Public Transport in Copenhagen – Metro, Bikes & Harbour Buses

Copenhagen is flat, compact and built for short distances – on foot or by bike is often the best way to get around. For longer journeys there's a modern network of fully automated metro, S-trains, buses and even harbour buses, all running on a single zone-based fare system. Quite a bit changed with ticketing in 2026, and bike hire no longer works the way older guidebooks describe. Here's how to get around the city cheaply, quickly and without stress.

Cycling in the bike city

In Copenhagen, the bicycle isn't a leisure pursuit – it's everyday transport, and the city treats it accordingly. Cycle lanes count as critical infrastructure: they're gritted ahead of snowfall and cleared before the roads, so they're rideable again by eight in the morning. Narrow dedicated sweeper and gritter vehicles service the bike lanes around the clock. Around 75 percent of Copenhageners keep cycling right through winter as a result.

Even with thorough clearing, the cold season brings its own hazards – black ice, slush at the edge of the lane and wet road markings. Grippy tyres and cautious braking help. Lights are a legal requirement after dark in Denmark – white at the front, red at the rear. Stick to the basics (keep right, signal your turns, follow the cycle lanes at junctions) and you'll feel very safe on lanes that are physically separated from motor traffic.

App bike hire – no more Bycyklen

The once-ubiquitous white Bycyklen, the city's docked hire bikes with a tablet mounted on the handlebars, are history – the service folded after an insolvency in December 2022 and hasn't returned in 2026. App-based operators have taken over, with Donkey Republic the dominant name, offering pedal and e-bikes. Bikes unlock via app around the clock and are left at fixed pick-up and drop-off points, of which there are several hundred spread across the city.

There are two pricing models worth knowing. Pay-as-you-go starts with a membership from around 25 kroner a month, which includes two hours of riding for 15 kroner; if you're out for a full day, the 24-hour day pass at 99 kroner per bike works out cheaper. E-bikes are available but cost more.

Pay attention to liability for theft – while the bike is hired (and sometimes briefly after), you're responsible for it. Without separate theft cover, a lost bike triggers a fee of up to 900 euros for a mechanical bike and up to 2,000 euros for an e-bike (charged in the currency your card is billed in). With theft cover, liability drops to up to 50 or 100 euros respectively. This cover can only be added at the time of booking, not afterwards; it's already included if you book through a membership. The loss fee is charged once a bike has been missing for 30 days. Danish practice in general is to lock the bike with its built-in frame lock and additionally secure it to a fixed object – on Donkey bikes, the app-controlled lock sits on the handlebars.

The metro – round the clock, fully automated

Copenhagen's metro is the backbone for getting around the city centre quickly. All four lines run 24 hours a day, making it one of the few fully automated metro systems in the world with continuous night service. During the day the next train arrives within a few minutes; overnight trains run roughly every 15 to 20 minutes (around 20 minutes Sunday to Thursday, more frequently on Friday and Saturday nights).

Four lines cover the dense short hops across the city centre, Frederiksberg and Amager:

• M1 (green) and M2 (yellow) – the two original lines; M2 runs directly to the airport.
• M3 (red) – the City Circle Line, a loop through the central districts.
• M4 (blue) – the newest line, heading towards Nordhavn and Sydhavn.

A fifth line doesn't appear in the current network map for 2026 – if a guidebook mentions an "M5", it's referring to expansion plans, not a line that's actually running. Within the city centre you barely need to remember line numbers, since most central stations are served by more than one line anyway.

S-trains, buses and harbour buses

Alongside the metro there's a second rail network, the S-train (operated by DSB). It works as both a commuter and rapid-transit system – six radial lines plus two connecting lines across 87 stations, linking the centre with the suburbs and wider Zealand, from Hillerød and Klampenborg to Frederikssund and Farum, and out to Høje-Taastrup and Køge. S-trains run roughly from 5:00 to 0:30, with all-night service on Fridays and Saturdays. The simple rule of thumb: the metro covers the dense inner city and runs 24/7, while the S-train gets you out to the suburbs. The two networks are run separately but share the same zone and ticketing system, so you can transfer between them on a single ticket.

A Copenhagen speciality is the harbour buses – two lines that form part of the public transport network while crossing the harbour basin. Line 991 runs south towards Teglholmen and Sluseholmen; line 992 runs north towards Orientkaj and Refshaleøen. With around nine stops each, they zigzag across the water, linking Nyhavn, the opera house, the Royal Library's "Black Diamond", Islands Brygge and Holmen among other stops. Crucially, harbour buses cost exactly the same as a regular public transport ticket – ordinary tickets, the City Pass and the Copenhagen Card all work on them. That makes them, in effect, a cheap sightseeing ferry along the harbour. The current electric boats carry up to 80 passengers and, outside peak hours, eight bicycles.

Tickets, zones and the City Pass

Everything runs on one shared zone system, which extends to zone 99 and covers all of Zealand. The city centre sits in zone 1, Kastrup Airport in zone 4. Most journeys within the city use two to eight zones; regional destinations such as the palaces at Roskilde, Hillerød or Helsingør lie further out and need a ticket covering more zones.

Three fare options are worth telling apart:

• Single ticket – a journey covering the minimum of two zones costs around 24 DKK in 2026 (some sources quote 26 DKK) and is valid for about 1 hour 15 minutes including transfers.
• City Pass Small (zones 1–4, including the airport) – 100 DKK for 24 hours, 160 DKK for 48 hours, 220 DKK for 72 hours, 280 DKK for 96 hours, 340 DKK for 120 hours. There's no separate "7-day card" any more – instead of a classic period ticket, you use the City Pass tiers or the app. For trips further out, you need the City Pass Large (zones 1–99).
• Copenhagen Card (Discover) – from around 479 DKK for 24 hours and about 849 DKK for 72 hours (prices vary a little by platform). It includes free entry to over 80 attractions and unlimited public transport across the whole capital region, including a free ride to and from the airport. Whether it pays off is covered in the Copenhagen Card guide.

Buying tickets on your phone changed a lot in 2026 – the old "DOT Billetter" app was retired at the end of 2025. The standard tools now are the Rejsebillet app for tickets, the Rejsekort app, and the DSB app for train tickets. The physical Rejsekort card is gradually being phased out in favour of digital payment through 2026. If you're only making a trip or two, it's easiest to buy your ticket via app or at a machine; machines take cards and sometimes coins, but generally not banknotes.

To and from the airport

The most common longer trip is to Kastrup Airport (CPH), and there are two good ways to make it. The M2 metro runs from Lufthavnen station straight into the centre to Kongens Nytorv in about 13 to 15 minutes, every four to six minutes during the day and, thanks to 24/7 service, overnight as well. Alternatively, the Københavns Lufthavn rail station sits directly beneath Terminal 3 – DSB regional and InterCity trains also take about 13 to 15 minutes to the central station, København H, running roughly every ten minutes during the day, which is handy if you're connecting onward to a long-distance train there.

Fare-wise, the airport (zone 4) to the centre (zone 1) counts as a 3-zone journey and costs 30 DKK, valid for 1 hour 30 minutes, with no night surcharge. Which of the two options suits your destination and luggage best is covered in the Airport to city centre guide; for getting to Copenhagen in the first place, see Getting there.