Copenhagen’s bus terminal at Dybbølsbro is being used far less than planners expected, and the city council now finds itself in an awkward spot over how to cover the shortfall. When construction was approved back in 2020, part of the plan was always for the terminal to gradually pay for itself, funded by the fees bus operators pay to use it. That model has proven difficult to make work in practice.
Dybbølsbro bus terminal costs came in well over budget
When Copenhagen’s city council originally approved the new terminal, the expected price tag was 80 million DKK. According to the city, rising construction costs during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine pushed that figure up substantially, and the final bill ended up running to more than double the original estimate. The City of Copenhagen stepped in with an extra 87 million DKK in tax funding to cover the gap, with the intention of gradually recovering that money over time through the entry and per minute fees bus operators pay to use the terminal.
Currently, operators pay 80 DKK to enter the terminal, plus 4 DKK per minute the bus spends there. Those fees were meant to fund a meaningful share of the terminal’s cost. In practice, the numbers haven’t added up.
Fewer buses, less revenue
According to Movia, which operates the terminal, an average of around 2,500 minutes of billable bus time is logged there each day, just half of the roughly 5,000 minutes needed to cover both day to day operations and repayments on the city’s loan. The Finance Administration attributes the gap to two factors: fewer buses using the terminal than expected, and those that do use it staying for shorter periods than planned. Together, that’s left revenue significantly below original projections.
Bus terminal entry fee increase now on the table
As things currently stand, the draft 2027 budget agreement includes a steep entry fee increase, from 80 to 210 DKK per bus, intended to let the city start recovering the tax money it put into construction. The Finance Administration has warned in a memo, though, that an increase of that size risks significantly reducing use of the terminal altogether, potentially leaving the city no better off than before.
As an alternative, city officials are now recommending that politicians set aside 4.2 million DKK in tax funding instead, which would let the entry fee increase be capped at a flat 20 DKK, rising from 80 to just 100 DKK per bus. That extra funding would only cover the shortfall for 2027, however, leaving the underlying financing question unresolved beyond next year.
Struggling to attract more buses
The city has also looked into whether more long distance coaches could be encouraged to use the terminal, boosting revenue that way instead. The options here are limited. Copenhagen can’t simply restrict bus parking elsewhere in the city to push more coaches toward the terminal, since a parking ban would apply to all buses, not just long distance coaches, and would end up affecting things like the buses that shuttle tourists around the city too.
Copenhagen’s final 2027 budget will be decided politically in September.
