Denmark to get high-speed trains

Denmark’s railway network will be getting a high-speed upgrade thanks to agreement over a 28.5 billion kroner investment between the government and opposition parties.

Danish railways should have 250-kph electric trains by 2025 on most of its network. Some tracks will also be upgraded to cope with 300 kph speeds.

The new trains will be able to carry 900 passengers and will cut the crucial Copenhagen to Odense service to less than an hour.

The system will link Denmark into the European high-speed network in France, Germany, Spain and Italy and also north to Sweden and Norway.

According to the financing deal much of the money will come from North Sea oil revenues, by reducing the amount of investment that companies can off-set against tax.

This has upset some of the smaller and newer operators in the field, such as Germany’s Bayerngas, which has threatened to cut back its planned future investments.

However the political parties now appear to have come to an acceptable compromise on the taxation issue that will treat all operators more even-handedly.