and the HBLR, and Newport participates in a NJ government Urban Enterprise Zone program with reduced sales tax, encouraging New Yorkers to take the PATH and do their shopping in NJ Nice to see a lot of development being built along the Odense system, it goes to show you that if you build it, they will come! On the Chongqing Metro, when Caojiawan opened on Line 6 in 2015, it was surrounded by nothing, but by 2019, it was filled with developments! Not to mention when the IRT Flushing Line was built through Queens, stations like 33rd Street-Rawson Street weren't surrounded by anything, so all those immigrant communities now living along that corridor came because of the train! And as brought up when you took the IKEA ferry in NYC, having IKEAs that are transit-accessible are a great thing too, as shown in this in Odense! Besides the ferry, the B57 and B61 serve the Brooklyn IKEA, with both routes also serving the nearest subway station, Smith-9th Streets, the highest rapid transit station when it was built! On Long Island, the Hicksville IKEA is a .7 mile walk through a residential neighborhood from the busy Hicksville LIRR station with frequent trains! Different NICE buses also serve it. In Portland, Oregon, their IKEA is served by Cascades station just outside the airport on the MAX light-rail system, in a mixed-use complex with a shopping center, hotels, and offices built around the station called Cascade Station. You can get to the IKEA North York in Toronto by rapid transit, as Leslie on Line 4 is a short walk away! Though a rapid transit-accessible IKEA you probably wouldn't expect...the IKEA in Bayamón, Puerto Rico is a short walk from the Deportivo station on the Tren Urbano!

[@davidcho1579]

Funny enough, there used to be a bus shuttle from Leslie station on Line 4 to the IKEA North York and from it to downtown Scarborough, but they were discontinued during COVID and a new IKEA store at Scarborough Centre opened just before Line 3 closed.

[@lzh4950]

I guess the Desiro is similar, in terms of purpose, to the Nexas in Melbourne?

[@GojiMet86]

Wow Miles, I can't believe you survived the interdimensional monsters of the 2007 Stephen King film, _The Mist_ .

[@Joliie]

6:23 The Danish Train Museum in Odense is pretty good, they have a lot of stuff for kids around holidays, vacation time, you can book a ride on of the many running Veteran train. It will often drive to Nyborg and then back again. You can also rent a train from them, it will have to schedule around the normal traffic, but you could hire one to go across Denmark. They did lend the DSB the MY to help clear snow some years ago, they needed a heavy train.

[@erik_griswold]

The Jernbane museum 6:23 is worth a visit even if only to see the first generation S-tog, the MY locomotive (based on the EMD F-unit) and all the models of the former Danish State Railways Ferries

[@yossarian6743]

Great video! I spent a lovely few days in Odense a couple winters back. I was also amazed at the stop just for Ikea :). Absolutely great biking city.

[@FrederichPedersen]

The physical ticket, is really just a danish issue. We tend to make everything so digitalized and things like physical tickets usually is a afterthought. Though I think they did a great job with translating both the app, and the help guides on the stations.

[@Irby.]

Ja men for nogle turister det ikke har et dansk tlf nr. Kan de have problemer med at oprette sig f.esk i den nye rejsebillet app. Også kan de ikke bestille billetter eller lign i den . Så noget af det digitalisering er bedst for dansker. Også er det ikke altid gennemtænkt for turister.

[@roy_hks]

I think the Netherlands does it better in this regard. The machines where you scan your PT card in Denmark also scans Debit/Credit cards, digital tickets and apple pay in the Netherlands. So the system is cashless and fully digitized too, but allows for more modes of payment. Absolutely hated the system in Odense because it was so time consuming and my tickets never got sent thru to my sms.

[@kadafi1987]

u mean is a fyn/Jylland issue, we can buy physical ticket everywhere on Sjælland, trains/metro/busses.

[@itsme3213]

Only by coins on busses and physical ticket only on larger train stations..

[@drdewott9154]

@@roy_hks Yeah but the agency behind the transit card readers, Rejsekort & Rejseplan A/S, is planning to replace the physical card with an app, so they that way can remove the physical card readers and machines across the country and save some pennies. That whole project was started back in 2018 under a right wing government by the Transport minister Ole Birk Olesen from the far right, crony capitalist party "Liberal Alliance".

[@hyggemcb06]

As an American who lived in Denmark, this brings back memories of riding the trains all over. At first it was new and exciting, but it’s amazing how quickly we humans get used to things and take them for granted. Thanks for bringing back the joy of Danskebanen

[@joermnyc]

København is getting a circular light rail to connect the “fingers” of the transit system. Pølse (Pool-sa) sausages are everywhere in København, even at the airport! We found a street kiosk on the Strøget that had a vegan version, delicious! Also very much recommend the burger place called Halifax.

[@SkeledroMan]

Ryomgård has a shuttle bus to the regional amusement park, Djurs Sommerland. That place has one of the best rollercoasters in europe. Transit accessible amusement park. That would be unthinkable in the US.

[@MilesinTransit]

Not to mention Tivoli, of course!

[@SkeledroMan]

@@MilesinTransit Tivoli is probably the most transit accessible amusement park anywhere. direct services from berlin and stockholm to the park entrance.

[@drdewott9154]

@@MilesinTransit Plus Bakken, the worlds oldest is right by Klampenborg station on the S-train system. BonBon land (home of the infamous Dog Fart coaster) is also right next to Holme Olstrup station on a regional rail line out of Copenhagen. The small amusement park Sommerland Sjælland even has a local branch line running right through the middle of the park, with its own request stop right in the middle of the park grounds with its own exclusive park entrance.

