Public transport & tickets, Copenhagen

I am very sorry that after a wonderful weekend in Copenhagen the very first tip I am writing is a very negative one. However, I am still so frigging angry about how I was treated I simply have to write it off my mind. Here goes:

If you are a wheelchair user trying to use Copenhagen's HUR bus system, you better prepare yourself for some shocking things to happen. Wanting to take the 2 A bus from Forum station to Kastrup Airport, I was refused admission to the bus by the driver who insisted I must have a helper with me if I was allowed on it. I pointed out that I only needed him to lower the bus and let the bus access ramp down but even that he refused.

This has never happened to me before. I have successfully used public buses in London, Vienna, Valencia, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Landshut, Cologne, Bonn and in any of these places the drivers went out of their way to help me on the bus.

I can only hope this was an extreme and isolated event. However, looking at HUR's transport conditions and realizing it explicitly states wheelchair users need to make sure they can board the buses without help from the driver, I think there rather might be a pattern of disregard and discrimination in operation.

In other places, drivers are more than happy to help women with pushchairs on board and they do not mind either giving wheelchair users a push up the ramp. In both London and Valencia, I have often witnessed drivers go out of their way to find spots where they can lower the ramp. There is no argument against such service, especially not that this might cause time delays. Other acceptable events like a tourist group's boarding take about the same time.

If the same happened to you I strongly suggest writing to HUR's customer service and if that proves unsatisfying to the Danish Ministry of Transport. As a European citizen, you can also inform the EU Commission which has jurisdiction over enforcing European citizen's rights and the "effet utile" of its Public Transport Access directive.

In my last year visit to Denmark .. on Saturday night where all people get drunk and passed away in the train .. here comes the Iraqis People , 5 of them entering the train , acting very normal and having a plastic bag in their hands ... they separate themselves into groups ,, each group handles each train vehicle to take what they can from the people who are sleeping !!! literally i was the only one awake ..didnt drink that much so i wasnt that drunk .... one guy went to a guy's pocket and poked his legs 2 times to check if he is half sleeping or not .. if the ''Drunk guy'' didnt respond then the Thief goes into his pocket and takes all what he have ... from what i have seen he took a mobile phone and his wallet and his iPOD but ofcourse left the earphones in the guy's ears ... then the NEXT ONE same thing ... etc .. etc... he took about 30 mobile phones and some other stuff and on the 3rd stop they all left ....... thats really weird because in each train vehicle there is a surveillance camera and the guy acted SO SO NORMAL as if the things he took belongs to him :S

In Copenhagen there is a 500DKK fine if your metro/train ticket isn't stamped or is invalid. The staff comes around regularly to check tickets so make sure you are following all the rules! Also, you need to make sure you have stamped for the right number of zones. Traveling in extra zones w/out paying also poses a hefty fine.