A pictorial history of train ferry services via the “Vogelfluglinie” route between Puttgarden, Germany and Rødbyhavn. “Vogelfluglinie” translates as “bird flight line”, and the route gets its name from the corridor also being an important bird migration route between Scandinavia and central Europe.
There are two chapters, the first covering the history of the route from its opening as a through route between Hamburg and Copenhagen in 1963 until 1996, and the second chapter covers the period since 1997 when double-ended ferries were introduced on the route. This eliminated the need for the vessels to turn round during the crossing and reduced the journey time between the two ports from 60 to 45 minutes.
Both chapters start with a few pages of text describing the changes to the ferry fleet during the period covered, and this is followed by several pages of photos of the vessels and trains used on the route. The first chapter also briefly describes the forerunners to the “Vogelfluglinie” in the form of the Warnemünde and Grossenbrode Kai to Gedser routes.
Trains illustrated include steam specials, German V 200 and Danish NoHAB diesel-hauled trains, DSB IC3 trainsets (which still operate the Hamburg–Copenhagen service today, albeit no longer via the train ferry since December 2019) and DB’s ill-fated Class 605 ICE-TD units. At the back there are details of all the vessels currently used on the route, with a table of technical information such as length, width, height, maximum speed, passenger and vehicle capacity.
120 pages. Over 150 photos, mostly colour. German text. Hardback.