Improved transport connections generate sustainable growth
14.6.2011
The kick-off conference of the Rail Baltica Growth Corridor project was held in Helsinki on 9 June. The aim of the project is to improve accessibility and competitiveness of the eastern part of the Baltic Sea region by developing multimodal transport connections.
The long-term aim is to establish an environmentally friendly transport connection for freight and passengers from north to south branching from St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas and Warsaw to Berlin. Rail Baltica Growth Corridor project operates as the cooperation platform for stakeholders both in public and private sectors. City of Helsinki is the Lead Partner of the Project financed by EU's Interreg IVB Baltic Sea Region Programme. Aalto University School of Economics CEMAT is the Coordinator.
First there must be common understanding
Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission and the Commissioner responsible for transport, was the keynote speaker of the conference. In his address, Kallas underlined the importance to establish a comprehensive east-west and north-south transport network to gain competitiveness in the global market, including Rail Baltica. To achieve this, he called for strong political will.
“Without strong political will, the funding will not be available either. For transport development of this magnitude, funding must come from both the EU and other sources. Coordination of the work also requires a permanent collaboration platform on which the theme could be processed independently and on a concrete basis. We must move from words to deeds,” Kallas said.
Project manager Malla Paajanen from CEMAT was pleased to hear Kallas’ views:
“Judging from his statement, our strategy concerning the Rail Baltica Growth Corridor project is the right one. Supporting cooperation between stakeholders has been the main aim of the project management from the outset. The cooperation helps to promote the project from the viewpoint of the region as a whole so that we can all reach agreement on the main objectives.”
Continuing on the same theme, Paajanen added that “the reconciliation of the views of states, cities and regions and their inhabitants is in fact one of the most important aspects of the project. Therefore, we also examine decision-making models in public and private sectors. We will use our research findings in the two pilot projects of Rail Baltica Growth Corridor. One of them is connected with the development of logistics centres, while the other one is a net-based information service containing up-to-date timetable and route information about the regions’ road, rail, ferry and flight services.”
Travelling through the Baltic states by rail
Photographer Mikko Itälahti provided a practical view on the Rail Baltica theme. In May, he had travelled from Berlin to Helsinki using existing services and documented the journey. Itälahti spent three days on seven trains. In the 1930s, the trip took less than half that time. Itälahti’s photographs of different stations and trains of every imaginable type and his humorous narrative style made conference participants smile but they also provoked thoughts.
Listening to the report were also Jürgen Murach, head of Berlin department for urban development, and Antanas Zenonas Kaminskas, director of Lithuanian railways. They both agreed that the travel report demonstrates that not all improvements require large financial inputs as a great deal can be achieved by joint coordination of timetables and other arrangements.
Text: Tiina Jakobsson
Photos: Mikko Itälahti for the City of Helsinki / RBGC project
