Copenhagen's Baffling Buses (2) ...

A, R and S : All Rightly Sorted!

A for ???

Routes with suffix letter 'A' are high frequency all-stops city services, usually running all night.

Above, the 9A ran to Glostrop station, the current terminus of the Letbane (tram) line. But there is no sign of it today c/o Google Maps. But the 8A has recently re-appeared in the island area which accommodates the airport.

Here is its timetable.

Note that the full route runs every 30 mins all night with daytime headway being given as a woolly 5-10 mins!

The 8A Legravsparken station terminus and map are optimistic in their geography.

The bus terminus layby is at the very bottom of the map and the pin for the Metro station is at the top, Streetview shows an 8A in residence ...

... with the Metro at the far end of the huge block of flats on the right.

Wikipedia does revel that the 'A' network has had numerous re-jigs over the years. The original idea was for "rapid transit" routes to supplement the developing Metro system but there isn't much that is notably rapid about the 'A' network today!

'S' routes are more 'rapid' as they are mostly 'limited stop'.

fbb has not found evidence of what the 'A' stands for. "Frequent" in Danish is "Hyppig" which, according to Google Translate, is pronounced 'Hoo-big'.

R is for Rural?

These lines do run is association with local trains ...

... which also carry an 'R' suffix.

But Google Translate tells fbb that rural is "landdistrikterne" in Danish!

The 430R runs every 30 minutes Monday to Friday and every hour on all other days. It does link three stations; Kalunburg, Hong and Slagelsee on the east of the Island of Zealand.

Kalundburg is an important ferry terminal for ships to mainland Denmark.

S is for Superbus?

That name does appear in a few places but does not have general currency. 'S' routes are limited stop running on top of the standard city network. Readers may remember the Wedgwood blue occasional dots for rhe 350S (now 250S) alongside the more frequent cyan dots for the 5C.

Why use blue for both? What would be wrong with green, or purple or pink?

The notable feature of the 'S' network is that one route used to be double deck, surely a rarity in Europe.

Now single decks are standard throughout.

Originally, branding was simply a white and blue chevron bank above the windows as here on an older single deck vehicle ...

A typical 'S' timetable looks like this.

Note the hourly all-night service and every 15 minutes for most of the day. Thui is the timetable for t0e 'S' line that features in the airport are map, although it does not serve the airport ...

... although a heavy rail connection is available,

The problem with Copenhagen's excellent public transport network is that there is too much information on-line with confusing operator names and logos. 

Once fbb had found the correct and safe route through the minefield, information was good. 

What is needed is one well labelled and well designed web site with all the other entry points being removed or incorporated. It would also be nice to have a simple overview of what the suffix letters really mean.

9 out of 10 for quality of service but only 5 out of 10 for on-line information and ease of use.

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 15th Nov