While sorting out old newspapers for recycling, I realized a missed an interesting news about the Talinski tunnel in the Trouw newspaper (a Dutch daily with Protestant Christian background). It very nicely lists the interests involved in this tunnel proposal.

It says that the 100 km long tunnel is a revolutionary and futuristic: In just half an hour, you could travel from one capital to another one by a train. Now with ferry service it takes between 3 to 4 hours.

The Talinski tunnel would create a `Silicon Valley of the North` making the `Talinksi area` a paradise for high tech companies, reminding that Finland and Estonia have already came up with known tech companies like Nokia, Skype en Angry Birds.

Such a fixed link has attractive points for both the Finns and Estonians. Finns would buy houses in Estonia where house prices are far lower and Estonians would commute to Finland to work where they get paid more. A fixed link would support the economy on both sides of the water.

It would also present Finland with economic alternatives. A proponent of the project says Finland is economically an island and the fixed link is as important for Finland as the Channel tunnel to United Kingdom. Or the bridge/tunnel between Malmo and Copenhagen. If there is a strike in the Finland's harbours, the fixed link would still keep goods flowing. That Helsinki is too small to compete with Stockholm and that a combined Helsinki-Tallinn would compete very well against the Swedish capital.

Now the bad news: The first one is; the Estonians are not very enthusiastic over the fixed link. A civil servant at the Estonian Ministry of Economy says that Vesterbacka (the Angry Birds founder and also one of the evangelists of the tunnel) talks about the tunnel construction as if he is talking about a startup. He is pessimistic. Like what happens if things do not go as planned? What happens with the ground water? Who is gonna be responsible for a potential rescue operation? What if 50 million people do not use it at a cost of 100 euro for a return ticket?

And the second bad news is: European Union is not interested. But China is interested in funding the tunnel (about half of it). For Chinese this would be a long term investment especially if the polar ice further melts. Then suddenly the Finland route would be a very interesting route to move Chinese products to Europe.

I think Trouw got a good summary of (conflict of) interests involved over Talinski tunnel.

https://www.trouw.nl/economie/de-belangen-achter-de-futuristische-tunnel-die-helsinki-met-tallinn-moet-verbinden~b233a0d1/