Finland and Estonia have signed a cooperation memorandum on developing transport between Helsinki and Tallinn, which includes pushing forward the planned undersea tunnel project, said the Finnish ministry of transport and communications on Tuesday.

The agreement was signed by the two countries' transport ministries as well as the leadership of the cities of Helsinki and Tallinn.

The aim is to increase cooperation, in particular, to develop customer-oriented transport services, said Anne Berner, minister of transport and communications. She noted the traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn was increasing, so the movement should be as easy and smooth as possible.
In the long term, a possible solution to shorten the distance between the two cities is an undersea rail tunnel, a project the two cities have been planning for years. In March 2008, the mayors of both cities signed a letter of intent on the construction of the tunnel. A feasibility study of the project was completed in February 2015.

The preliminary feasibility report said the length of the track between the Pasila station in Helsinki and the Ulemiste station in Tallinn would be about 80 km, of which 50 km would be under the sea.

The railway is expected to eventually link the Rail Baltica track, which continues on to Poland and Central Europe. The tunnel is planned to begin operation after 2030 at the earliest.
Currently, a ferry trip between the two cities across the Gulf of Finland normally takes two hours. However, once the proposed tunnel is constructed, an undersea railway journey is expected to take half an hour, said the Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

According to the feasibility study, the cost of the tunnel is estimated between 9 to 13 billion euros (9.67 and 13.97 billion U.S. dollars). An estimated one-way ticket would be 36 euros. Finland and Estonia are now seeking funding from the European Union.

 Eleven million commuters travel between Helsinki and Tallinn each year, or about 25,000 people a day, estimated Ulla Tapaninen, logistics and supply chain expert of the City of Helsinki.

Source: www.finlandtimes.fi
Photo: Sakke Somerma/VisitHelsinki.fi