European Railroad Discussion > X2 and IC3: An hour at Ørestad in Copenhagen

Since my wife and I traveled mostly by train during our European trip in November, we typically ended up in hotels relatively close to the main train station of the town we were in. One notable exception was Copenhagen, which we flew into. As such, our hotel was accessible by the M1 Metro line, and the regional trains were accessible from Ørestad, one stop south on the M1, and about a ten minute ride in to Copenhagen Central Station. I have mentioned my wife's health issues before, and go-go-go travel pace doesn't suit her. It's an easy compromise: when she needed an hour or two to rest, I would wander to a train station, where I would be easily entertained. Such was my hour at Ørestad, while she took a nap before lunch. The DSB station is relatively new, on the rail line that connects Copenhagen and Målmo, Sweden, and also passes by the international airport. With a fleet of newer versions of the ubiquitous IC3 intercity trains, the Øresundståg, the carrier that operates the line, doesn't offer a lot of variety. But the traffic is steady - trains cross the bridge between Sweden and Denmark every 20 minutes during most of the day, and addtional trains run from Copenhagen to the airport. My target, though, was one of the X2 high speed trains, which run between Copenhagen and Malmo once every two hours during the peak parts of the day.

Photo 1: A three unit IC3 set makes its stop at Ørestad en route to Malmo. I was surprised that there were still fall colors to be found, especially so far north. The Øresundståg IC3s have a low floor center car, with bike spaces and accesible seating. Unlike their longer distance DSB counterparts, they don't have a first class section.

Photo 2: A pair of DB Cargo motors run light toward Copenhagen between trains.

Photo 3: One of the surprises of the trip was this diesel IC3 bound for Copenhagen Central from the airport.

More photos to come.

Jody



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/19 22:21 by F7sForever.

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Photo 4: Leaving the station bound for the airport

Photo 5: A Malmo-bound train calls on the station

Photo 6: I switched platforms for a photo of this train headed back toward Copenhagen. The pedestrian overpass in the background was my perch for the previous two photos.

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Photo 7: Back on the overpass again for a photo of an airport-bound IC3

Photo 8: After several tries, I captured an Øresundståg train passing underneath the Metro tracks, with a Metro train passing above.

Photo 9: I was hoping to time out my trip to catch one of the Swedish Rail X2 trains going each direction, but I missed the eastobund train by only a few minutes. But at last, I was rewarded by the arrival of a westbound headed toward Copenhagen. The X2 is an interesting offering in the European high speed lineup. Built by ABB, they travel in six car sets with a locomotive on one end and a cab control car on the other. They've been in service since the early 1990's, and are rated for speeds up to 200kmph. An X2 set toured the US during the "audition" phase of Amtrak's high speed rail development program.

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Photo 10: The SJ X2 trains pass through Ørestad (and actually run all the way between Malmo and Copenhagen) without stopping. This plus the faster speeds shaves about 10 mintues off of the time between the two stations. Several more high speed routes fan out of Malmo into Sweden using X2 and X55 higher speed train sets. I understood these particular trains to be called X2000s after their stint in the US; turns out that the X2000 name is a brand name for SJ's higher speed express services, and X2 is the actual name of the train sets themselves.

Photo 11: After retrieving my wife from the hotel, we headed back to Ørestad to grab a train into Copenhagen. So while techinically not part of my hour tour, a photo of that train is presented here to lead us into the next photo.

Photo 12: The interiors of the Øresundståg IC3 trains are somewhat austere, but comfortable. Surprisngly so for what is in effect a regional train. In the US this would be plastic seats covered in carved-in graffiti. If only we could have nice things as well.

While Ørestad certainly lacks the style and panache of the other train stations I visited, the volume of traffic kept me busy for an hour or two, and the hope for another X2 kept me wanting even after I'd exhausted all of the photo angles I could think of on the generic IC3s. And much to my wife's pleasure, it kept me quite for an hour or so. Nothing wrong with that.

Jody

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Very Interesting !!! Really have enjoyed your European trip so far ! :)
My wife was like your wife with her health issues! Go watch some trains while she rested ! :) was what she would say to!:)
She past away this spring but life goes on ...
God bless you and your wife !!! :):):)
Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

Speaking of trackside hotels in Copenhagen, in 2013 we stayed in one (sorry, can't remember the name) a couple of blocks from the main station. Multiple tracks ran in a trench between streets right across from the hotel. Bridges on cross streets made for easy photography. Here's a couple photos as examples. I'm not sure, but the diesels like the one in the second image sure sounded like EMDs.

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Great views. I was a bit surprised by the variety when we finally made it into downtown; didn't get any real photos to speak of other than a few when we were leaving town.

The little red city trains remind me of toblerones for some reason; probably the inward canted shape. My wife and I shared a joke about that when we were leaving town.

Jody

The diesels are equipped with EMD V-16 710G3 engines and were built by Nohab under license. They are just starting to be replaced now, about half the fleet are still in service.