Denmark Region, which encompasses the Copenhagen metropolitan area with the exception of the subtracted province East Zealand but includes the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, has a population three times larger than that of North Denmark Region, which covers the more sparsely populated area of northern Jutland. Under the county system certain densely populated municipalities, such as Copenhagen Municipality and Frederiksberg, had been given a status equivalent to that of counties, making them first-level administrative divisions. These "sui generis" municipalities were incorporated into the new regions under the 2007 reforms. The Kingdom of Denmark is a unitary state that comprises, in
High-speed rail in Denmark High-speed rail in Denmark The first high-speed railway in Denmark is currently under construction and expected to open in 2018. Further high-speed lines are currently under planning. As a part of a long-term green plan for transportation in Denmark in December 2008, the government at the time presented a high-speed strategy for the inter-city train traffic, called "The Hour Model" (Danish: "Timemodellen"). The strategy contains bringing down the travel time between the four largest cities of Denmark to one hour, thereby decreasing the total travel time between Copenhagen and Aalborg from approximately 4½ hours to 3 hours. The first part