European Railroad Discussion > Fall travel in Germany and Sweden

I have an early Ocotber meeting in Hamburg area and a few days after the meeting for travel before heading back to Frankfurt.  I have done the Hamburg Copenhagen trip, but thinking this time of going into Sweden before heading back to Frankfurt.  Has anyone done this recently?

Thank you in advance.

John

I did the trip from Stockholm to Hamburg a few years ago. Overnight sleeper from Stockholm to Malmo. Typical upper and lower European configuration for single occupancy. Then train from Malmo across the long bridge to Copenhagen. Next a very short ICE train which goes on the ferry between Denmark and Germany. Go now as a new tunnel is in the works. Passengers must exit the train and go up to the Ferry's passenger decks. A really unique experience to see the ICE on the car deck with trucks parked all around. Once to Hamburg, Minature Wonderland is a must see for any railway, aviation or modeling enthusiast. 

IIRC the train ferry service has either ceased or is about to, Copenhagen to Hamburg services are / will be re-routed via Odense and Padborg.

I wonder if anyone else here has rare mileage on a ship? Sorry this unique service is ending. 

I rode the Great Belt train ferry in the 1980s and 90s before the fixed link crossing was completed. There was also a train ferry across the Oresund between Helsingor and Helsingborg which carried passenger cars of the through Copenhagen to Stockholm services.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> I wonder if anyone else here has rare mileage on a
> ship? Sorry this unique service is ending. 

I posted a video of my crossing on this forum on September 15, 2010...you can find it with the search function.

Dave

Hello John,

currently the service form Hamburg to Copenhagen via Puttgarden/ferry is scheduled to run until at least December. The German DMUs were pulled from any service. The Danish railcars now in use are kind of bricks on wheels. Try finding pictures on the internet. I do not have too many. Northern Europe never really was on my itinerary, but my understanding is that many services are operated now mostly by EMUs or trains in not so catchy paint schemes. I stand to be corrected though. May I suggest a different destination instead, the island of Sylt. It is kind of an upmarket place, but trains are not bad. There is no road to the island. Therefore two railway companies offer a good number of auto trains from Niebuell to Westerland. The pictures attached show the Hindenburgdamm as seen from the island of Sylt. The trains are rather small on these pictures. But they should give you an idea of what to see. It is a walk of at least half an hour from the station in Morsum.
This is only a suggestion. But if you have any further questions please come back.

Cheers

kbs651

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John,

Some good info there. I am going to be in Copenhagen in November, with plans to travel from there to Berlin. When I heard that the trains were due to come off of the Vogelfluglinie in December, I figured that was a no-brainer. But trying to figure out what trains actually transit that line is a little harder to figure out. Any thoughts, pointers, or suggestions?

Thanks,

Jody

Looking at DSB's timetables and trip planner, it appears there is currently bus substition for the Hamburg EuroCity train between Copenhagen and Nykøbing (Denmark) due to trackwork. The trackwork substition appears to conclude at the end of September. 30 September is the first day it shows through service.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if anyone else here has rare mileage on a
> ship? Sorry this unique service is ending. 

Did it in '75 on a Eurailpass.  Met some other Americans in the first class dining room, and they treated.  Fine by me!

As others have said, the trainferry operation on the Vogelfluglinie will come to an end at the annual timetable change in December. Currently, there is bus substitution on the Danish side of the operation until the end of September. Beginning on 1 October, through service will resume between Hamburg and Copenhagen for the final two and a half months. The service is firmly in the hands of DSB IC3 "Rubbernoses" since the withdrawl of the diesel ICE-TD units ca. 2016 (one of which has been retrofitted for use as a mobile "Trainlab" for testing new technologies).

Beginning at the timetable change in mid-October, all Hamburg - Copenhagen services will take the Great Belt route via Odense, which, despite its considerably longer length, will not be much different in terms of travel time.

With the cessation of trainferry service on this route, the only remaining passenger trainferries in Europe (and the world, as far as I know) will be on the Strait of Messina between mainland Italy and Sicily and the summer-only Berlin-Night-Express between Berlin and Malmö, Sweden, via Sassnitz. Up until the suspension of service in 2015 (or '16?), the Trans-Asia-Express from Istanbul to Tehran utilized a trainferry for the crossing of Lake Van in eastern Turkey, although only the baggage car was actually transloaded onto the ferry. Whether this operation has continued on the remaining services between Tatvan and the city of Van, I am not quite sure.

Hello Pennengineer,

there is at least one more train ferry service in China, maybe even two.
The more prominent service connects the island of Hainan in the South China Sea to the mainland. Ferries cross the Strait of Qiongzhou from Xuwen on the mainland to Haikou. The ferries even are used to transfer the high speed trains that operate on the island for major overhauls to the mainland. Then from Xuwen to Guangzhou they are hauled by diesels on a trip that takes about eight hours on a regular train. There is a site, mainly in Chinese only though, that besides other pictures of Chinese trains shows these transfer runs. I am not sure whether or not I can post a link here. So I leave it alone.
I am not sure about the second service. This connects Yantai, pretty much in central China not too far away from Qingdao, to Lüshun near Dalian in the northeast near the Korean border. From what I know only freight cars are carried on the ferries. It is a shortcut which connects the north of China to the south. It cuts a few hundred miles off any trip. This service should still be active.

Cheers

kbs651

Hi kbs651,

Thanks for the info. Do any of the operations you mention also haul passenger equipment on revenue runs? There are a lot of examples of freight or deadhead train ferries but I would be curious as to whether there are any other passenger operations besides Sicily and Berlin-Malmö.

Posted from iPhone

Hello Pennengineer,

sorry, my wording was not quite clear. There are quite a few passenger trains using the ferry service to the island of Hainan. I just checked the schedule. There even is a direct train going all the way from Beijing to Sanya. The segment of the trip on the ferry is during the night. The overall trip takes around 38 hours. There also is at least one daylight run using the ferry, in this case a train from Sanya to Guangzhou and return. It is worth noting that passenger trains on average are around 16 cars. The apron is quadruple track. Looking at pictures it is an orchestrated effort pulling the cars off the ferry. To keep the boat in balance two locos pull a set of cars on opposing tracks respectively off the ferry at the same time and speed. Unfortuantely the railways are kind of fenced off these days for various reasons. So it is hard to take good pictures. The ferry from Yantai to Lüshun should be freight only. This is more or less an overnight run.

Cheers

Jochen

Thank you to all for your assistance.  Some business acquitances from Sweden suggested I join them on flying to Stockholm and the returning by air to Frankfurt.  Only train ride will be Frakfurt to Hamburg.  John