|
      Manufacturers European countries Austria Estonia >>> Finland France Germany Latvia Lithuania Russia Sweden Switzerland Other European North America Asia Rest of the World     |
4rail.net - Reference - Finland - Infrastructure | |
 Finnish national infrastructure and international connections Finnish railroad infrastructure has developed in the recent years with national additions to 3 categories: 1) High speed Rail Links, new and upgrades 2) Helsinki Metropolitan rail upgrades and additions to the network 3) Freight railroad additions and upgrades While there always seems to be a lot going on, the money spent is minimal compared to the larger coutries. And in the meantime there are discussion about closing down some of the networks with just minor traffic. An interesting discussion on this section occurred when the engineers driving railbuses for the VR-Yhtyma refused to do ticket sales for the customers. While this might save the conductors job, it might also be the superfast way to get the whole passenger traffic on the red and closed down. Finnish international connection to south and west have been limited by the seas, and connections to the north are nonexistent since there are few tracks in the wilderness. To east there are adequate connections with Russia and to the west in the north with Sweden (gauge change necessary while crossing the border). In addition to these there have often been railroad equipped ferries to connect with the Central European networks.  Helsinki- Tallinn Railroad Tunnel The tunnel to connect the cities of Helsinki and Tallinn has long been in the thoughts on both sides. While there are good connections by boat to connect the cities, these connections are slow, since the cities are located some 82 kilometers apart. The rock foundation for the tunnel would be solid granite, relatively easy to build and long lasting. The cost is estimated to be between 2 and 3 billion euros, while the real cost might be double. In addition, it might be difficult to make the tunnel economically profitable in the short and medium period. Given some time it is sure that the tunnel will be both economically sound and seen as historical turning point with connecting Finland with the rest of the Europe (practical connections are now mainly by sea or air). With the tunnel Helsinki-Berlin on the super fast train connection on the Rail Baltica would only take 3,5 hours (including the gauge change on the Lithuanian-Polish border). This would bring the less energy consuming rail travel within the boundaries of challenging the air travel and with overnight connections to cities like Frankfort, Strasbourg, Amsterdam. Brussels, Paris, Muenchen,... There has been strong support first from the retired director of the City of Helsinki Martti Asunmaa, with Baltirail society and recently by the Mayors of the two cities, on the Finnish side by Jussi Pajunen. The first target is to raise 0,8 million euros to research the firther options on the tunnel link. The coming economical depression is going to stop further considerations for a while, but in 5-10 years this subject is sure to emerge again. Anyway, to further merge Finland to the EU the tuneel will be needed, sooner or later, hopefully mostly with the EU funding. It only seem sunfair, that projects in Italy or Spain get 70% EU funding while many North European projects only get 10-20% EU funding! Are the north Europeaners so poor negotiators compared with the talkative Italians or Spanish? If the EU is not willing to support the connections between the EU member countries, why are they supporting the connections within it's bigger member countries? There will be more on the other Infrastructure projects and developments pkus some history later. 123 1234.  To the top of the page
 Finnish reference main page
|
      |
|
        |