[@ChristianDrastrup]

11:00 Thats the city i live in! Yaaay! Im all proud now! Løgten, translated roughly to Lantern, but not spelled right and actually more like onion - Onion-ville, but you pronounce it like "Lantern" - Another funfact is that you come across another city called Mørke - And that, is translated to "Darkness" Therefore this little joke: "If you piss in lantern you have to shit in Darkness...."

[@Tiogar60]

Should have waited until next year, then we have 3!

[@tobi2731]

Odense is very low density throughout. Even the small city centre is consistently sub 10k per km² and around that you have a gigantic blurb of mostly free standing single family homes. I think if they want the light rail to make sense long term they should really use it to densify the city along the lines. Another issue is that for instance if you enter a train at the university and it's just leaving and you're bound for the main station, it'd be faster if you rushed out of the leaving train and grabbed your bike.

[@hoej]

But they have used the LRT to densify the city: Campusbyen around Cortex Park and Cortex Lake; Nyborgvej has seen densification from the intersection in the east all along the road; The area around Albani Torv and Odeon in general; The new housing around Rugårdsvej (and removal of the old Cinemaxx building on Vestre Stationsvej!!); Something so small as converting the parking on Konprinsensgade to 2 x 4 story buildings. I also think Gartnerbyen partially got so densified is because of the LRT being so close. I'm fairly certain that what we've seen in the last 10 years in Odense will continue for at least 20 years on the Stationsveje, Albanigade, and Nyborgvej, and we'll see huge impacts on the Sdr Blvd and Seden areas if they ever get the 2nd phase started up.

[@MikkelLindgren]

Thanks for yet another nice video. Aarhus Light Rail L1 DOES actually offer a higher frequency during rush hour. From around 7-9 AM and again 2-5:30 PM Grenaa sees a tram every half hour and four trams an hour in each direction between Aarhus and Hornslet. And that's on weekdays all year around (also in the public school holiday)

[@cheesekingofdenmark6910]

And from this summer, trams will run half hourly on weekdays from 5-20! Things are improving

[@ayrton7007PeCaPepepepe]

This channel is my turistic guide

[@TheTransitChannel]

Wow, Miles! That should be a world record or a new achievement on your channel! By the way, on your first train ride, the train that you rode (0:17) an older Siemens Desiro. SPRINTER (a train agency from San Diego) actually has those same kind of vehicle. Not sure if you heard of it yet or rode SPRINTER in California. Hopefully during your next trip to San Diego, you would consider riding those trains because they are really rare in USA.

[@danishjuventus]

Fun fact: The pigs are still running on a local line in the west of Jutland, the line is very praised for its scenery here in Denmark

[@MilesinTransit]

That's amazing!

[@drdewott9154]

@@MilesinTransit Yeah. The pigs days are numbered though sadly. The operator running them has an order for 7 brand new 2-car battery trains from Siemens, and afaik the plan is for them to enter service in 2025, as the first battery trains in the country. What will happen to the Pigs is unknown. There arent many in preservation with railway societies, and a dinky single car one which was attempted to be preserved is now rotting up on a siding along this line. Though the weirdest thing that has happened to the pigs is that some trains were actually sold to Peru in 2012. Some were attempted to be used on shuttle trains for mining crews, while others were used on a failed urban rail attempt called "Metro Wanka"

[@Korfax124]

Planning public transit ahead of city expanding really should be the norm in this day and age. When everything is so centralized in planning and execution it just makes sense

[@JV-the-Tossh]

On L2, you went right by where I work. I literally have the Århus Light Rail pass right by my window. University Hospital stop is right on the other side of the building. If I didn't live one hour away by car, that'd be my stop :D

[@shivabalannagakumaran6019]

Thanks for showing these LRT Systems in Denmark Miles! They are really nice LRT Systems!

[@thomasvarn]

Very nice video, Miles 👍 Speaking of Danish Light Rail systems, you should definitely check out the “trackless light rail” in Aalborg, which ended up as a BRT instead, du to state politicians withdrawing the financial support in the 11th hour. Nevertheless, it's a nice ride anyway, and worth checking out. Would be interesting with a comparison between the light rails of Odense and Aarhus, and the BRT in Aalborg 😊

[@boohoow]

About the WIFI. We do not have the same need for free wifi everywhere, as our data plans are less expensive and a lot more chill in regards to limits. There also is no penalty if you go above allotted data amount, though I can't see how anyone would be able to exceed their data amount/month.

[@erik_griswold]

It says two cars on the sign at 6:34 but as you experienced, it is a three car set (hence the name IC3) with two entrances. As for Diesel under wire, that was due to a short-sighted decision in the 1990s.

[@stormbowman7148]

The desolate stations (in Aarhus) are put in areas that are expected to be developed in the near future. It is a bold city planning project, but knowing the area, it will probably turn out allright. Unfortunately, cost saving arguments like "Let's have a BRT" is challenging the further development of the light rail network. Which is kind of sad. Btw. the line to Odder was built in 1884.

[@subparnaturedocumentary]

mr.worldwide hitting us again with some excellent european public transport content that i genuinely hope to experience some day!

