Finland-Norway rail link planned to fit Arctic sea routes - Reuters
▻https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN1SF0YE
The sun shines low in the sky just after midnight over a frozen coastline near the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen, April 26, 2007.
REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
A Finnish company said on Thursday it planned to develop a railway connection between north Finland and Norway’s Kirkenes port to link with potential Arctic shipping routes at an estimated cost of between 3-5 billion euros (2.6-4.3 billion pounds).
[…]
Finland’s Finest Bay Area Development said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway’s Sør-Varanger Utvikling to investigate how to build a railway and its impact on the environment, society and the economy.
“An Arctic railway would connect Finland to the Northeast Passage,” Kustaa Valtonen, a director at Finest Bay Area Development, said in a statement. “We will provide a faster trade route between Asian and European markets.”
The company also plans an undersea tunnel between Finland’s capital Helsinki and Estonia’s capital Tallinn.
[…]
Last year, a Finnish government study concluded a railway connection to Kirkenes would take at least 15 years to build and would not be economically viable.
“We expect to see a significant increase in cargo traffic between Europa and Asia. Their study did not cover it too well,” Valtonen told Reuters.
Finest’s planned 100 km (60 mile) tunnel for linking Helsinki with Estonia’s capital Tallinn got in March a provisional 15 billion euros in financing from China’s Touchstone Capital Partners.
EDIT : j’avais oublié la légende de la photo. D’illustration ! on est à plus de 1000 km et 8°30’ plus au nord que Kirkenes… Presque la distance Helsinki - Kirkenes.
