Helsingør–Helsingborg ferry route
The Helsingør–Helsingborg ferry route is a shipping route connecting Helsingør, Denmark and Helsingborg, Sweden across the northern, and narrowest part of the Øresund. Due to the short distance, which is less than 3 nautical miles, it is one of the world's busiest international car ferry routes, with around 70 daily departures from each harbour. The oldest-known written mention of the route dates to the German traveller Adam of Bremen in the 11th century, but it has likely been in use much longer. Before 1658, the route was a domestic Danish route. For several centuries, the route has been run regularly by various Danish shipping lines. Its significance grew during the 1950s, but since the inauguration of the Øresund Bridge in 2000, at the southern end of the Øresund, it has lost some significance but remains as one of the world's most important ferry routes, particularly as a cheaper alternative to the bridge tolls. Since 1952, passports have not been required for citizens of the Nordic Passport Union countries. Since 2001, when both countries became members of the Schengen Area, passports are not needed for anyone.
Traffic
The route is served by car ferry shipping line Scandlines and a smaller passenger shipping line known as Sundbusserne. Scandlines' Öresundslinjens ferries depart more than 70 times daily, from each port. The distance between Denmark and Sweden there is around 2.5 nautical miles, the crossing time is typically 20 minutes.Scandlines/Öresundslinjen uses four ferries, MF Tycho Brahe, MS Aurora, MF Hamlet and MF Mercandia IV.
In each city, the ferry terminals are directly connected to the main railway stations. Trains depart from Helsingør to Copenhagen four to seven times per hour and arrive at Copenhagen Central Station after 38 or 55 minutes.
In Helsingborg the ferry terminal is connected to an underground railway station and a station nearer the bus station. The entire building is known as "Knutpunkten", "The Junction". It is one of the busiest stations in Sweden and around 50.000 passengers use "Knutpunkten" every day.
In 2017 Scandlines began a project to use electrical power through large batteries, to reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants. The old oil burning engines will mainly be used to charge the batteries. The final intention is to abandon the old engines totally. The initial part is intended to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent.
History
Early history
There is proof of traveling across the northern part of Øresund from earliest possible historical times, or since the Christianisation of the Vikings. The oldest-known historical text about travels across Øresund derives from the German history writer Adam of Bremen, who around 1070 wrote "From Zealand to Scania are many well used crossings, of which the shortest leads to Helsingborg."Danish and Kalmar Union King, Eric of Pomerania introduced the Sound Dues in 1429. This charge were to be paid to Denmark by every ship that passed through Øresund. They were at the time mainly enforced as a disadvantage to the Hansa, and soon became an important source of income for Denmark in the following centuries. Helsingør became a flourishing town. William Shakespeare set his play Hamlet at Elsinore and Kronborg Palace. At the end of medieval times, Kronborg was a fortress and until 1658 the Danes had a complete view across the narrow northern part of Øresund. It was not only from Kronborg they could watch ships, but also from the tower in Helsingborg, known as Kernen. The Sound Dues were to last until 1857—with exception for Swedish ships between 1658 and 1720—when international complaints initiated economic and political agreements.
Fishers and ships that crossed the Øresund were not passing through, and were hence not affected by the Sound Dues. Before 1658, ships could pay their commission both sides of the narrow strait which constitutes the Northern part of Øresund. After the Swedish conquest of Scania, the ships which were bound to pay the charges needed to anchor just south of Kronborg Castle, as Sweden had never been allowed to take any dues. The sheltered location just south of Kronborg, where ships anchored in order to pay the Sound Dues, are the ferry berth of Helsingør today.
Renaissance to 19th century
King Frederick I decided in 1524 that Elsinore would exempt from paying royal taxes, on the condition that "his people" should be shipped across the route for free. This was a heavy burden on the people of Elsinore during wartime.In 1630 the ferry route was established and a "ferry team" was created. The size of the ferry crews and the fares were regulated by law. Contrary to other ferries within the Kingdom of Denmark, the "Helsingør færgelaug" received all rights to sail the route as a vague monopoly. The ferry team was also awarded a part of the Sound Dues for ships that also used the ferries for parts of their cargo.