[@Mikk3l2001]

I work as a train service technician at the light rail depot in Aarhus. The trams in Odense and the ones on L2 are both Variobahn trams. While the one on L1 is of a type called Tango, sadly they very often collide with animals. Because of the very rural route

[@thunderspike1892]

I used to work a Grenaa, Odder and Hornslet stations many years ago. DSB (Danish Railways) ran the line from Aarhus to Grenaa. Sadly with the digital age the customers got fewer and fewer and the stations ended up closing. Odder was originally the main station on the private HHJ line. When DSB replaced them I had some shifts when the guy running the station had his days off. The Desiro train running from Odense was originally owned by DSB. When Arriva acquired the line they got the trains (Siemens Desiro). Arriva got new owners this year and changed their name to GoCollective this April 2024. Hornslet station was the ending point of some of the regional trains. Most of the work out there was doing accounting for the onboard ticket machines and filling up coins in the change Machine.

[@Joliie]

18:23 there used to be more of these Modeltrain setups around on the larger stations, they are maintained by volunteers/The Danish Trainmuseum (You saw it in Odense) and its profit goes back to the kids in various charity.

[@16jan1986]

@@Joliie yep two on Copenhagen one in Aalborg århus and Odense....not much remains

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Yup, Carl's Jr has franchises in a lot of countries besides Denmark and the US, they've opened locations in countries like Guatemala, France, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Turkey/Türkiye, Nicaragua, Spain, New Zealand, and even Singapore! Carl's Jr is called such because of Carl Karcher! In 1941, truck driver Carl Karcher and his wife Margaret saved enough to purchase a hot dog cart in Los Angeles. From their newly purchased cart, they sold hot dogs, chili dogs, and tamales for a dime, and soda for a nickel! Within a few years, Carl and Margaret owned and operated four hot dog stands in Los Angeles. In 1945, the Karchers moved the short distance to Anaheim, California, and opened their first full-service restaurant, Carl's Drive-In Barbecue. In 1946, hamburgers were added to the menu for the first time. In 1956, Karcher opened the first two Carl's Jr. restaurants, so named because they were a smaller version of Carl's Drive-In Barbecue restaurant, in Anaheim and Brea. By 1975, they had more than 100 locations in Southern California! In 1984, Carl's Jr. was franchised for the first time. Karcher was removed as chairman of the company by its board of directors in 1993 because of clashes over marketing and business practices. Carl Karcher Enterprises became a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc in 1994. Hardee's wouldn't come into the picture until 1997 when the chain was purchased, and instead of rebranding to Carl's Jr., they chose to keep the name at those Hardee's locations for brand recognition's sake since everyone recognized them in their region!

[@erik_griswold]

In Denmark their franchise is owned by the Salling Group who also own all the Starbucks and a large portion of the Supermarkets as well as the Department Store in Aarhus with the cool roof deck: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salling_Group

[@TransitAndTeslas]

Now that we know they have Carl’s Jr. outside the US, what about Hardee’s 😝?

[@SubwayNut]

@@TransitAndTeslas There are differences. The main one is Carl's Jr. has Fried Zucchini (at least US locations) and Hardee's does not.

[@frostykyogre]

Can confirm at least 2, I'm from Canada and have had it here and in Japan I saw one just outside Universal Studios Osaka.

[@gustavsturksteinwall4027]

Thank you, Supreme Leader of The Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea Kim Jong Un.

[@Zzzfunky]

Really unfortunate day to be riding considering how hard it was to see anything, especially the bridge crossing has a quite nice view, along with when going from Fredericia to Vejle. On the whole topic of why the train splits when it does. Firstly that was a shorter train than usual, but the carts split off at Fredericia due to a lot of traffic splitting west / south at that point, hence a lot of passengers get off and there is usually no longer the need for set carts.

[@cheesekingofdenmark6910]

