Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel Feasibilty Study Working Group

Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel Feasibilty Study Working Group was established as a result of the meeting of mayors Mr. Pajunen and Mr. Savisaar on March 28, 2008.

The WG is led by deputy mayors and consists of executive and specialist level representatives of the city of Helsinki:

Pekka Sauri, Deputy mayor

Matti Ollinkari – Head of International Relations

Olli Keinänen – Deputy Head of International Relations

Ville Lehmuskoski – Planning Director

and the city of Tallinn:

Jaanus Mutli – Deputy mayor

Toomas Sepp – City Secretary

Kaarel-Mati Halla – Director of Development

Andres Harjo – Head of Tallinn Transport Board

The WG has had meetings on April 8 and 29, on May 29 and September 4, 2008.

As a result of the meetings the Conditions for tendering the Terms of Reference for the feasibility study to create Tallinn-Helsinki permanent rail connection’s preliminary analysis were defined.

As a result of the tender, Euregio received offers from WSP, Matrex and Transys (WSP) and NGO Estonian Institute for Future Studies and Asi Consult LLc (ETI). The decision was to continue with ETI/Asi Consult offer.

The objective of the Terms of Reference for the feasibility study is to elaborate significant issues concerning Estonian andFinnish interests for carrying out an international feasibility study on a permanent rail link between Tallinn and Helsinki and to formulate tasks which take these interests into consideration in preparing the terms of reference for the actual feasibility study of the permanent rail link.

The Terms of Reference should:

• study a preliminary study of the permanent rail connection project’s relation to the Rail Baltica project;
• determine whether it is necessary to study in the next phase the impact on the east-west transport;
• determine in which way and how precisely should the feasibility study forecast the tunnel’s impact on regional development;
• determine the minimum required level and methodology of cost estimations;
• submit proposals for the comparative research setting;
• determine stakeholder interests;
• define the research setting for analyzing the social-economic feasibility of the alternatives.

The Terms of Reference for the feasibility study were prepared by the 11th of July 2008.

The outcome of the project is the formulated terms of reference and research questions for the feasibility study on the permanent rail connection between the two cities of Helsinki and Tallinn, according to the interests of the stakeholders.

The outcome was used as an input for preparing the financing application to Central Baltic Interreg IV programme and it was submitted to Interreg in September 2008.

The project was not approved and it was developed into Helsinki-Tallinn Transport and Planning Scenarios project submitted to Central Baltic Interreg IV programme in May 2010. The funding of the project was approved in October 2010. The project lasts from January 2011 until December 2012.