Estonian Economy Minister Taavi Aas and Finnish Transport Minister Timo Harakka signed a memorandum of intent for cooperation in the transport sector, including the construction of a tunnel between the two capitals, the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications said.
The memorandum provides for the promotion of major transport projects such as the Tallinn-Helsinki tunnel, the Rail Baltic high-speed railway, the trans-European transport network and the North Sea-Baltic corridor. The signing of the document is called the first step «in connecting the tunnel with the trans-European transport network, which is a precondition for applying for co-financing from the European Union (EU),» Interfax reports.
The cost of the tunnel is tentatively estimated at 20 billion euros. «For Estonia and Finland, to put it mildly, it is difficult to implement this project with their own money, so we want to attract co-financing from the European Union and are seriously considering the possibility of involving the private sector in the project,» Taavi Aas said when signing the memorandum.
According to him, research on environmental and economic efficiency is ahead. «We are still far from designing. According to preliminary estimates, the construction of the tunnel is very expensive, so we need to find the most reasonable solutions both in terms of profitability and in terms of nature conservation,» Aas emphasized.
The memorandum is valid until 2030. If neither side decides to withdraw from the project, the memorandum will automatically be extended for another ten years.
A feasibility study for the project was published in February 2018. It follows that the length of the underground section of the Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel will be 103 kilometers, and it will be the longest underwater railway tunnel in the world. The tunnel will have to pass in places at a depth of up to 200 meters, depending on the underlying rock. Both passenger and freight traffic will be carried through the tunnel.
Approximately halfway through the Gulf of Finland, an artificial island in the shape of a five-petalled flower will be built, where buildings and marinas will be located. Together with the tunnel, infrastructure complexes will be built on the shores of the gulf in Estonia and Finland.
The tunnel, according to the project, will be used by about 12 million passengers a year, and another 11 million passengers will continue to travel by sea, bringing the total number of passengers to 23 million in 2050. Today, about nine million passengers travel between the two countries a year.
Trains are expected to run at 200 km / h during peak hours on a 20-minute schedule. On average, up to 30 passenger and freight trains per day will pass through the tunnel at an average speed of 120-160 km / h.