KING Frederik X of Denmark will formally open the extension of Copenhagen metro Line M4 to Copenhagen South on June 22, adding 5km and five new stations to the city’s driverless network.

The extension branches off the M3 ring metro line just south of Copenhagen Central station, serving the almost-completed Southern Harbour redevelopment area. Building work is nearing an end at Mozarts Plads where the inauguration ceremony will take place, but is still very much in progress around the other intermediate stations at Havneholmen, Enghave Brygge and Sulseholmen, and at Copenhagen South.

Copenhagen South will become a major transport interchange, providing connections with the S-Bane network. The metro will also provide interchange with a new station to serve the Copenhagen - Ringsted high-speed line currently under construction on a freight line. This will divert trains away from Copenhagen Central, and will be used by services from Ringsted running to Copenhagen Airport and to Sweden via the Øresund fixed link.

The Line M4 extension is expected to bring an extra 8 million passengers a year to Copenhagen’s driverless metro network, which now has 44 stations and 43km of lines, taking total traffic to 135 million passengers a year.

A further extension of Line M4 is under consideration, running partly on the surface to serve a major hospital in the Hvidovre district.

As its northern end, line M4 is planned to be extended within the next few years from Orientkaj to the Northern Harbour redevelopment area, adding two new stations.

A fifth metro line, M5, is in the initial planning stages, intended to relieve overcrowding on the cross-harbour section shared by lines M1 and M2 and serve a major reclamation project at Lynetteholm. This is intended to protect the old city from flooding, and at the same time meet future demand for housing and office space, with the new metro line to be funded through the sale of development sites.

M5 is being designed as a ring line, with its potential second stage serving the remaining parts of the old city that are not currently served by the metro or S-Bane network. Also at the planning stage is a branch to Malmö in Sweden with two or three new stations.

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