The mall at the central station in Odense is something of a local embarrassment. It's basically dead and really detracts from the station. If it wasn't for the fact that it would disrupt the trains, it would probably have been torn down a redeveloped years ago. Lovely to see the Aarhus Light Rail getting some attention! I work in the control room there, so I have some insight into the operation: Most of the system is single track and serves commuter towns, hence the low frequency, although the busiest parts of the L1 runs every 15 minutes at rush hour and half the regional parts of L2 does during most of the day, although the L1 and regional L2 only has hourly service at weekends and late in the evenings. Half hourly daytime service on weekdays all the way the Grenaa will commence this summer. It is hoped that Odder, with some infrastructure improvements and new trains, will have 15 minute frequency during weekdays from sometime in the late 2020s or early 2030s, but that is a question of funding. Both the lines to Odder and Grenaa are over 100 years old and are still treated like regional lines, as they are very rural, especially the L1 beyond Hornslet. The "New" line between through the city is treated like a proper tram, and this is also were the majority of passengers travel (over 50%, only about 15% travel on the L2 between Aarhus Central station and Odder). The single track makes it impossible to run a higher frequencies. In fact, it is barely possible to run the L1 at the current frequency (it is EXTREMELY sensitive and it takes basically nothing to cause delays on the L1). Fun fact in regards to all the transit accessible horses, the stop Vilhelmsborg on the L2 line to Odder only exists to serve the National Riding Centre. It is literally a stop just to access horses. It is also the least used stop on the system, with some 13 passengers per day on weekdays. It's only kept open because there's nothing to be gained from closing it. The big development on the old habour, called Aarhus Ø, was supposed to be served by the light rail, but due to political reasons (disguised as traffic flow reasons, but I can say without a doubt that that was just an excuse), these plans were dropped. The one-stop spur to Lisbjergskolen is the start of an extension that was originally supposed to serve the towns of Søften and Hinnerup (some popular commuter towns), where it would connect with regional trains as well, but these plans have been partially dropped due to financial reasons (sadly, it was a fantastic project with great potential). The extension might still partialy go ahead, going as the as the Motorway, where there a plans for a MASSIVE park and ride facility, with an additional stop in the west of Lisbjerg. The large areas of countryside served by the L2 at Nye and the Lisbjerg stops are all part of a major development project, that has for unexplained reasons taken a lot longer than expected to get going, in spite of the decade long building booms in Aarhus. I believe it is mainly due to the fact that the local government keeps greenlighting similar development elsewhere, despite the fact the Lisbjerg and Nye are much more suitable locations. The ligth rails finances (and therefor tax payer finances) are in fact suffering from the lack of development out there, as the Light Rails initial budget and estimated passenger numbers were made with the development in mind. Now the official timeframe says that development will be finished in the 2060s (though the core parts will probably be finished significantly earlier than that. I hope). Let's just say that transit oriented development is a mixed bag in Denmark. There's also supposed to be an industrial/business park a Humlehuse, but this is also taking its sweet ass time. At least passengger numbers are slowly but surely increasing out there. Just between the fall of 2022 and the fall of 2023, passenger numbers from Lisbjergskolen increased some 33%. Once development is finished, some 25000 people will live in Lisbjerg and some 20000 people will live in Nye. Worth noting that it actually does have an official map, it's just a bit hard to find because the transit authority (Midttrafik) decided to remove it from their website. It's only on the Light Rail companies own website now. Here's a link: www.letbanen.dk/at-rejse-med-letbanen/ In regards to the lack of physical tickets in Odense, this is just the way the wind is blowing. The system is very young and it was deemed to be a waste of money to invest in expensive to buy, run and maintain ticket machines that are likely to be used by less than 5% of passengers anyway. The city busses in Aarhus have recently gotten rid of their ticket machines for the very same reason. Having a valid ticket is, and has always been, the passengers responsibility. Yes, your phone might die, but it is your responsibility to keep it charged. A physical ticket machine might also be broken or you might simply loose you ticket. Nothing is new there. And as in your case, it is your responsibility to have a valid ticket and to check up on your options before you travel. You bought a mobile ticket, but you also knew that you didn't have internet access? That is hardly the transit providers fault. While there is some resistance to the move to digital solutions, there are limits to how much money you can expect the ta payer to use on bare used alternative systems, especially considering that the Rejsekort travelcard system is over 10 years old at this point. You have had plenty of time to learn to use it, and in both Odense and Aarhus, the local transit authorities made a big deal out of helping the elderly ad other who might need assistance in learning how to use the Rejsekort or mobile tickets. Denmark is one of the most digitised countries on the planet, and it is expected that you will have a mobile phone with internet access. We have one of the highest quality mobile networks in the world and some of the most reliable internet. To put it into perspective, an internet provider ran ads a few years ago where the bragged about providing better internet to a small uninhabited Danish island that is available in downtown Manhattan. The concept of having a mobile phone without at least 4G access it alien to us. I believe some 97% of the country is covered by 5G by all the major providers.

[@MilesinTransit]

Thanks for the extra context as someone who works for the system itself, I really appreciate it! Good to know about the official map, too, I could not for the life of me find that...at least my crappy Google Map shows off the true scale of the system, I suppose. (I do have to push back on the mobile ticketing though, if only the point about how i should have known about the lack of internet access - I've never in my life encountered a mobile ticketing system where you need internet access AFTER purchasing the ticket! Usually you buy it and then you can activate it yourself whenever you want. The fact that you need to pre-schedule it for a specific time is already ridiculous, and then you need an internet connection for the ticket activation to work? I'm sorry, that's a bad system.)

[@Joliie]

5:00 the area was a major road through Odense, but to develop the center, they build this new area on top, so it is very new, they did build a big parking lot under it all, so you can still travel it by car, but at a lower speed, because its a parking area. It has made the trip into the center of Odense from Svendborg and south take a little longer, but over all it has been pretty good.

[@SimonBannow]

The fact that you can't get a physical ticket when going on the Odense Tramway is why i havent rode/ridden it yet(its too complicated for the elderly people who dont use a smartphone, people with poor eyesight etc) until the company fixes that i'll continue riding my bike around town on principal

[@MilesinTransit]

Yeah, it's such a ridiculous policy!

[@roy_hks]

It also doesn’t work properly. I was on exchange in Odense about a week ago and kept needing to screenshot my tickets because they wouldn’t send to my sms nor mail.

[@SimonBannow]

@@roy_hks yeah clown world

[@Donnah1979]

You can get a "rejsekort" if you live in Denmark

[@charisma-hornum-fries]

Fun fact. Because of the checkout feature Göteborg got rid of that system right before Denmark launched Rejsekortet. ​@Donnah1979

[@practicaltoon6589]

There is free wifi in the trams, also if your phone dies you get a fine but it gets cancelled when you send in your ticket for review :)

[@foolfl1ckz]

Yeah, the Danish ticket system very digital and is built on a old system with lots of later added options making really hard to use for first time users.

[@drdewott9154]

Yup. Plus its expensive as fuck and thats stopping many people from getting onboard. The winds of change may finally be blowing though. Odense has a pilot program with extra cheap QR code tickets. Just one fare, very low. 10kr for those 25 and below, 15kr for those 26 and above. And it has worked wonders, increased ridership by around 20% and added several million kroner in ticket revenue. A similar deal has been suggested for Aarhus by a local Socialist politician. And in the national government, the ministry is looking at reforming the transit organisation structure. Though since its handled by a government with Venstre and Moderaterne in it, its likely more so just for cutting even more costs and corners, but I do hope something good CAN come out of it regardless. Cause I definitely think cheaper and simpler fares are needed. (Though we could get cheaper fares already super easily along with twice as many bus departures in the whole country for just half of the money the government spends annually on a frickin tax rebate that just encourages car dependency, suburban sprawl, and job sprawl! Like seriously we waste 18 billion kroner annually on the befordringsfradrag!)

