In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kay Xander Mellish outlines the current travel routes from Copenhagen to Sweden, Norway, and Germany, highlighting the inconvenience of the existing ferry link between Rødbyhavn (Denmark) and Puttgarden (Germany). He then introduces the upcoming 18‑kilometre Fehmarnbelt immersed tunnel, slated to open in 2029, which will cut travel time to 10 minutes by car and 7 minutes by train, making it the world’s longest immersed tunnel. Mellish reports on a recent site visit in Aalborg Havn, describing active construction on the Danish side while German work lags, and explains that Denmark is handling the entire tunnel construction while Germany only builds its access areas. The episode discusses the tunnel’s broader economic implications: massive job creation, the construction of 1,300 worker apartments, a planned sustainable‑construction education program, and potential revitalisation of the rural Lolland region, which is currently one of Denmark’s poorest areas. Mellish also mentions future projects stemming from the tunnel‑factory, such as a tunnel across Copenhagen Harbour that could ease airport access. Throughout, he frames the tunnel as a transformative infrastructure project that will reshape travel across Scandinavia and Northern Europe, while also offering opportunities for international construction professionals.
Chapters
Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. Getting to Sweden from Copenhagen is Easy. You take a quick trip across the Øresund Bridge in your car or on the train. Getting to Norway from Copenhagen isn't too hard either. There's a ferry to Oslo that runs every day from Nordhavn. Getting to Germany from Copenhagen, on the other hand, is a headache. If you don't want to fly or take the long way around through Jutland, You need to head for the little Danish town of Rødbyhavn on the island of Lolland. Then your train or car or truck drives into the belly of a giant ferryboat. You get off on the other side in the little German town of Puttgarden and continue along your way. Now, the giant ferries are fun. Up top they have duty-free shops and game arcades and restaurants where you eat very quickly. Because it's only about a half-hour trip. But as of 2029, the trip will be a lot quicker and a lot easier. That's when the tunnel between Denmark and Germany is scheduled to open. This 18-kilometer Fehmarnbelt Tunnel will be the longest immersed tunnel in the world, 3 times longer than the current leader, the Transbay Tube under San Francisco Bay. You'll be able to drive between Denmark and Germany in only 10 minutes. If you take the train, that'll only take 7 minutes. I was invited down to Aalborg Havn to see the tunnel construction last week, and I was allowed to climb up on a windy viewing tower to see a large amount of mud being moved around. The work is in full swing on the Danish side. I'm told it has barely started on the German side. This is mostly a Danish project, not a Danish-German project. The Danes are building the entire tunnel, plus the access areas on the Danish side. The Germans are only building the access areas on the German side. Apparently, when the project was being discussed, the Germans weren't very interested. Puttgarden is in a far-off and not very wealthy part of Germany, on a small island off the coast called Fehmarn. It's a 90-minute drive from Kiel, which is the nearest big city. The politicians in Berlin had other priorities. Of course, now that the project is underway, the German government has started to realize that if Denmark builds the entire tunnel, the Danes get all the user revenues from the tunnel. Not only will there be a fair amount of Danish traffic through the tunnel, there will be a lot of Swedish traffic. This will be the fastest land route from Malmö or Stockholm to Germany, and perhaps ultimately a high-speed rail gateway from Scandinavia to the rest of Europe. The Germans know they left some money on the table there. Anyway, there are already hundreds of people at work on the Danish side of the tunnel project, and there will be Thousands more. So if you're in the engineering or construction business, there might be a job for you here soon. The tunnel company wants to hire internationals because if they vacuum up all the construction workers from Denmark itself, there would be no one to do any other construction work, like the guys who tear up my street every couple of weeks and then repave it and tear it up again. The tunnel company will be building 1,300 apartments for the new workers. and are trying to get one of the Danish universities interested in starting up a local program focusing on sustainable construction, which would require student housing too. That said, the area where the tunnel to Germany is being built is not really the most exciting place in Denmark to live. Lolland is a rural island, and unless you've taken your kids to the water park at Lollandia, You've probably never been there. It's also one of the poorest parts of Denmark. Some of the richer municipalities have actually advised people on contenthjælp, the payment that Denmark gives the poorest of the poor, to move to Lolland because their money will go further there. I stayed overnight in Saxkøbing, one of the bigger towns on Lolland, and the town square consisted of one bar, 3 secondhand shops, and a lot of empty storefronts. You can buy a whole farm with a lot of land nearby for half the cost of a studio apartment in Copenhagen. That sounds like an investment opportunity for somebody. Once the tunnel comes through, there will be tens of thousands of people passing through every day. You have to imagine that some of these towns are going to become a bit more lively. After the tunnel is complete in 2029 and perhaps opened by King Frederik— who knows— the construction area won't shut down entirely. The Danes are building a tunnel factory here, a factory that produces the big circular concrete pieces used to make tunnels. After the factory completes the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel, its next assignment will be a tunnel across Copenhagen Harbor that will make it easier to get to Kastrup Airport. Of course, once the tunnel to Germany is in place, you may not have to go to the airport as much and suffer through their exasperating security checks and long walks to distant terminals. If you're going anywhere in Northern Europe, it will be almost as quick to go by train. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. Remember, you can see all of our books at bookshowtoliveindenmark.com, or you can book Cassandra Melish—that's me—for a live. Live or virtual event at events.howtoliveindenmark.com. See you next time.
