Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2016 | Page 50

Photo: Port of Helsinki Ltd

European Core Corridors – The Making Of

I

n the European Union, nine core network
corridors have been identified to facilitate the coordinated implementation of
the core network. These corridors bring
together public and private resources and
concentrate EU support from the CEF, particularly to remove bottlenecks, build missing cross-border connections and promote
modal integration and interoperability.
The core network corridors are also
aimed at e.g. integrating rail freight corridors, promoting clean fuel and advancing
telematics applications for efficient infrastructure use. From the Nordic view point,
two corridors hold a special role: The Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor and North
Sea-Baltic Corridor.

Northern Exposure
The Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor crosses the Baltic Sea from Finland to
Sweden and passes through Germany, the
48 Nordicum

Alps and Italy, linking the major urban centres and ports of Scandinavia and Northern
Germany to continue to the industrialised
high production centres of Southern Germany, Austria and Northern Italy further to
the Italian ports and Valletta.
The North Sea-Baltic Corridor connects the ports of the Eastern shore of the
Baltic Sea with the ports of the North Sea.
The corridor connects Finland with Estonia by ferry, provides modern road and
rail transport links between the three Baltic States on the one hand and Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium on the
other. The most important project here is
Rail Baltic, a European standard gauge
railway between Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas and
North-Eastern Poland.

is a real challenge. Then again, the upside
is tremendous, too: significant gains can be
expected from the multitude of interactions
and synergies as well as the emerging technological opportunities. The EU Commission feels that there are enough “strong motivators” to fire up the innovators and investors to get working on developing the corridors.
The ultimate objective of infrastructure development along these corridors –
and on the core network as a whole – is to
complete seamless connections for the sake
of efficient, future-oriented and high-quality
transport services for citizens and economic
operators. The Commission is hoping that
the nine core network corridors could serve
as the forerunners of the full core network,
to be completed by 2030. O

Building the Foundation
Even the EU has conceded that the immense
complexity of the core network corridors

Sami J. Anteroinen