In 1836 a shipping line began to use the paddle steamer Maria on the route. This was not well liked by "Helsingør færgelaug", who complained in defence of their 200-year-old privileges. The ferry men won in court. From 1840 "Helsingør færgelaug" received a legal monopoly on the route. But times were about to change with the industrial revolution.
The "Helsingør færgelaug" continued until 1882, when Christian IX formally abolished the monopoly. However, in practice the monopoly was abandoned already by 1874, as Denmark's largest shipping line at the time had begun to operate on the route.
Regular ferry history
From 1874 the monopoly instead went to "Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab", which probably is more known as DFDS.Fourteen years later, in 1888, private ownership was abandoned, as "De Danske Statsbaner" the Danish national railways or DSB took over the service. Although the monopoly was formally abandoned already in 1874, DFDS never attempted to compete with nationally owned DSB.
As a railway company, DSB surely was thinking of a train ferry line already from scratch. However between 1888 and 1892 they only operated the ship Masnedsund, which apart from pedestrian passengers only transported mail. But four years later, on 10 March 1892, did DSB open its train ferry route. No less than three paddle-streamers for trains were taken in use, Kronprinsesse Louise, Thyra, Kronprins Frederik was in operation before the end of the 19th century. And the first ship to use a propeller, Helsingborg was of course also a train ferry. The ferry crossing became a part of the "classical" train line between Copenhagen and Oslo and later also night trains to Stockholm.
The route was from its beginning a totally Danish matter, first by 1931 did the Swedish counterpart to DSB, Statens Järnvägar or SJ involved. This was done through a deal which got the label "Midtsunds-trafikoverenskomst". DSB and SJ should from this year split all revenues and spending between them equally. The running of the HH ferry route was, however, still managed by DSB.
During the First World War the southern Øresund was mined by Denmark, Sweden and the German Empire at the request of the latter but the northern and central parts of Øresund were not affected by this and the traffic could continue.
During the Second World War, Denmark, despite their neutrality, become occupied by Germany on 9 April 1940, known as "Besættelsen" in Denmark. In the beginning of this occupation the Germans expected the Danish society to keep working as usual. The ferries continued to sail, but with reduced number of departures.
Competition begins
An important date for the Øresund crossing was 13 July 1952, as passports were no longer needed for travel between the Scandinavian countries and Finland, due to the Nordic Passport Union.It was in 1955 that any Swedish shipping line first became interested in competing with DSB on the route. It was the bus company Linjebuss AB which from then also became a shipping line. The new ferries become known as LB.
From 13 July 1952, passports were no longer needed for traveling between Sweden and Denmark. This was soon extended also to Norway in 1954 and eventually also within entire Scandinavian countries and Finland.
LB challenged' M/S Betula was 26 years old when she became the first challenger on the route in 1955.
From around 1960 both shipping lines ordered more and larger ferries. LB put M/S Primula in operation this year. By 1973 LB had replaced their first two ferries with four new ones M/S Carola 1964, M/S Betula 1968, rebuilt in 1985, M/S Regula 1971, rebuilt 1985 and M/S Ursula 1973, rebuilt 1985. Betula, Regula and Ursula were sisterships, while Carola externally was a sistership to M/S Dana Scarlett, a ferry that mostly operated on the route between Landskrona and Copenhagen, 25–40 km further south.
DSB also ordered larger ferries, larger which could take lorries and a train simultaneously. They kept M/F Helsingør and M/F Hälsingborg. The four sister ships M/F Najaden, M/F Kronborg, M/F Kärnan and M/F Holger Danske.
By the middle of the 1970s LB departed every 20th minute from each port, with their four ferries, DSB every 15th minute with their six ferries, and so did the Sundbusserne. An older ship called Marina sailed every hour from Helsingborg to Snekkersten just a few kilometers south of Helsingør's port.
LB operated also two other ferry routes, SL ferries operated at the central part of Øresund, between Landskrona and the northern Copenhargen port, Tuborg as well as a route from Helsingborg through Copenhagen Tuborg and Travemünde, Schleswig-Holstein, Federal Republic of Germany. The three sister shipping lines were labeled as the LB/SL/TL ferries, where SL meant "Skandinavisk Linjetrafik" and TL meant "Trave Line".