Copenhagen Central Station

Østfacaden af Københavns hovedbanegård set fra nord i 1980erne.jpg

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The first Copenhagen Central Station was built in 1847 on its present site but at right angles to it. The second was where the colourful Palads cinema now stands and had tracks that passed over the lakes. The third and present station opened in 1911 and was designed by DSB's chief architect Heinrich Wenck. It is his principal work. The station's departure and arrival hall has a double-arched ceiling across the tracks, and platform halls with six lengthwise arches. The halls' supporting structures are timber rather than steel, which was conventional abroad. The Central Station's function changed when the Boulevard Line to Østerport opened in 1917. Trains could then run in and out of both ends of the station.

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Roomier tunnels

Story written by Poul Thestrup

Time / Periode 1904

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The first budget for the new Central Station was cut drastically by Parliament. But the politicians had second thoughts and increased the grant again. The extra funds were spent on covering the platforms and a tunnel between the platforms, for example, so passengers could move from platform to platform without re-entering the arrival hall. Parliament even chose to make the platform tunnel wider than DSB had requested. They thought the metropolitan lines would be electrified before long, and then many more travellers would choose train travel. As it happened, the S-trains didn't arrive on the scene until almost 25 years later in 1934.