In Denmark, Thales boasts a number of significant achievements in Ground Transportation. Two of the most well-known projects include the modernisation of Danish mainline signalling and the ‘Travel Card’ ticketing system. Thales has delivered the Danish Travelcard system and is charge of its operation and maintenance for the next 5 years. In 2012, Thales signed a contract for designing and building a new ETCS level 2 signalling system in Jutland, Denmark.
In 2012, Banedanmark, the Danish rail infrastructure authority, awarded a consortium composed of Thales and Strukton Rail with a contract to upgrade the signalling system in Jutland. Located in the Western part of Denmark, the project modernised approximately 1,200 kilometres of the Danish railway network (60%) with the new European ETCS level 2 system. Since then, Thales in Denmark has been working on the design and structure of the system in close cooperation with Strukton Rail. The first line was put in operation October 2018, the second line in April 2020, and the third line put into operation in April 2021.
Thales has delivered the Nationwide Danish Travelcard system and is in charge of its operation and maintenance. The complete system delivered by Thales is now handling an average of 1 million transactions per day and well over 100 million journeys per year. At the end of 2019, there were approximately 3 million active travel cards.
In 2018 Thales acquired the Danish tech start-up company, Cubris, focused on sustainable, intelligent systems and total solutions for the railway business. Always being flexible and open, the main goal is to reduce the overall environmental impact whilst improving the general effectiveness of the railway itself. Cubris’ core product, GreenSpeed, is a driver advisory system for trains, that reduces energy consumption and improves punctuality.
In Denmark the Danish Railways (DSB) has been running with GreenSpeed DAS since 2012. DSB has benefitted from the added value that GreenSpeed brings to improved timetable planning and enhanced customer experience resulting in much better punctuality and overall customer satisfaction.