History of rail transport in Denmark

The Kiel-Altona line in Holstein was completed three years earlier, but the region was later lost to the German Confederation in the Second War of Schleswig.

The railway line was not the first in what constituted Denmark at the time (as Holstein was part of the German Confederation), but it was nonetheless the first to be built under the Danish monarchy.

In 1840, technician Søren Hjorth and accountant Johan Christian Gustav Schram published the paper Jærnbane mellem Kjøbenhavn og Roeskilde, in which they argued that a railway between Copenhagen and Roskilde would be profitable.

In 1843, after substantial financial recalculations, they applied for a concession to construct a railway from Copenhagen via Roskilde to a coastal town on West Zealand.

On 2 July 1844 Det Sjællandske Jernbaneselskab (The Railway Company of Zealand) was established with Hjorth and Schram among the board of directors.

Following ratification of the Danish Constitution in 1849, there was political will to improve trade routes to England and provide better connections between Copenhagen and the rest of the country.

The first railway lines on Zealand was constructed by the privately owned company of "Det Sjællandske Jernbaneselskab" DSJ (lit.

[citation needed] This ownership change was not without issues, and in several cases DSJ refused to build additional lines or make necessary upgrades, without financial guaranties.

The last railways to be laid, before major changes were made, connected the north–south mainline on the east coast known as "Den Østjydske Længdebane" (lit.