The Great Belt ferries were the train and car ferries operating across the Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 strait of Great Belt

Great Belt

The Great Belt is a strait between the main Danish islands of Zealand and Funen . Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the Belt was served by the Great Belt ferries from the late 19th century until the islands were connected by the Great Belt Fixed Link in 1997–98.-Geography:The Great Belt is the...

, between the islands of Zealand and Funen

Funen

Funen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 454,358 inhabitants . The main city is Odense, connected to the...

. The railway ferry link was established in 1883, while automobile-only ferries started operating in 1930.

The ferry services ceased operating with the opening of the Great Belt Fixed Link

Great Belt Fixed Link

The Great Belt Fixed Link is the fixed link between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen across the Great Belt. It consists of a road suspension bridge and railway tunnel between Zealand and the island Sprogø, as well as a box girder bridge between Sprogø and Funen...

, which occurred in 1997 for rail and 1998 for car traffic. Despite the popularity of the fixed link, some ferries still connect eastern and western Denmark. The company Mols-Linien

Mols-linien

Mols-Linien is a Danish company that operates ferry services between the Jutland and the island of Zealand.-History:Mols-Linien was formed by DFDS in 1964 sailings commenced on the 18th May 1966....

 continues to operate ferries between northwest Zealand and East Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

, while the Spodsbjerg–Tårs route some 45 kilometres to the south also remains serviced by ferries.

History

Railway ferries had started service across another Danish strait, the much smaller Little Belt

Little Belt

The Little Belt is a strait between the Danish island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula.The belt is about 50 km long and 800m to 28 km wide, the maximum depth is approximately 75 m, and contains numerous small Danish islands....

, in March 1872. A railway ferry service across the Great Belt was debated as early as 1872–75, but political unwillingness and objections from the board of Det sjællandske Jernbaneselskab, the major railway company on Zealand, delayed the decision. However, the company was nationalised in 1880, and in 1881, it was decided to establish the service. The first Great Belt ferries, H/F Korsør and H/F Nyborg, went into service on December 1, 1883. The railway nationalisation led to the creation in 1885 of the national railway company DSB, which would operate the ferries almost until the opening of the fixed link.

For several decades, the ferry service operated on railway terms. Discontent with the high prices, infrequent departures and cramped conditions on the combined train and car ferries, the motorists' organisation FDM established their own shipping company, Motorejernes Færgefart A/S, in 1929, and ordered a modern automobile-only ferry, M/F Heimdal. DSB responded by getting authorisation to buy a car ferry of their own, but eventually made a settlement with the motorists and took over Heimdal before it entered service in 1930.

Car traffic increased explosively in the post-war years, leading to severe capacity problems on the ferry services. In 1954, it was decided to establish a new car ferry service between Halsskov and Knudshoved, slightly north of the existing Korsør

Korsør

Korsør is a Danish town and port. It is out on the Great Belt, on the Zealand side, just south of where the Great Belt Bridge lands. It was the site of the municipal council of Korsør municipality - today it is part of Slagelse municipality...

–Nyborg

Nyborg

Nyborg is a city in central Denmark, located in Nyborg Municipality on the island of Funen and with a population of 16,492 . Nyborg is one of the 14 large municipalities created on 1 January 2007...

 service and connected to a newly constructed motorway. The service opened on May 28, 1957.

In the 1990s, with the expected opening of the fixed link, state interest in ferry operation waned. The shipping division of DSB was therefore split off into a separate, state-owned company, DSB Rederi A/S, in 1995, which was renamed Scandlines Danmark A/S

Scandlines

Scandlines is a major German-Danish ferry operator.It consists of a parent company, Scandlines AG, and under this parent company a German subsidiary named Scandlines Deutschland GmbH and a Danish subsidiary named Scandlines Danmark A/S...

 in 1997.

Legacy

No ferries are, as of 2009, preserved in Great Belt service order. M/F Kong Frederik IX was preserved as a museum in Nyborg

Nyborg

Nyborg is a city in central Denmark, located in Nyborg Municipality on the island of Funen and with a population of 16,492 . Nyborg is one of the 14 large municipalities created on 1 January 2007...

 from 1997 to 2001, but scrapped in 2005 despite continued efforts to save it. There are ongoing efforts to return the former M/F Sjælland, currently a restaurant and nightclub ship named Princess Selandia

Princess Selandia

Princess Selandia is a former Danish ferry which had a long career on the Great Belt and the Baltic Sea, after which she became a restaurant and nightclub ship, currently moored in Barrow-in-Furness, England....

, from Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, to restoration in Denmark as part of a ferry museum.