Banedanmark

Banedanmark (; previously Banestyrelsen) is a Danish company that is responsible for the maintenance and traffic control on all of the state owned Danish railway network. History In 1997, Banedanmark came into existence, having been branched off from DSB as a government agency. Between 2004 and 2010, Banedanmark was a state-owned company that was controlled by the Danish Ministry of Transport. During 2010, Banedanmark was reorganised, once again becoming a government agency under the Danish Ministry of Transport. One of the first projects overseen by Banedanmark, although most of the construction work had already been completed prior to its creation, was the Øresund Bridge, a combined railway and motorway bridge spanning the Øresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. The bridge, which was recognised under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) framework as Priority Project 11, was opened to traffic in 1999. During 2008, Banedanmark announced plans for the conversion of signalling across the entire Danish railway network to European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2. This measure was necessitated by the near obsolete nature of parts of the network's signalling. In 2009, the Danish government approved funding of €3.3 billion over several years to Banedanmark for the project; at the time, the projected completion date was 2021. This programme makes Denmark the first European country to attempt a complete conversion of a national network to ETCS Level 2. Additional funding for the initiative was provided by the European Union. The resignalling work was put out to competitive tender, and contracts awarded to Alstom in July 2012. At the same time, Banedanmark was also undertaking the progressive electrification of several unelectrified lines; accordingly, the organisation originally planned for the ETCS rollout to be synchronised with these electrification efforts as to minimise cost and the infrastructure changes required.