Greater Copenhagen Light Rail

Greater Copenhagen Light Rail (Danish: Hovedstadens Letbane, lit. 'The Capital City's Light Rail') is a light rail system which when fully operational will connect with six S-train lines in Greater Copenhagen, Denmark, parallel to but outside the borders of Copenhagen Municipality. Its first stage is known as the Ring 3 Light Rail, for which construction started in 2018. It will go from Lundtofte, north of Copenhagen to Ishøj station in the southwest, with a projected annual ridership of 13-14 million. The southern section, from Ishøj to Rødovre Nord, with 12 stations, opened on 26 October 2025, while the northern section to Lundtofte, comprising 17 stations, is expected to open on 22 August 2026.

Hovedstadens Letbane
Tram at Ishøj Station on opening day
Overview
Owner	Ringby-Letbanesamarbejdet
Locale	Metropolitan Copenhagen
Transit type	Light rail
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	29
Website	www.dinletbane.dk
Operation
Began operation	26 October 2025 (southern section)
Operation will start	22 August 2026 (northern section)
Operator(s)	Metro Service A/S (owned by Azienda Trasporti Milanesi)
Train length	4 cars - 36.9 m (121 ft 3⁄4 in)
Technical
System length	28 km (17 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC Overhead lines
Average speed	30 km/h (19 mph)
Top speed	70 km/h (43 mph)
Map of the route Greater Copenhagen Light Rail Lundtofte Rævehøjvej Anker Engelunds Vej DTU Akademivej DTU Fortunbyen Lyngby Centrum Lyngby Gammelmosevej Buddinge Gladsaxe Rådhus Gladsaxevej Gladsaxe Trafikplads Dynamovej Herlev Hospital Herlev Bymidte Herlev Herlev Syd Train depot Rødovre Nord Glostrup Ejby Glostrup Nord (Hersted) Glostrup Hospital (Rigshospitalet) Glostrup Kirkebjerg Brøndbyvester Delta Park Vallensbæk Strandhaven Ishøj Strand Arken Ishøj

The line is owned by the Ringby-Letbanesamarbejdet (Ring city-Light rail cooperation), which is a collaboration between the municipalities serviced or affected by the line.

Background

Further information: Transport in Copenhagen

Bus from line 300S at Nordre Ringvej. The light rail will replace virtually the entire line.

The rapid transit network of greater Copenhagen consists of a metro system serving the city centre, south-eastern suburbs and one western suburb, and a well-developed S-train network consisting of radial lines and one inner ring line relatively close to the city centre. Further from the city centre, transport between the radials consists of bus lines. Since the suburbs along the radials were expected to grow, a better quality public transport solution between them was thought to be needed. Furthermore, some high passenger volume destinations such as the Technical University and two hospitals were not yet directly accessible through rail transit.

Procurement for the project was structured into five civil works packages and three packages covering equipment, operations, and maintenance. In 2018, Danish construction companies MJ Eriksson, Per Aarsleff, and CG Jensen were awarded the civil works contracts, with CG Jensen additionally commissioned to construct the line’s operations control and maintenance centre.

The transport systems contract, covering both railway infrastructure and rolling stock, was awarded to a consortium comprising Siemens and Aarsleff Rail. Siemens was contracted to deliver a turnkey solution involving electrification, signalling, communications, workshop equipment as well as overall management of the project. A 15 year operations and maintenance contract was awarded to Metro Service, a subsidiary of ATM Milano, which also operates the Copenhagen Metro.

Ridership is expected to reach 14.7 million passengers per year by 2030.

Construction of Lundtofte station, terminal station.

Services

Trains will depart every 5 minutes from both terminals, and every 10 minutes on evenings, Sundays and public holidays. The trip between the terminals will be completed in 58 minutes.

Since the southern section opened on 26 October 2025, trains are operating at 10 minute intervals. This will be reduced to 5 minutes when the 15 km northern section to Lundtofte opens in summer 2026.

Control and maintenance centre, Glostrup.

A travel card reader at Glostrup Station

Stations

In total the line will have 29 stations, six of which will have a connection to the S-train network.

