Europe bets on rail, Norway is not connected
Europe bets on trains. In 2029, the Fehmarn Belt tunnel between Germany and Denmark will open. When you spend only 2.5 hours between Hamburg and Copenhagen, it will create ripple effects for the entire transport corridor towards Norway – we must be aware of whether we are sufficiently connected.
The tunnel will create a completely new dynamic and make Copenhagen a hub, not just in the Nordic region, but throughout Northern Europe. It will be shorter to travel from Malmö to Hamburg in time than to travel to Stockholm, not to mention Oslo. In addition, the capacity for gods together will increase significantly.
This will pave the way for increased cooperation and economic development between the Øresund region and Northern Germany. At the same time, we see here at home that the development of our most important railway route towards Europe, the Østfold Railway, is still being delayed. In the long run, this will have even greater environmental and economic consequences for Norway as trains become an increasingly important part of the EU’s “Green Give”.
We must be involved when our most important partner countries, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, become ever more closely linked. Today we don’t even have a night train to Copenhagen.
Sweden and Germany are our most important export connections. The connection down to the continent is therefore not just important for Eastern Norway, but for all of Norway’s exports. We would therefore urge the government to initiate a broad investigation into what consequences the opening of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel may have for Norway.
Better connections in Europe offer opportunities for Norway, but they can also become challenges for us if we are not sufficiently connected to future transport patterns. This applies to both persons and gods. At the same time, short-term improvements must be initiated in cooperation with Sweden on the Oslo–Gothenburg section. We must look at which bottlenecks can be rectified quickly while we wait for the full expansion of double track.
If we do not need to reach, we risk that Norway will be left on the platform while our neighboring country and increasingly more European trading partners are linked together with an efficient, environmentally friendly and modern railway offer.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We like to share our stuff using links that lead directly to our pages. Copying or other forms of use of all or part of the content can only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms see her.