(rshsdepot) Copenhagen, Denmark

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Photo links:
http://users.wpi.edu/~mjleahy/pics/3_16_07.JPG  (inside train shed)
http://home.earthlink.net/~garystrait/s/2/scan0022.jpg  (inside station)
http://peach.mie.utoronto.ca/people/tsangc/europe-day3full-trainstation.jpg
(station exterior in daytime)
http://www.casayego.com/euro/copenh/copene.jpg  (outside night view)

City station facing decay

By Rebecca K. Engmann - The Copenhagen Post

Massive concrete damages at Copenhagen's Central Train Station have reached
such a scale that rail operator DSB is preparing a structural overhaul at a
six-figure price tag.

Throughout Copenhagen's Central Train Station, the concrete damage is severe
and widespread. Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported last week that
DSB is now planning a major renovation effort to repair damages under the
floor in the station's vestibule, on the front square, and under the roads
along the railway pits leading from the Central Station to Vesterbrogade.

DSB's tab for the overhaul is expected to amount to hundreds of millions of
kroner-whilst daily train passengers will pay an inevitable price in
inconvenience and annoyance.

As Niels Dam, director of development at Copenhagen Central Station, told
Berlingske Tidende last week, station officials are currently investigating
whether the structural concrete damages can be repaired next year, when
train service will already be bracing for delays and schedule changes in
connection with the Railway Council's track renovation project between
Central and Østerport Stations.

For four months starting in December of this year, one regional train track
between Hellerup and Østerport Stations will be taken out of commission.
During that period, all rush-hour train traffic on the regional Coast Line
will drive only between Helsingør and Klampenborg or Hellerup, after which
point train passengers will have to switch to an S-train to reach the major
Copenhagen stations.

'We intend to have the bridge deck and the half-deck (of the Central Train
Station) fully renovated. Since the Railway Council is already blocking
tracks due to the track project during this time, we're hoping to finish the
repairs at the Central Station within the same time frame to minimise the
inconvenience to traffic and passengers as much as possible,' Dam said.

The current Central Train Station building was constructed in 1911, with no
view to handling the immense daily volume of train traffic it currently
services. For many years, station administration has tried without success
to budget a structural renovation on this scale. According the station's
last building inspection, the disintegrating concrete problem must be
addressed within a few years' time.

According to Dam, safety regulations for track workers render it virtually
impossible to undertake a renovation project without a major disturbance in
the train timetables.

  Bernie Wagenblast
  Transportation Communications Newsletter
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/



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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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