[@dianabialaskahansen2972]

Denmark is preparing to replace the trains with IC5 electrical trains, which is why the net has electrical wires in many places. Hopefully IC5 will not turn into the same nightmare as the IC4, which ended up a massive failure, with the old IC3 trains' retirement being halted and the IC4 trains being sent to the train junkyard.

[@dengamleidiot]

Hi. Odense Dane and huge light rail fan here. Here mid june, it's so green and lovely to ride it! Sadly, you came on a grey, rainy day. The two stops that are not opened yet, are the new hospital for the entire southen region of Denmark. There are a few stores who sell hard tickets, but yeah, we mostly do the danish "rejsekort" (travelcard), or I myself, scan the QR code for a ticket. Europeans have dataroaming in all EU countries, so the ticket is not a problem (for them, at least). Fun fact: Way back in the 1950s (1960s?) they domolished a big part of the city center, and made a huge, 4 lane road through it all - because "Cars are the future! They are doing it in America!" People hated it, and it tore the city in half. It actually became a school example in city planning and infrastructure around the world, in how NOT TO DO IT. Already in 1970, the entire city council said: "It's a huge scar for Odense" In 2015, it was decide to begin planning and eventually build the light rail - with economic support from the danish parliment. Teardown that huge road, connect the city center again, build new stores and bikelanes next the future light rail line, and rebuild the city center with stores and apartments and last but not least, a new grand revised H.C. Andersen Museum, also next to the line. (H.C. Andersen was born in Odense). It's now 2024 and the hospital is still being build, but everything else is done. It's made Odense, not only "more green" with less pollution, but also physical more green, Many trees have been planted along side the rail line, and grass grows in the area below the tracks. So it's a lot more green, more calm and more environmentally friendly, to take a walk, ride the bike - or take the light rail in Odense now :)

[@MilesinTransit]

Great comment, thanks for the history!

[@MumrikDK]

I'm Danish. Yeah, the smartphone era made the ticket system pretty annoying for people who don't regularly use it.

[@erik_griswold]

Fun fact: the Y-train (grisen/ the pig) at 20:16 was built by DüWAG (which is now Siemens Mobility)

[@xBris]

Regarding physical tickets: I haven't used a physical ticket in more than a decade now, and I ride public transport every day: There hasn't been a single incident, where that caused any issues. On the contrary: Since you have your phone on you at all times, it's much quicker than going through your bag, searching for your wallet, then searching for the ticket inside the wallet. It's very common here in Europe and the only "good" reason for physical tickets left is to support the elderly, who rather scream at clouds than to get a modern phone.

[@oliverbugge4653]

7:15 The IC3 train you rode from Odense to Aarhus is acutally formed of 3 carriages. The middle car doesn't have any doors and no number on it. :)

[@NHRcing]

Yo Miles, greetings from Denmark - still can't believe you came all the way here to ride our light rail systems 😅

[@himbourbanist]

I get the impression a lot of the desolate stations are probably being planned for the future urbanization of the region. better to get the trains electrified and built now before it's way more expensive later. then as the area develops they can increase frequency accordingly

[@Donnah1979]

Yeah, they definitely made two tram stops for the new hospital being built in Odense 😊

[@charisma-hornum-fries]

Some are replacements for the old train stations that weren't used often.

[@DuluthTW]

No elevator review! No place to buy pretzels? The redeeming aspect of this video was the opportunity to see horses. It seems the Denmark public officials have their poop-in-a-group by planning the public transport BEFORE the private developments. I salute their ingenuity. Thanks for sharing!

[@joemckim1183]

I find it awesome that you went all of the way to Denmark to ride on public transportation.

[@wings3118]

Didn't know the train coming from Odense to Aalborg split in Fredericia as well, usually when i take a similar one, either from Esbjerg to Aarhus or Aarhus to Aalborg, you can see them coming to Aarhus, and then splitting, and two continuing to Aalborg.

[@sammymarrco47]

Solid video, next time you go international consider getting an eSIM card from Airalo so that you don’t have to same issue again and can have data.

[@ChokyoDK]

A new light rail system is opening up in Copenhagen in 2025. It goes all the way from the Danish Technical University (DTU) North of Copenhagen around the west of Copenhagen to the Southwest of Copenhagen to Ishøj.

[@carstenhansen5757]

What's the distance on that sucker?

[@Icydriveforza]

As someone who takes the bus trough some of the areas you showed - lisbjerg to århus H. It's really fun to see the area on youtube for the firdt time lol

[@jg-7780]

0/10 You didn't sneak onto the under construction Copenhagen LRT Also it turns out I happened to visit Odense the same day you did. My train arrived about half an hour after you departed that morning. The railway museum was a lot of fun, they had a short steam train ride included with admission.

[@erik_griswold]

He shows it in his Copenhagen video from the same trip.

[@jnrfalcon]

That fog and the monolith reminds me of Simon Stålenhag's graphic books 🤣

[@mdhazeldine]

I love how in the US, people are like "our city only has 1 miillion inhabitants. There isn't enough to demand to support transit". Meanwhile in Denmark....."let's build a tram so we can pet some horses". The mindset shift is very dramatic. LOL. P.S. fun fact, while watching this video, I got an ad to sponsor a donkey. My first thought was "is it transit accessible? Because if not, I'm not sponsoring it" :D

[@MilesinTransit]

There have to be some transit accessible donkeys somewhere!

