Rail Baltic in

Kaarel Kose Harju County Government 4th of April 2017

www.railbaltic.info Rail Baltic

• Rail Baltic is an international rail connection that will connect with Central and Western Europe and its neighbours. Rail Baltic is one of the biggest investments in the years to come in improving the travel opportunities of Estonian people as well as developing business and trade, tourism and the exchange of goods. The railway route ensures speeds of up to 240 km/h and provides the opportunity to travel comfortably and quickly to Latvia and Lithuania and onwards to Central Europe and further.

2 Rail Baltic

• 12.04.2012 by the order no 173 “Initiation of county-wide spatial plan to locate Rail Baltic railway route corridor” of Government of the Republic. In the same order it was determined that Harju, , and Pärnu county governor will initiate strategic environmental assessment of the spatial plan. It was determined that, county governors will present SEA to supervision by 30th of November 2015.

• Harju County Governor initiated 19.04.2012 order no 661-k strategic environmental assessment of county spatial plan. Same was done by Rapla and Pärnu county governors.

3 General aim of the county plan and planning detail accuracy

The purpose of county plans of Harju, Rapla and Pärnu is to find the best suitable location for the route corridor of Rail Baltic railway line in Estonia, including weighting of alternative options.

County plans provide the basis for engineering design process of the railway corridor. Due to the complexity of the project, it is necessary to consider the technical details already in regional planning stages. Therefore the preliminary designs of the railway and railway infra-structure construction works (road network) and the strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment of the county plans are done virtually at the same time. Freight terminal

Passenger terminal Hub station Passenger rolling-stock service depot

Potential local stops Railway track corridor

defined as a 350 m wide corridor in sparsely populated areas, a 150 m wide corridor in urban areas. The corridor consists of so-called shifting zone, which enables amendments of the location if needed during the design phase and planned railway area (incl railway protection zone).

As an exception, the track is wider in the Soodevahe area (700 m), where it is reserved as perspective hub station. Cross-section of planned railway area in Rail Baltic corridor 8 National Plan Estonia 2030+

9 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning

• RB county plan initiation order 04.2012 set aim that plan will be handed to supervision by 11.2015, within 43 months, it was overly optimistic. • In comparison: • Via Baltica TP – 59 months until supervision and, 66 months from initiation to enforcement. • HLS TP - 51 months to supervision, 59 months from initiation to enforcement.

With RB county plan, the content work could only begin at summer 2013, since it took 2 procurement processes to find a consultant. Only 29 months was left.

We can now say that timetabe was too optimistic, since we exceeded deadline by 13 months in Harju County. Pärnu Caounty is still to begin supervision process.

Conclusion – we need adequate time fr planning process as similar large infrastructure planning processes usually take 10+ years to conmplete.

10 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning During the initiation there was decided to divide responsibilities into 3 working groups:

• Steering Commitee – To coordinate, consisting of county governors and representatives from several ministries (Economic Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Interior (later Ministry of Finance) and Ministry of Environment).

• Work Group - To include more stakeholders (representatives from Harju Rapla and Pärnu County Governments, Technical Surveillance Authority, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Interior (later Ministry of Finance), Ministry of Agriculture, Heritage Surveillance Agency, Land Board and Estonian Railways)

• Operative Group – for everyday assignements consisting of representatives from Harju Rapla and Pärnu County Governments, Technical Surveillance Authority, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

Consultants team participated in all of the working groups.

11 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning

Composing the planning proposals was carried out Chosen track corridor in close co-operation with local municipalities and in Harju County. interested parties.

Numerous public meetings and working seminars were organized during the different stages of planning process. The feedback of local residents with regard to actual necessities was taken into consideration when elaborating the specific solutions.

To provide continuous updated information about the planning process and project as a whole, website www.railbaltic.info was created..

12 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning

Study visits with stakeholders and representatives of local municipalities:

• Bothnian corridor in November 2013: • both cargo and passengers on one railway is possible • Both high-speed adn regional traffic • Railway must go through inhabited areas

• Kerava-Lahti December 2014: • Local and high speed (Allegro) operating • Local areas gain from railway: • Accessibility • Labour market • Livability • Property value growth

13 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning

Local stops

Rail Baltic is primarily international high speed railway, but it has enough capacity to facilitate local/regional transport in -Pärnu- axis.

In Harju County, there are 4 local stops (in addition to Ülemiste Station) and 11-12 for the 3 counties.

14 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning Letters to County Governments during public hearing process: Harju County Pärnu County Starting principles and SEA 51 211 36 introduction (2013 III -IV quarter) Initial solution publication 37 50 20 (2015 III –IV quarter) County plan and SEA public 19 7 1 hearing (2016 II-IV quarter)

Themes: a) Why we need Rail Baltic b) Compensation mechanisms c) Objections to sertian track parts d) Environmental issues like noise, vibration etc. e) Barrier Effect 15 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning Participation in public events (discussions, hearings):

Starting principles Comparison results Initial solution and Southern-Pärnumaa Planning Discus Particip and SEA programme publication SEA draft electricity solutions documents and sions ants introduction introduction introduction SEA public hearing ALL ALL

Public Participan Public Participa Public Participa Public Participa Public Participa events ts events nts events nts Events nts events nts

Harju 8+4+2 677 7+5 711 5 318 - 6 232 37 1938 County

Rapla 6 622 4 257 3 233 - 5 149 18 1261 County

Pärnu 6 371 5 137 8 206 2 31 - - 21 745 County

All 26 1670 21 1105 16 757 2 31 11 381 76 3944

16 Inclusion in Rail Baltic Harju county spatial planning

Conclusions: • Time is needed to publicly discuss all solutions and alternatives. • Flexibility during planning is needed, especially with new big infrastructure planning, where the planning is also a learning process and international practicy need to be explored. • Importance of public discussion and informing from solutions to compensation mechanisms as well as economic, ecological and social reasoning etc. • County Governments as mediators – cooperation with municipalities, local stakeholders etc. • Ministry for local communities can be is a bit „too far“ or „too high“ in power horizontal. • Local Municipalities cannot plan such objects as local interests can overthrow more general public benefits.

17 Harju County Plan 2030+

18 Thank You! Kaarel Kose Harju County Government www.harju.maavalitsus.ee www.railbaltic.info