Helsinki-Tallinn rail tunnel plans still alive, but may cost at least 3 to 5 bln euros
10.02.2012, 11:59The idea to build a rail tunnel between Tallinn and Helsinki is alive and well, at least inside mining engineers’ minds, writes the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat.
”It is nothing more peculiar than building a metro line in a tunnel”, says Regional Director
Keijo Nenonen of the Geological Survey of Finland.
The tunnel project also has a number of opponents, however.
It is estimated to cost between 3 and 5 billion euros or about as a nuclear power plant.
”A huge sum of money”, feels Harri Pursiainen, Chief of Staff at the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Because of the cost of at least EUR 3 billion, Pursiainen does not regard the project as realistic.
The entire annual budget ot the Ministry of Transport is slightly more than EUR 2 billion, and investments in the development of road and rail networks amount to approximately EUR 400 million a year, he compares.
”I wonder whether it could ever be sensible, given the estimated traffic volumes”, Pursiainen asks.
Moreover, the harbours and shipping companies also have their own financial interests to oppose the planned tunnel project.
One of the disadvantages woud also be the fact that the tunnel and Rail Baltica would direct foreign trade to pass through Helsinki to the exclusion of other ports.
In 2009, the tunnel project ran into trouble, as the European Union denied the funding sought for a feasibility study by Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen and Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar.