On January 5, 2016, the City of Helsinki, the City of Tallinn, Finnish Ministry of Transport and the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Helsinki – Tallinn railway tunnel.
The signatories of the MoU seek to investigate further the economic preconditions for the construction and operation of the tunnel and the tunnel’s socio-economic impact. In early 2015, the cities of Helsinki and Tallinn, the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council and the Harju County Government published a prefeasibility study based on simple calculations showing that the tunnel would be an economically viable investment.
The project application was submitted in the late autumn of 2015 aiming at better transport flows and long-term development of mobility and transport. Financing for the project will be decided during the spring of 2016.
FinEst Link is a project in which the responsable authorities investigate the conditions for implementing the proposed Helsinki–Tallinn railway tunnel from technical, economic and social perspectives. The Helsinki–Tallinn connection forms a part of the North Sea–Baltic Corridor, which is one of the EU’s TEN-T Core Network Corridors. The ports of Helsinki and Tallinn received significant funding in 2015 to improve the connection.
By signing this MoU, the Founding Partners form an open initiative called the Finnish-Estonian Transport Link Initiative. It is an open cooperation network for all interested parties who join.
The prefeasibility study of Helsinki–Tallinn fixed link recommended the construction of a rail tunnel with two distinct tunnels, European gauge tracks, allowing the trains to run as fast as 250 km/h, and thus cutting down the traveling time to only 30 minutes. The project cost is estimated to EUR 9-13 billion and out of its total value, the public funding (from the EU and state authorities) might account for 40-45%, and funding and implementation could follow the joint-stock model. Further planning, namely entering into agreements based on various corporate models, where a corporation is employed to execute construction, operation and maintenance works, requires more detailed studies. Construction of the tunnel could be started in 2025-2030, and works are expected to be completed in 8-10 years.
In addition, the Helsiki-Tallinn tunnel will have a connection with the European Transport Network via Rail Baltica. Development of the Rail Baltica corridor is critical for the Helsinki–Tallinn rail tunnel as the launch of the transport services on this line shall cut down the traveling time between Tallinn and Riga (Latvia) to less than 2 hours. Should the tunnel be eventually built, the transport connection to Tallinn from Tampere or Turku (Finland) will take less than two hours.
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