[@davidsaunders6700]

Thank you, Miles. Informative and entertaining as usual.

[@MilesinTransit]

Thanks!

[@mathiasiversen4179]

6:07 those small pink city busses are free to ride

[@jakob9911]

6:02 that mini bus is actually free to ride

[@drdewott9154]

Nice stuff! Also very VERY long comment incoming Miles. Phone dependency is a big thing here in Denmark whether we like it or not. In December last year, they also removed the ticket machines from the citybuses in Aarhus, meaning you can only ride if you have a rejsekort, or buy a ticket on an app. (And even then the Rejsekort is scheduled to be replaced by an app). Its annoying, and its all done to cut costs and corners. Danes are extremely stingy, and that includes our governmental institutions. Heck I think I mentioned it before but around Copenhagen, most bus stops dont even have timetables at them anymore. The reason given was "They waste paper, and majority plan their journeys in advance with the Journeyplanner app and website". Also fun fact, the area the pedestrianized area in the city centre used to be a massive stroad that was built in the 1960's. You can still see streetview from like 2009 of how it split the downtown in 2. however when the light rail was developed, the city decided to close the road and redevelop it, and just have a vast underground parking garage below it. Though this and other traffic calming measures have sadly been extremely controversial in Odense. The city has the lowest transit modalshare in all of Denmark. Before the light rail opened, less than 3% of all trips in the city were done by transit which is lower than several US cities. The Light rail has definitely helped, it carries around 6 million annually or about 19.000-22.000 per day (which is still far below its projected 35.000 per day target which adds fuel to the fire in the city). And so the light rail carries around 2/3rds of all transit passengers in Odense as the total is only around 9.6 million annual passengers across both tram and buses. Aarhus is a lot better in this regard. Even though its much bigger light rail network only carried 5.8 million annually, its urban buses are much more popular, bringing its annual transit ridership up to 33 million, and a modal share of around 7%. Still pitifully low compared to other European cities though. Aarhus is working on improving its light rail quite a bit though. There are plans to buy 8 new extra long interurban LRV's for the Grenå line, and increase service frequency to half hourly all the way to Grenå. Additionally the plan is long term to establish all day 15 minute frequency to Hornslet too for the L1. For the L2, the plan along with the 8 LRV's is to add crossing loops at Rude Havvej and build a new maintenance facility there so the one in downtown Odder can be redeveloped. But this would also allow all day 15 minute tram service to Odder, and THAT I feel is gonna be a gamechanger. There's also a proposed new line from the Central station going northwest and west to a district called Brabrand. It should work really well as an urban tram, but is also at risk of being downgraded to a BRT line rather than Light rail. There were also plans for a 2 stop Light rail extension into the harbour area to serve those high density developments but it got cancelled 2 years ago over concerns of traffic jams for cars at an intersection. Such stupid crap. An extension of the 1 stop school branch was also planned to a town called Hinnerup where you could change to regional trains, but that was cancelled due to a lack of national government cofunding. The right of way is still reserved to the municipal limit at a highway interchange, so there's still a chance it gets extended 2/3 stops west to a new vast Park & Ride on the highway. As for the L2's weirdness. That super desolate stuff is meant to be at the centre of a brand new community called "Nye" and the area around the station is supposed to have pretty dense developments. But the weird thing is they're starting with the lowest density developments at the very edge of the area and working their way inwards with higher and higher density, due to low density car oriented suburbia being in the highest demand. But yeah people expected it to be built up 5 years ago and it just hasnt happened at such a rate now. I'd imagine it does get built up eventually but not before like 2035. Development has however been very VERY quick on the frequent section. The watertower is now entirely surrounded by highrise apartments... TLDR for this collumn, increase the goddamn frequency beyond the hospital if you wanna see developers develop!

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

I can always count on DrDewott for the Danish lore!

[@erik_griswold]

Damn, I loved the TVMs on the Aarhus buses with the pay as you enter from the rear (since that is where the conductor used to sit on their original trams) and show the driver you have paid as you leave from the front. But then I also liked when each bus route had its own signpost at the stop it served which meant that some stops in the city center had 6+ posts.

[@MilesinTransit]

Great context, thank you!

[@lzh4950]

@@erik_griswold Japan's public buses that charge distance-based fares also have you board from the rear but it's because fares are paid on alighting, where the driver can check that you pay the right fare, though this can increase dwell times, especially for buses in smaller towns/cities & when there're more out-of-town visitors riding the bus that have to pay cash & get exact change, as the visitors may be are less likely to have a store-value card accepted by those towns/cities (which may not necessarily accept the more common SuICa or ICCOCA store-value cards)

[@lzh4950]

My country meanwhile published bus timetable mainly online, with paper ones only at bus stops with frequency less than once every 20min. It's also building a brand new community but while apartments are built from south to north the roads are built & widened from north to south instead. So the earliest residents had to walk further to the bus stops

[@BandidoDescalzo]

The heavy fog makes this whole video so much better.

[@williamhuang8309]

Today's Soundbites 1:59 Historyyyy 9:45 Now it's time for a bathroom review (hmmm) 9:56 Diner 14:04 FER RY!!! 14:22 Quick Bathroom Review 19:32 Fun Fact 20:45 Credits Light rail is cool but it's not a metro replacement

[@markkajc]

In Aarhus it was heavy a heavy rail and bus replacement

[@CyclingSteve]

Come to London, the DLR is like a rollercoaster in places.