Municipality	Station	S-train connections	Travel time
			Southbound	Northbound
Lyngby-Taarbæk	Lundtofte		0	58
	Rævehøjvej (DTU)		1	57
	Anker Engelunds Vej DTU		3	55
	Akademivej DTU		5	53
	Fortunbyen		7	51
	Lyngby Centrum		10	48
	Lyngby		11	47
Gladsaxe	Gammelmosevej		15	43
	Buddinge		17	41
	Gladsaxe Rådhus		18	40
	Gladsaxevej		20	38
	Gladsaxe Trafikplads		21	37
	Dynamovej		23	35
Herlev	Herlev Hospital		25	33
	Herlev Bymidte		27	31
	Herlev		28	30
	Herlev Syd		30	28
Rødovre	Rødovre Nord		31	27
Glostrup	Glostrup Ejby		33	25
	Glostrup Nord		36	22
	Glostrup Hospital		38	20
	Glostrup		43	15
Brøndby	Kirkebjerg		46	12
	Brøndbyvester		48	10
Vallensbæk	Delta Park		51	7
	Vallensbæk		51	6
	Strandhaven		54	4
Ishøj	Ishøj Strand		55	3
	Ishøj		58	0

Rolling stock

In February 2018, 29 Siemens Avenio 4-car low floor trams (27 base order and 2 options) were ordered. The contract includes options for up to 30 trams and maintenance of the trams for 15 years. The trams are light green, distinguishing them as a new and "eco-friendly" mode of transport. The trams have 6 x 100W motors and weigh approximately 48 tonnes each. They have a capacity of 258, including 64 seats. The entrance height is 350 mm above the rail. The trams are 36.9 m in length and 2.65 m wide. They are equipped with LCD information screens. They were built at the Siemens factory in Kragujevac, Serbia. They were tested at the Siemens Wegberg-Wildenrath Test and Validation Centre and the depot, where they are maintained, in Glostrup.

The trams have step-free boarding and level-access inside, with 4 areas for bicycles, pushchairs and wheelchairs.

• 
  Presentation of Siemens Avenio tram after delivery, Islev workshop
• 
  Mock-up of tram interior

Financing and ownership

The line is be owned through the Ringby-Light rail cooperation by the Ministry of Transport, Capital Region of Denmark and the municipalities of Lyngby-Taarbæk, Gladsaxe, Herlev, Albertslund (no station;in Glostrup, bordering Albertslund), Rødovre, Glostrup, Brøndby, Hvidovre (no station), Vallensbæk, Ishøj and Høje-Taastrup (no station). The Danish state will contribute 40% to the construction, the municipalities 34% and the Capital Region of Denmark will contribute 26%.

Originally estimated to cost 6.2 billion kr. and later 8.2 billion kr. in 2022, the final cost is expected to be 9.6 billion kr. ($1.48 billion).

Further extensions

Possible extensions beyond the Ring 3 line have been examined in official planning studies. Preparatory material for the Ring 3 project referred to a possible second stage from Park Allé to Brøndby Strand and Avedøre Holme.

In 2013, the Capital Region of Denmark analysed possible light-rail links between Glostrup Station and Copenhagen Airport. The study considered a southern corridor via Avedøre Holme, Ørestad Station and Løjtegårdsvej, a northern corridor via Hvidovre Hospital, Ny Ellebjerg and Bella Center, and a possible first stage of the northern corridor between Glostrup Station and Ny Ellebjerg.

In 2018, a separate study by the Copenhagen Municipality examined a possible light-rail corridor from Nørrebro Station to Gladsaxe Trafikplads via Tingbjerg and Frederikssundsvej, intended to improve links between the M3 City Circle line and the Ring 3 light rail.

In 2021, following a decision by the Regional Council of the Capital Region, Metroselskabet prepared a screening-level analysis of five possible extensions: Lundtofte-Nærum Station, Lundtofte-Gammel Holte, Lundtofte-Kokkedal Station, Gladsaxe Trafikplads-Avedøre Holme, and Glostrup Station-Avedøre Holme. The Glostrup Station-Avedøre Holme option was described as a branch from the Ring 3 line at Kirkebjerg via Park Allé, Brøndby Town Hall, Brøndby Stadium and Brøndby Strand Station to Avedøre Holme. For the northern corridor, the same report noted that a later branch from Hørsholm to Rungsted Kyst Station could be considered, although its economic and ridership effects were not assessed.

The 2021 analysis found that Gladsaxe Trafikplads-Avedøre Holme would generate the largest increase in light-rail boardings, while Lundtofte-Kokkedal Station would have the highest forecast ridership among the northern options.

See also

• Aarhus Letbane
• Transport in Copenhagen
• Stockholm Tvärbanan - a similar orbital line operating in Stockholm since 2000
• Helsinki light rail line 15 - a similar orbital line operating in Helsinki since 2023
• List of town tramway systems in Denmark
• Odense Letbane

External links

• Project website
• The line in the Copenhagen region rapid transit network (in yellow) Archived 2016-03-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Planned course of the line