In the first half of 2024, there have been a record number of train passengers crossing the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark. According to Jyllands-Posten, more train passengers are using the bridge, while the number of cars has decreased slightly. DSB (Danish State Railways) has transported the highest number of passengers over the Great Belt Bridge since the opening of train traffic in 1997. The latest numbers from DSB show that a total of 4.47 million passengers used the train connection in the first six months of the year.
Jeppe Juul, the chief of transportation policy at the Council for Green Transition, sees this as a positive development that could indicate the beginning of a greener transportation trend, where more people choose trains over cars. He stated to Jyllands-Posten: “It’s a very interesting and good news, which hopefully will be the start of a bigger green wave in moving more traffic from cars to trains.”
At the same time, Sund & Bælt (a Danish company responsible for the bridge) has reported a 0.8% decrease in car traffic over the bridge during the same period. This marks the first significant drop in car traffic over the Great Belt Bridge since its opening, apart from specific periods like the financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a minor decline in 2013.
Despite the increase in train passengers, cars remain dominant. In the first six months, 5.62 million cars crossed the Great Belt Bridge. These numbers still highlight the popularity of cars as a means of transportation over the bridge.
The Great Belt Bridge opened for train traffic in June 1997 and for car traffic in June the following year, 1998. Jyllands-Posten has tried to obtain comments from Flixbus about the development in bus traffic over the bridge, but the company has not yet responded. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues, and if more Danes will choose train transportation as their preferred method of travel in the future.