[@OssWiX]

and i thought The Hague's line 1 went through a relatively rural area for a ('modern') tram. But the area between The Hague and Delft is rather urban compared to where Aarhus' trams go.

[@Donnah1979]

Yeah, the Aarhus tram is literally going to other towns as well as having some stops in the "big city" 😅

[@MrSlimerGameplay]

The pink/white minibusses (citybus) that goes through the city center is actually free :)

[@kiankier7330]

Miles, you should try out the old trams at the tram museum at Skjoldenæsholm. Plus Aarhus light railway was nothing more then a prestige project

[@officialmcdeath]

Apropos naturist beaches with questionable transit provision, the beach at Dyffryn Ardudwy is served by a request stop on the Cambrian Coast Line - on no occasion has this stop been announced by the conductor, when I've been aboard \m/

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

It would be awesome if more nudist beaches were also transit accessible. C'mon, P-town, step up your game!

[@rykilg]

That Jeb Brooks style intro ❤

[@lhpl]

I wouldn't be surprised if it stops at "Den Permanente" during the summertime. I believe the regional used to do so as well. Of course, with the facility being used all year round by winter bathers (hence also "permanent") arguably it should always be a stop. And fyi, technically, _all_ of the Danish coast line (except some harbours, and other places that are restricted access for some reason) could be considered a nude beach, as nudity at the beach is completely legal and not limited to naturist beaches.

[@davidaarthur]

7.05 Denmark has a long history of building very good diesels - the train you were on is from the 1990s, and performs so well it can run coupled to the electric version. The downside is that it's left them a long way behind their neighbours on electrification. (There's a great museum of Danish diesel power at an old power plant in Copenhagen.)

[@andre-cmyk]

silent hill has never had such cute city centres on a real note, the different urban fabric compared to america is so clear. you can tell the suburban cities are nodes of density with farms in the middle, vs the US where farms are obliterated for low density housing and the "downtown" is just a few big box stores with an insane amount of parking

[@MilesinTransit]

Yeah, good observation

[@bucketcreature]

miles and mark eating at stations grillen traveling on trains and walkin around chillin

[@Hamfrags]

Woah, you were right in my backyard! Too bad it was so foggy for your entire trip!

[@davidsixtwo]

I'll be on the sleeper train through Denmark this summer -- can't wait

[@NickBurman]

"It's almost like running a two-car train to your second largest city is kind of a dumb idea". The reason (or one of the reasons) why your train to Århus was so woefully short for the load is that DSB (Danish State Railways) is AFAIK short of rolling stock, especially after a disastrous experience with some regional trains built by AnsaldoBreda which kept falling to bits. Half of the trains were patched up, and the other half was sold to Romania, leaving DSB in a bind.

[@singapuu7643]

Also partly explains why they're running diesel trains under wires. Sure partly because they are just late to the electrification game and still don't have all of the important bits of the network electrified. But even the lines which now do have wires struggle to get electric units as DSB just doesn't have enough of them and the new ones they ordered are all delayed (from mid 2025 to 2027 for the Coradias and 2024 to mid 2025 for the Talgo sets). So they'll continue to struggle for a while I'm afraid.

[@nanderv]

@@singapuu7643 They do often couple units between electric and diesel if part of the train short-terminates or heads a different direction. Note btw that the Danes are drunk/unique, and they count doors on the sign, not carriages. The two-car train in the video is in fact a three car train with two entrance doors.

[@MangoMouse1604]

6:03 fun fact: that bus *is* free to ride

[@MilesinTransit]

Darn!

[@drdewott9154]

@@MilesinTransit Yeah. Around the late 2000's and early 2010's, several Danish cities got onto a hype train around downtown circulator minibuses (and free to ride versions of such circulators). Mainly inspired by such routes in Italian cities using comically tiny buses. Copenhagen had one from 2009 to 2014 but it was never popular, even after several route reworks. Many didnt even realise they were actual public transit and not some kind of prebooked shuttle for the elderly. The one in Odense however has been pretty succesful all things considered. Though I still often hear proposals around the country, usually by the right wing to divert funding from more important transit solutions to instead have a free to ride downtown minibus circulator. Sometimes with the idea of an outrageously oversized parking garage by one stop. And for what? So that Mr Jensen doesnt have to walk 1/3rd of a mile somewhere in the city centre?

I took the Aarhus the light rail to Lystrup in July 2019. It was of course deserted. Funny to see it's still as desolate 4-5 years later (if the video was made last winter)! So, what you're saying about "in 5 years people will laugh about us"... No, it's still the same!

[@markkajc]

Seems the money for development ran out when the right rail came in

[@cheesekingofdenmark6910]

Development has been a lot slower than expected, though no-one seems able to explain why, considering the construction boom that's been happening in Aarhus for a decade now. It's likely related to the fact that the local government continues to allow similar competitive development to happen elsewhere in the city, despite the fact that the transit is SO MUCH BETTER in Lisbjerg and Nye and that the light rail (and therefore public finances) is suffering from the low passenger numbers. Things are slowly improving, however, with the stations out there seeing passenger numbers increasing slowly but surely. The developments out there aren't expected to be completely finished until the 2060s however.

[@cerionerwarriorgamer1754]

7:03 The DSB line from Kolding to Aalborg is currently being electrified with Alstom Coradia EMUs being delivered in 2025

[@drdewott9154]

Well the whole program is delayed so the new trains wont enter service till 2027... thanks Alstom.

