The core of the connection is the ferry link between Rødby and Puttgarden. The line is operated byScandlines. Ferries take 45 minutes and operate twice an hour, 24 hours a day. The projected Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, an undersea tunnel, will replace the ferries. Danish-German negotiations on June 29, 2007 culminated in an agreement to complete the link by 2028, essentially on the basis of Danish funding.
Autobahn A1 on the German side, and the two-lane Bundesstraße 207/E 47 on the northernmost section. An additional of motorway was completed by 2008, still leaving the last a two-lane road.
Until 2019, three to five EuroCity trains a day in each direction used train ferries to provide passenger services between Copenhagen and Hamburg, operated with DBAG Class 605 trains by Deutsche Bahn and Danish IC3 trains. With the completion of the Great Belt Bridgefreight trains are no longer directed via Rødby-Puttgarden, but via Funen and Jutland. Since the end of 2019, passenger trains have also used this route, which is longer but around 20 minutes faster and allows longer trains. These current bridges and tunnels are part of the connection:
Proposals for a more direct "bird flight line" date back from the 1920s. Construction was started on the Danish side in 1941 after the Nazi occupation force pushed the matter, but work was halted again in 1946. After World War II, Warnemünde was included in the territory of East Germany. Political divisions made traffic between Denmark and West Germany via Warnemünde inconvenient. From 1951 to 1963 a ferry line from Gedser to Großenbrode operated as a temporary solution. In addition, traffic between Copenhagen and Hamburg would either be directed over the Great Belt ferry, Funen and Jutland or the Gedser-Warnemünde ferry. Construction of the "bird flight line" was restarted in 1949 and completed in 1963. On December 14, 2019 at 20.02 the last train from DSB and Deutche Bahn drove ashore in Rødbyhavn, thereby ending the honor for Danish Rail Ferries. The trains between Hamburg and Copenhagen will run until the Fehmarnbelt connection via Funen and Jutland.
Beeline in pictures
Image:Scandlines Prinsesse Benedikte.jpg|M/S Prinsesse Benedikte, one of the ferries Image:DSB IC3.jpg|A Danish IC3 train in Hamburg Central Station Image:First ICE in Flensburg DSC 6836.JPG|The ICE-TD/type 605 formerly used on the Vogelfluglinie Image:Storstrøm over harbour.jpg|Storstrøm Bridge Image:Faro south bridge pylons.jpg|Farø Bridges Image:Fehmarn-bridge.svg|Planned route of the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link Image:Trainferry Korsør Nyborg.jpg|IC3 trains on the boat
