High-speed rail in Denmark

The first high-speed railway in Denmark was the Copenhagen–Ringsted Line, completed in late 2018 and opened in 2019. Further high-speed lines are currently under planning.

As a part of a long-term green plan for transportation in Denmark in December 2008, the government at the time presented a high-speed strategy for the inter-city train traffic, called The Hour Model (Danish: Timemodellen). The strategy contains bringing down the travel time on the three links that connect the four largest cities of Denmark (Copenhagen-Odense-Aarhus-Aalborg) to one hour, thereby decreasing the total travel time between Copenhagen and Aalborg from approximately 4½ hours to 3 hours. The first part of the Hour Model, the new high-speed line between Copenhagen and Ringsted, opened in 2019.

After realization of the first three stages of the Hour Model, it can be expanded to Esbjerg and Herning.

On 1 March 2013, the government published their proposal for fulfilling the Hour Model, as well as an electrification of the main lines. The proposal includes creation of a DKK 27.5 billion fund, Togfonden DK (Danish: Train Fund DK), based on taxes from oil activities in the North Sea. The funding was supported by Enhedslisten and Dansk Folkeparti in a political agreement on 17 September 2013, when the potential outcome where adjusted to DKK 28.5 billion.

On 14 January 2014, the parties behind the funding published an agreement for spending the fund, where from DKK 14.8 billion will be spent for realizing the Hour Model.