COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CN) — For many of the 1.4 million yearly long-distance bus passengers traveling to Copenhagen, loud bike bell rings, unpleasant yells and jumps for survival to avoid speedy bicycles was their first impression when disembarking into Denmark’s capital.
Located right next to the city’s central train station, a narrow street of two active driving lanes with space enough for a string line of parked buses served as the only long-distance bus terminal in downtown Copenhagen. For decades, international passengers boarding or disembarking buses were obstructed by an active bike lane, which eventually became a grim source of frustration between cyclists, travelers and bus drivers.
No more after today. On Thursday, Copenhagen launched a brand-new long-distance bus terminal on par with similar stations in other European capitals. Isolated snug under Dybbølsbro, a bridge just one stop from the central train station, passengers will now substitute chaos and danger born out of the former parking spot with lanes dedicated for buses only, complimented with various in and outdoor waiting seats.
“We have waited a long time to be able to give a proper welcome to everyone from around the nation and Europe with a good bus terminal in Copenhagen,” said Sophie Hæstorp Andersen lord mayor of the Danish capitol at the terminals’ opening on Thursday.
“The traffic chaos in Ingerslevsgade [former long-stance bus parking spot] has long been a blemish to Copenhagen. Anyone who has traveled on a long-distance bus or biked through a crowd of people knows what I’m talking about,” she said.
Copenhagen serves as a major travel hub in northern Europe. Travelers usually use or have to transfer through the city’s train station, airport and long-distance buses on journeys between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.
In 2023, Copenhagen Airport had close to 27 million passengers walking through their halls. Two out of three flight travelers were Danes and South Swedes, and other European and North American passenger numbers are on the rise, the airport stated earlier this year.
Long-distance trains and buses are often cheaper alternatives for tourists going to either Sweden or Germany from Copenhagen. Politicians liberalized the market for long-distance bus business around the new millennium, resulting in foreign companies increasing international bus travel to and from Copenhagen. That drastically changed the need for a new bus terminal in the capital, which the Danish parliament voted to finance in 2020.
One looking forward to using the fresh terminal is John Egholm, a Jutland bus driver from the company Vikingbus. He started moving passengers to Copenhagen a couple of years ago and had already heard about the previously infamous parking spot before taking on the route to the capital.
“This place is unique,” Egholm said on Wednesday being one of the last drivers to operate in Ingerslevsgade. The experienced driver has done multiple international routes, but no other stop compares he said.
“We often discussed the stop, us drivers. ‘Are you going to Ingerslevsgade?' Be careful with that and so forth they would warn me,” he said.
The most frustrating part of the old stop was that he couldn’t help everyone enough, Egholm explained. The only thing he could do was to tell international travelers that there was no structure. And he couldn’t help when things got heated.
“It’s incredible that no one received injuries here. There are constant conflicts with cyclists and passengers. Some yelling at me too, calling me a ‘fucking Jute’ [person from peninsular Jutland],” he said.
Despite the brand-new terminal opening on Thursday, screens meant to show arrival, driving time and destination at every bus lane are not operating — an IT issue that delayed the station launch by a year. Staff will be helping passengers on site until the IT system is up and running.
“I believe the new station will be super good. It can’t possibly get any worse,” Egholm said.
Follow @LasseSrensen13
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