In 2003 Banedanmark carried out a renewal of 23 km of track between Årslev and Stenstrup. Next in line for a makeover is Odense-Årslev and Stenstrup-Svendborg 27 km of track all in all. Major overhauls of installations in Kværndrup and Højby will also take place. There are no less than 13 bridges on this section that also need repair work. Once completed the whole section of track has been renewed meaning that major repair works won't have to be carried out for the next 30 to 40 years. Good news then for the many people who take the train every day. The train in service on the line during renovating was BLDX MX 1019, refurbished and formerly known as HFHJ MX 19.

The complete works have been budgeted at approx. 172 mills. D.Kr. The line to Svendborg was inaugurated on July 10th 1876 as part of Sydfyenske Jernbaner. Sydfyenske Jernbaner was a private railway and a pretty succesful one at that, but was taken over by the DSB in 1949. On the Svendborgbanen many interesting trains and locomotives have been in service; large Mallet-locomotives with designs insprired by American locomotives as well as experimental Triangel busses on rails. Before the MR-train sets went into service a German VT 628 did a test run, which was also the case for an IC3 train set. There used to be several freight trains here, but today the section is used only by passenger trains.

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