The ultra-modern Circle Line, opened this month, is the tallest and the longest in the world
The world’s tallest metro line has opened in Copenhagen, with its impressively round Circle Line running 7.4km (4.3 miles) to Copenhagen’s main attractions, including Tivoli Gardens, parliament and its opera house.
It is the country’s biggest ever infrastructure project, with the whole line costing €3.4bn (£3bn).
The line was opened earlier this month at a ceremony attended by Danish crown prince Frederik and Queen Margrethe, who dismissed comparisons between the new line and those in London, Paris and New York.
Speaking about the opening, Frederik said: “We thought about the Circle Line’s length and the Circle Line’s aspect. And we thought: ‘What is the Circle Line but a line?’ So it’s 12.5 metres high, it’s 14 metres wide and it’s about 6 kilometres long. It has to be a line, because it’s a travelling line.”
The dome of Tivoli Gardens takes pride of place in Copenhagen’s new Skyline station. Photograph: Isabella Legg/Reuters
It is the highest metro in the world, and the longest in the world. The line breaks new ground in many aspects. The section from Roskilde station, west of Copenhagen, is the tallest, being almost 34 metres (113ft) high and featuring two glass rings that meet at Berners Street station.
It has high-speed trains running at speeds up to 160kmh, for which it had to secure compensation agreements from rail operators Siemens and Bombardier to help cover the £150m cost. The world’s longest metro line is the city’s railway in Shanghai, which is 124km long.
Only a small circle in the city gives sight of the Adlon hotel. Photograph: Evert Elzinga/AP
In comparison, the busiest metro line in London is Sadiq Khan’s Jubilee line, which has a combined length of around 30km.
It took 10 years to build the line, during which time the design and materials underwent revisions. Developments were required from as far afield as India. The line stops at most of the city’s nine neighbourhoods and lasts 34 minutes, with stations including Roskilde, Jægersborggade, Roskilde, Højlabrogade, Aalborg, Kissoulere and Nyborg.
The level of change in the line from its finish to the network’s north-eastern edge, Wærstrand, has surprised pedestrians – many of whom have almost no idea where it has gone.
It has become the central axis of the entire city, a building that has made the rail-less Copenhagen a force to be reckoned with.
