From electricity to diesel and back again

Yesterday I found this fascinating old picture of Copenhagen trams in the Nørrebro depot - probably from around the late sixties.

The public transport in Copenhagen was for many, many years synonymous with the trams and the S-trains. The S-trains are still there and has been suplemented with a spiffy new metro with driverless trains. But in 1972 the trams had to go on pension and the modern diesel bus made its entry into the Copenhagen traffic.

Today the trams are remembered through old song like this one, Another tram and another girl always comes, but only old people have actually seen them in the streets.

Now with the 2025 goal of a CO2 neutral Copenhagen, this is reversed again. There are currently two experimental electric bus line that has proved successful and all buses will be replaced within the next years. They do not have wires though, but batteries and fast high voltage recharging. They should also be 3-4 times more energy efficient than regular buses and will make a lot less noise than diesel buses - especially when started.

The one I have seen most is line 3A that load at the Valby Park where I bike past it. It uses a pantograph to charge at the end of the line and the 300 kW charger can in less than three minutes swallow enough energy to travel the route at least twice.

Notice the little Danish flags :) They are used on festive days like the Queen’s birthday and such. When it was Gay pride parade they had one Danish flag and one rainbow flag. Makes the buses look like little toys.