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Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure

Lines M3 and M4 of the Copenhagen Metro are back in service having reopened on Sunday, one day ahead of schedule.

Published: 26 February 2024 07:51 CET
Copenhagen Metro lines reopen after two-week closure
The Copenhagen Metro's M3 and M4 lines are open again after a two-week test closure. Photo: Søren Hytting / Metroselskabet

The two lines had been closed so that the Metro can run test operations before opening five new stations on the M4 line this summer.

The tests, which began on February 10th, are now done and the lines were running again as of Sunday evening, a day ahead of the original planned reopening on Monday February 26th.

“We are very pleased to be able to welcome our passengers on to our two lines M3 and M4,” head of operations with the Metro Søren Boysen said.

“The whole test procedure exceeded all expectations and went faster than expected and we can therefore get a head start on our reopening now,” he said.

Time set aside for potential repeat tests was not needed in the event, allowing the test closures to be completed ahead of time.

“Several of our many tests went better than expected and we have therefore not used all the time we needed for extra tests,” Boysen said.

The two lines serve around one million passengers every week, according to the Metro company.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen city government greenlights extension to Metro line

The new stops on the M4 line will be located south of central Copenhagen in the Valby and Sydhavn areas. The will have the names Haveholmen, Enghave Brygge, Sluseholmen, Mozarts Plads and København Syd (Copenhagen South).

The M3 and M4 lines, the newer sections of the Metro, opened in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

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One dead and four missing after two ships collide in North Sea

One person has died and four are missing from the crew of a cargo ship that sank after colliding with another vessel in the North Sea, German authorities said on Tuesday.

Published: 24 October 2023 10:42 CEST
Updated: 24 October 2023 15:07 CEST
One dead and four missing after two ships collide in North Sea

Two further crew members from the sunken ship were rescued after the collision with a second cargo vessel early on Tuesday southwest of the island of Helgoland, German Sea Rescue Society (DGzRS) spokesman Christian Stipeldey said.

Several ships are currently searching for survivors in the area, it added.

“One person was rescued from the water and is receiving medical care.

Several other people are currently missing,” the agency said.

The ship believed to have sunk was named as the Verity, sailing under a British flag and on its way from Bremen to the UK town of Immingham.

The other ship was the Polesie, under a Bahamas flag and travelling from Hamburg to La Coruna in Spain.

The Verity was the smaller vessel with a length of 91 metres (almost 300 feet), compared to the Polesie’s 190 metres.

The Polesie was still afloat with 22 people on board, the agency said.

The Bild daily reported that a total of six people were missing.

“The emergency services are doing everything they can to rescue the missing people,” German

Transport Minister Volker Wissing said in a statement.

“My thoughts are with the crew members, their relatives and the rescue teams who have been in action since early this morning.”

Cruise ship

Two rescue cruisers, an emergency tug, a pilot boat, a police patrol boat and a helicopter are helping with the search, according to the CCME.

A P&O cruise ship that was in the area, the IONA, has also been involved, the agency added.

“On board the IONA, people can also receive medical care; there are doctors on board,” it said.

Other medical staff were also transported to the site by helicopter.

The search was taking place in difficult weather conditions, with winds of six on the Beaufort scale and waves reaching as high as three metres, the agency said.

The Polesie is owned by the Polish shipping company Polsteam.

The accident comes weeks after a ship with hundreds of electric cars on board caught fire in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands.

The Fremantle Highway was sailing between Bremerhaven in Germany and Port Said in Egypt when the blaze broke out in July.

The accident happened close to Ameland, one of an archipelago of ecologically sensitive islands situated in the Waddensee area.

All 23 crew members were evacuated from the ship, but one person died and several were injured.

Efforts to tow the ship to shore were complicated by poor weather conditions but it was eventually brought to the northern port of Eemshaven.

READ ALSO: Germany’s North Sea coast ‘most affected by climate change’

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