LB (car ferries)

Official monopolies on the route were abolished by law[1] and in 1888, private ownership of the line was abandoned as "De Danske Statsbaner" the Danish national railways or DSB took over the service.

When the Swedish counterpart to DSB, SJ, in 1931 started to share all expenses and profits equally,[2] this serious competition at the HH route required stronger economic muscles than was available.

The privately owned shipping corporation Johnson Koncernen (from 1956 by "Stockholms Rederi AB Svea") decided to challenge DSB's monopoly on the route.

[3] The new shipping line, Linjebuss International became at once locally known as LB, was founded in 1954 as a full affiliate of the "Johnson koncernen"[4] They began to operate in the spring of the following year.

[5] In 1961, the SL ferries, a Danish shipping line that since 1951 had operated at central Øresund between Copenhagen, Port of Tuborg was purchased and incorporated.

And in 1966 Trave Line, a ferry line for lorries mostly which sailed twice every day at the (fairly) long distance (9-10 hrs) route between Helsingborg or Port of Tuborg and Travemünde, Schleswig-Holstein, (Western-, as of then) Germany, without any getting off service between Helsingborg and Port of Tuborg on southbound tours and vice versa.

While the DSB vessels instead used a concept of dual commanding bridges, lacking of natural prows, sterns as well as starboard and port-side, they simply sailed in both directions equally well.

Headquarters in Stockholm (who apparently seemed to have a rather low knowledge of the actual Øresund crossing conditions)[23] decided to move the Swedish port of the SL ferries to the larger city Malmö.

And on top of all that, were the road connections to the central port of Malmö harbour not particularly well adapted to car ferries and especially not to several lorries at the same time.