[@Gert-DK]

There is free Wi-Fi on the Light rail in Odense and all the buses on the island Fyn. So just approach a bus or light rail and you have Wi-Fi. It is normally working OK. The small red city buses in Odense are free. As far as I know, they are financed by the city centre shops.

[@PeterBuvik]

These two Light rail systems are built based on Experiences from Bergen Norway

[@rickybuhl3176]

Aarhus - Grenaa, I gotta say I'm impressed with the British pronunciation. Some of those stops like Trustrup we had to press a buzzer either on the platform or on the train (getting on/off) for the trains to stop, not sure if they use the same system with the LR.

[@bigdaddy69420]

fun fact, an 80 year old man walked in front of the aarhus light rail train today, he died on impact and the line was closed for an hour

[@MilesinTransit]

That's not a fun fact!

[@dyseskytten1]

That isn't where HCA was born (about 1 km from there) - It is where the museum is and very close to where my parents live. Maybe they saw you filming :)

[@erik_griswold]

Welcome to Pedantry corner!

[@themonger42]

imma have to add to my good transit checklist is transit accessible horses good video thanks for sharing

[@MilesinTransit]

Thanks!

[@giogullotto]

"thanks for the trip you little weirdo" i am absolutely gonna start saying that when people take me places

[@Floedekage]

The last line is what you build in a train simulator before you start adding detail.

[@tttttttttttttttt221]

You would have loved the train on a ferry between Germany and Denmark at the Fehmarn island. There was an ICE using it to travel between Kopenhagen and Hamburg. Sadly it isn't in service anymore since 2019 but I really liked the experience to be on a train on a ferry. You could even get off and buy stuff on the ferry.

[@danielgrinddal179]

Don't know if you mentioned it, but they are building a rather long ltr system in the Copenhagen suburbs aswell, should be done in 2026.

[@scotttheniceguy]

9:53 Best review EVER!!!!

[@PerryPlanet]

Ah, riding the entirety of Silent Hill's light rail system

[@paulw.woodring7304]

Having grown up in the 1960s and '70s, grass growing in the tracks was a sign of a railroad that was in very bad shape both physically and financially - like PennCentral. Kind of strange that now it's considered environmentally a good thing.

[@markkajc]

Modern grassy medians are generally well kept, i assume the ones back in the day werent. Thats probably the difference

[@paulw.woodring7304]

@@markkajc Very true.

[@rykilg]

That Jeb Brooks style intro ❤😂

[@vrenak]

The reason for the diesel trains is that only Zealand, the mainline across Fyn, and the continuation of the line southbound through Jutland to Germany is electrified, the rest is still not, electrification is currently being done, but it'll be a while until it is complete, and the IC3 trains serve the lines to Esbjerg, Thisted and Frederikshavn, all far beyond electrifications reach. The IC3 were supposed to have been retired many years ago, but the italian replacement trains were so bad they're getting scrapped sooner, never really having filled their intercity role. IC3 had some issues in the beginning but has proven themselves to be reliable, and very suitable for raillines with fairly frequent stops, it's not the fastest train, but accelerates and decelerates very well, one was also on loan from, I think Israel, to the US some years ago.

[@suneenough]

IC3's don't go to Thisted and Frederikshavn - IC3's are only run by DSB, which doesn't really serve most of North and West Jutland. West Jutland, and by extension Thisted, is served by GoCollective, and North Jutland and Frederikshavn are served by North Jutland Rail (NJ). Both GoCollective and NJ run Siemens Desiro and Alstom Coradia LINT trains.

[@vrenak]

@@suneenough Wrong. They still go because of the IC4 failure.

[@suneenough]

@@vrenak I'm not aware of any examples of that happening, but even if it did, it would have been an exceptional circumstance. Neither GoCollective nor NJ have any IC3 rolling stock, so it would have had to be because they came to some agreement at some point to temporarily borrow some, so it still seems a bit strange to say that IC3's "serve the lines" to Frederikshavn and Thisted.

[@vrenak]

@@suneenough You're just locked in on who serves the regional service, not considering the national service.

[@drdewott9154]

@@vrenak The DSB services to Thisted and Frederikshavn were terminated many years ago due to the rollout of ERTMS, and never reinstated. Heck the line to Struer which used to see relatively frequent DSB service now only has 4 DSB trains per day to Copenhagen. I'm sorry but have you been living under a rock for the last 6 years?

[@ericbruun9020]

Come to Helsinki and you can ride 11 lines plus a metro line plus several regional rail lines. Tampere also has one new LRT line. I can be your guide. Buses are high quality too.

[@spirit7741]

The odense LRV's interior reminds me of the Toronto streetcars!

[@jamess8504]

Ive never seen so much transit accessible farmland...

[@Donnah1979]

Gotta get the livestock around somehow 😅

[@fenderbender4294]

lots of transit accessible fog and mist in this video

[@carstenhansen5757]

Yeah, it's a bit of a shame. The Grenaa trip is quite picturesque when the weather is good.

[@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188]

We vare soon opening a new Tram system outside Copenhagen, along a major Ring road.

[@LucaPasini2]

Oh Denmark, the place that gave birth to many joyful individuals such as Prince Hamlet, Hans Christian Andersen, Soren Kierkegaard and Lars Von Trier. You can definetly feel the happiness that emanates from the weather and landscape. By the way, in Rome we have transit accessible horses too, you can often see them on line C of the metro when it goes overground at Giardinetti. And that's just halfway through the line, which goes really far outside the city.

[@Frederick-765]

nice video as usual

[@MilesinTransit]

Thanks!