The Bothnian Extension of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor - Summary of European Added Values
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The Bothnian Extension of The Scandinavian- Mediterranean Core Network Corridor Summary of European Added Values The Bothnian Extension of the Scan-Med Corridor Title of report: The Bothnian Extension of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor - Summary of European Added Values. Issued by: Intresseföreningen Norrtåg and the Bothnian Corridor regional collaboration. Contact: Joakim Berglund, project manager, The Bothnian Corridor Phone: +46 70-239 54 60 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www. bothniancorridor.com/en/ Author: Gustav Malmqvist, MIDEK AB Phone: +46 70-663 04 42 E-mail: [email protected] Norrtåg Intresseförening is a political association, founded in 2001, between the five northernmost regions of Sweden. In this association local and regional authorities collaborates on the development of railways in northern Sweden. Norrtåg Intresseförening initiated the establishment of Norrtåg AB which is the company responsible for the regional commuter trains in the northern half of Sweden. Norrtåg Intresseförening is co-ordinating the Bothnian Corridor regional collaboration since 2007, which involves the local and regional authorities but also collaboration with transport stakeholders, companies and industry associations. April 2018 – Version 1 2 The Bothnian Extension of the Scan-Med Corridor Table of Contents 1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................................................................4 1.1 Proposal for extension of the Scand-Med Corridor ........................................................................................4 1.2 Aim of this report.......................................................................................................................................................................4 2 Background of the Bothnian Corridor .............................................................................................................................. 5 3 Geography of the Bothnian Corridor ................................................................................................................................ 6 4 Bothnian Corridor and Scand-Med CNC goals.......................................................................................................... 7 5 Current status of the Bothnian Corridor ......................................................................................................................... 8 5.1 The multimodal dimension of the Bothnian Corridor ................................................................................... 8 5.2 Railways .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 5.3 ERTMS............................................................................................................................................................................................. 11 5.4 Roads ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 5.5 Alternative fuels ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12 5.6 Ports ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13 5.7 Rail-road terminals ............................................................................................................................................................... 14 5.8 Airports .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 15 6 Development of the Bothnian Corridor ........................................................................................................................ 16 6.1 Summary of ongoing development......................................................................................................................... 16 6.2 Priority projects ....................................................................................................................................................................... 16 7 Pre-identified sections in the extended Scand-Med CNC............................................................................. 18 8 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 April 2018 – Version 1 3 The Bothnian Extension of the Scan-Med Corridor 1 Introduction 1.1 Proposal for extension of the Scand-Med Corridor The Swedish Government has in March 2018 proposed to the European Commission that the TEN-T Scandinavian-Mediterranean Core Network Corridor should be extended to the north with the so called Bothnian Corridor, to the border to Finland in Haparanda and to the Norwegian border at the Malmbanan Line. In the proposal is also included an extension to the east from Stockholm to Oslo.1 At the same time the government of Finland proposed to the commission that the North Sea Baltic Corridor should be extended from Helsinki to the border to Sweden in Torneå. This means that these two core network corridors will be aligned at the border crossing point of Haparanda/Torneå. The proposed extensions of the core network corridors are logical since much of the current cargo flows in the corridors are generated in northern Scandinavia, and the export industries in this area generates a huge European added value with importance for growth and prosperity of the whole European Union. The extensions are strongly supported by the industry and regional authorities in both Sweden and Finland. Considerable amounts of the goods generated in these regions are transported to central and southern Europe, via the Bothnian Corridor and further south in either of the Core Network Corridors. South of Sweden and Finland are included in the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor and the Helsinki region is also connected to the North Sea-Baltic Corridor. 1.2 Aim of this report This summary of the European added values of the Bothnian Corridor (BC) aims for presenting the current status of the corridor and its contribution to the goals of the Scandinavian- Mediterranean CNC, which is continuously monitored by the corridor coordinator. The current status of the BC, ongoing and planned development, are described and compared with some of the performance KPI’s of the third corridor work plan for the Scan-Med CNC. Facts and figures in the report refer to studies made in the ongoing Bothnian Corridor collaboration since more than ten years and to studies from completed and ongoing EU projects funded by ERDF, Interreg and TEN-T/CEF, statistical sources such as Eurostat and SCB and information from the Swedish Transport Administration. The report is intended to provide the most essential information for the preparation for the inclusion of the Bothnian Corridor into the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor, and for the drafting of updated CEF and TEN-T regulations. 1 Letter to the European Commission, from Swedish Government, Ministry of Enerprise and Innovation 21 March 2018 April 2018 – Version 1 4 The Bothnian Extension of the Scan-Med Corridor 2 Background of the Bothnian Corridor Since more than 20 years, politicians, regional stakeholders, industry and national authorities have collaborated for improving the transport infrastructure along the so called Bothnian Corridor for enabling the ongoing industrial growth in northern Scandinavia. The Bothnian Corridor has been acknowledged in both Sweden and Finland as the core north-south railway infrastructure at both sides of the Bothnian Gulf. In recent years the emphasis of the collaboration has been more and more on the development of the most environmentally friendly modes of transports such as railway and ports, but also on increasing the availability of alternative fuels for road transports. For many years the focus of the Bothnian Corridor has been the development of the railway infrastructure, even though the corridor involves all modes of transport. The heavy industries in northern Sweden depend on functional transport systems in the corridor, with all modes of transport: railways, roads, sea transports and air. Table 1: Socioeconomic indicators of the Scan-Med CNC and the Bothnian extension of the Corridor 2 3 2013 Inhabitants Employment GDP/GRP (M €) GRP/Cap EU 28 506,682,935 215,443,000 13,518,112 Scan-Med Corridor regions 76,687,130 36,173,000 2,697,799 35,179 € (NUTS 3) 15.1% 16.8% 20.0% Bothnian Extension 1,652,378 779,500 67,627 40,927 € (NUTS 3, 6 regions) % of EU 28 0.33% 0.36% 0.50% Even if regions at the Bothnian Corridor are less densely populated than many regions along the southern Scand-Med CNC, they contribute to 0.5 % of the GDP in EU 28 due to the many heavy industries, which is also shown by the much higher GDP per capita. The railways in the Bothnian corridor are critical for industries in the mining, steel, copper and forestry sectors. More than 90 % of the iron ore produced in Europe comes from the mines