European Commission: Tallinn-Helsinki tunnel not viable without Rail Baltic
For the Tallinn-Helsinki undersea tunnel to possibly receive funding from the European Commission, the Rail Baltic railway project must first be completed, as without it, the tunnel would not be economically viable, according to the European Commission.
Estonian MEP Urmas Paet sent an interpellation to the European Commission in which he asked for the Commission's opinion on the plan to build an undersea transport tunnel between the capital cities of Estonia and Finland and whether the EU might invest in it.
EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said in response that completing the Rail Baltic project is a necessary precondition for the Tallinn-Helsinki connection to be economically viable.
Currently, such a project would not receive support from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) as it is not on the Europe-wide transport network maps which are defined in the regulation which is to be reviewed in 2023, she added.
According to Bulc, the Commission noted the results of the Tallinn-Helsinki fixed connection feasibility study published as part of the TALSINKIFIX project. The results showed that the tunnel and traffic solution would cost €9-13 billion and the initial completion deadline would be somewhere between 2030 and 2035.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS
