…under the Baltic Sea. Although Denmark and Sweden have a direct rail connection, the Øresund Bridge, two Swedish engineering firms have come up with a radical plan to create six new links between the two cities – including the world’s first metro system to actually cross under a sea.
The Copenhagen City Council is carrying out an analysis of the benefits of a metro line to Sydhavnen, in southern Copenhagen, along with an underwater Øresund line to Malmø in Sweden. “We want to analyse the broad economic effects because the traditional socioeconomic analyses have been way too narrow and haven’t taken congestion into serious consideration,” Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen says. The project would be an extension of the Copenhagen metro ring, set to completion in 2018.
By 2070, according to specific data, the region, which currently contains around 3.8 million people, is expected to grow by another 1 million.
So, to accommodate these extra commuters, construction company Skanska and technical consultancy Sweco have come up with a plan: three tunnels between Helsingborg (Sweden) and Helsingør (Denmark), to the north of the cities – one for road traffic, one for freight trains and one for passenger trains. These could be completed by 2025, under a public-private partnership, at an estimated cost of $3.8bn, a high speed rail link between Malmo and Copenhagen Airport. This’ll not only help the airport become a regional hub, but will finally connect Sweden to the rest of Europe’s high speed rail, too. The plan also envisages a new super cycle path (supercykelväg) for bikes across the Øresund Bridge, assorted tram lines, metro extensions and new regional railways and, the most important of all, a new rail tunnel to connect Copenhagen and Malmo into single Øresund Metro network, covering both cities.
A high-speed rail link between Malmö and Copenhagen Airport, as well as new passenger and freight connections between Helsingborg and Elsinore were identified as key projects for the region in a new report, Öresund 2070, produced by Skanska and Sweco.
by Elena Ilie
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