Copenhagen’s new Cityring
Copenhagen opened the 15.5‑km M3 Cityring, a circular route that adds 17 stations and nearly doubles the city’s metro network — a major shout‑out for beautiful, sustainable urban transit design. The loop is being hailed as an engineered transit model for dense cities. (ekhbary.com)
The Cityringen line was officially opened to the public on 29 September 2019. (stateofgreen.com) Denmark’s parliament approved the project on 1 June 2007, and Metroselskabet signed the main construction contract with the Copenhagen Metro Team (CMT) in 2011. (uk.rigsrevisionen.dk) Construction used tunnel-boring machines to excavate twin tunnels at roughly 30 metres below street level, a technical challenge because much of central Copenhagen sits at sea level. (webuildgroup.com) The scheme’s budget was set at DKK 21.3 billion (2010 prices), but Metroselskabet later reported total construction costs of DKK 25.3 billion in 2019 prices as part of an arbitration case that is not expected to conclude before 2028. (uk.rigsrevisionen.dk) The line runs driverless rolling stock supplied by Hitachi Rail and operates with CBTC signalling for high-frequency, 24/7 service; peak headways have been advertised at about 100 seconds and a full circuit takes roughly 24 minutes at an average 40 km/h. (hitachirail.com) Cityringen was integrated with existing services at key interchange points such as Kongens Nytorv and Frederiksberg, and it provides transfers to S‑train and regional services at hubs including København H and Østerport. (urbanrail.net) Metroselskabet forecast the new line would push annual metro ridership to about 122 million by 2020, and its own later filings show the wider metro carried about 135 million passengers in 2025. (metroselskabet.dk) The construction consortium CMT was led by Italian contractors (Salini/Technimont/SELI) with engineering partners including Arup and COWI, while station architecture and interior treatments were developed to reflect the neighbourhoods above ground. (urban-transport-magazine.com)
