HTTransPlan – Helsinki-Tallinn Transport and Planning Scenarios
Project title: Helsinki-Tallinn Transport & Planning Scenarios
Project acronym: H-TTransPlan
Programme: Central Baltic Interreg IVA, Southern Finland – Estonia Sub-programme
Duration: 01.01.2011-31.12.2012
Budget: Total: 1 236 774 EUR
ERDF funding : 979 766 EUR
National funding :257 008 EUR
Lead partner: NPA Helsinki-Tallinn Euregio
Contact:
Dr. Katri-Liis Lepik, Project Manager , NPA Helsinki-Tallinn Euregio
GSM: + 372 2599267, e-mail: lepik@euregio-heltal.org
Mr. Jüri Sakkeus, Research Coordinator, Tallinn University
GSM:+372 5037519, e-mail: jyri@sakkeus.ee
Mr. Olli Keinänen, senior adviser, City of Helsinki, International Relations (WP 5)
GSM: + 358505402260, e-mail: olli.keinanen@hel.fi
Partners: City of Helsinki, City of Tallinn , Harju County Government, Uusimaa Regional Council, Tallinn University/Institute for Futures Studies, Aalto University/School of Science and Technology, University of Turku/Centre for Maritime Research, University of Tartu/Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, Estonian Art Academy/Department of Architecture, Viimsi municipality
Additional partners:
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (Estonia), Ministry of the Interior (Estonia), Ministry of the Environment (Finland), Ministry of Transport and Communications (Finland), Finnish Transport Agency, Metsähallitus/Laatumaa OY, AS Eesti Raudtee, VR –Group Ltd Finnish Railways, AS Tallinna Sadam, OÜ Navirail, AS Tallink Grupp, Eckerö Line Ab Oy, Viking Line ABP, Estonian Maritime Academy, Maardu City
Background
In Estonia and Finland the closer integration of the countries is seen important to support.Helsinki-Tallinn twin-city region (HTTCR) has not treated as one entity of spatial planning and development.
The transport connections are generally considered good, but do not serve the needs of commuters and business travellers throughout the year. This unreliability and seasonality of transport connections constitutes an important limitation for further regional integration. And fast connections of Estonia and Finland to the rest of Europe become non-existent if the air traffic stops for some reason.
This project is linked to the ongoing feasibility study of Rail Baltica (RB) that would provide a new north-south rail connection. It is reasonable to analyse Helsinki-Tallinn transport links in connection with Rail Baltica. This project is also linked to the project Rail Baltica Growth Corridor which aims to form an institutional platform in the Baltic Sea Region for joint development and cooperative activities of public and private stakeholders acting for the promoting of Rail Baltica railway corridor. RBGC organises cities, regions, transport sector, and ministries to the Rail Baltica Transport Forum.
Today there is no joint agreement of the transport developments across the Gulf nor stakeholders’ needs analysis as for basis for planning decisions. Hence, the need to take the Estonian-Finnish cooperation to a new level was recognised.
Objectives
Provide data and analysis for regional and local planners, through joint work and co-learning in transport and urban planning for the Helsinki-Tallinn twin-city region by linking academic research with public and private actors on both sides of the Gulf;
A survey on business mobility and commuting, territorial impact assessment;
2-3 scenarios of the most feasible transport systems and best modes of transport for the competitiveness of Helsinki-Tallinn twin-city region;
A road-map leading to 3-5 strategic joint projects;
Common knowledge platform – a common social media platform on transport solutions, which will be used in regional planning and education for urban planning students
The content
Coordination and management as well as communication and dissemination will be led by Helsinki-Tallinn Euregio who is the lead partner in the project (WP1 and WP2). The creation of transport and planning scenarios will be led by Tallinn University. This part of the project will identify the bottlenecks of present transport connections in relation to transport development needs and will result in multiple scenarios for development of the Helsinki-Tallinn twin-city region. It will produce an inventory on mobility, commuting and development needs in transport connections and an outline of alternatives to develop future transport systems. As a result of inventory focus groups of partner representatives and experts work on scenarios (WP 3). There will be 3 focus groups: transport; urban and regional planning and business development. The representatives of the relevant ministries, regional, local and private bodies will be invited to the focus groups.
The assessment and evaluation of the scenarios will be led by Aalto University. This phase integrates the results of the previous work applying elements of Territorial Impact Assessment in an interactive multi-actor process. The actual scenarios are built, written and visualised by academic project partners, evaluation and assessment through expert work and stakeholders in the focus groups of the impact of different scenarios for competitiveness, social and environmental sustainability etc. of the twin-city region (WP 4). The final phase of the project contains policy cohesion led by City of Helsinki. Then 3-5 strategic projects will be drafted, discussed and selected as a result of consultations within the coordination team and agreed by partner cities and regions in focus groups. The work includes coordination of information flows between twin-city region planners (WP 5).
