Barents Freeway project, Results Jorma Leskinen

Barents Freeway project contents  Barents transport strategy  Transport infrastructure projects -update  Cargo flow model development  Air taxi pilot  Railway pilots -Salla – Kandalaksha -Rovaniemi – Kirkenes -Nikel – Kirkenes -Kolari – Svappavaara  Procurement of equipment in Russia 2

Barents Transport Strategy  Common approach to the transport system development  Common strategic objectives for development  Better integration of the Barents Region with - the European TEN-T network - the Eurasian road, rail and maritime corridors  Improvement of accessibility to reduce border constraints  Cross-border transport routes to be highlighted nationally  Better integration of logistic systems between countries  Attention to the maintenance of the existing infrastructure  Authorities at all levels encouraged to cooperation  … 3

Air Taxi pilot  Urgent need to improve internal flight connections in the Barents Region has been recognized  Air Taxi systems are in use in USA and elsewhere  Three alternative models of operation were introduced  Some potential was found also in the Barents Region, but a thorough market analysis is needed before the next steps 4

Nikel – Kirkenes railway study 5

Nikel – Kirkenes railway  Total of 56 km of new railway  31 km in Russia, 25 km in Norway  Total cost 2400 M€ (cost level of 2025 icluding interest)  60 % of the costs on Norwegian ground 6

Nikel – Kirkenes railway  Benefit / cost ratio is 1.1, so it is economically viable  The vast majority of the benefits go to Russian consigners  The majority of freight from Russia is coming via Trans- Siberian railway and going to Europe and America  The freight to Russia is machinery from Europe  Also some imports and exports of food  LNG transports were not included in the model  NSR was taken as it was in 2012 (open 4…5 months) 7

Salla-Kandalaksha railway pilot  (Rovaniemi-) Salla (FIN) – Kandalaksha (RUS) - seems feasible, but is very sensitive to increasing of Russian railway freight unit cost - majority of costs and benefits are Russian  80 km new railway  180 km of reconstruction  Total cost 1000 M€ 8

Kolari-Svappavaara railway pilot  Kolari (FIN) – Svappavaara (SWE) (-Narvik(NO)) - seems economically feasible (if the congestion problems between Kiruna and Narvik have been eliminated) - the only freight would be products from iron mines  147 km new railway  Total cost 1500 M€  Iron mining is presently in economical difficulties 9

Kemijärvi - Kirkenes railway pilot  (Rovaniemi- ) Kemijärvi (FIN) – Kirkenes (NO) - benefit / cost ratio 0.8, not economically viable - freight would be mostly exports from Northern Finland  456 km new railway  Total cost 2500 M€  LNG transports and opening new mines in the region might improve the viability 10

Conclusions  Regional cross-border flight connections must be developed  None of the studied new railways are likely to be built in the near future  The impact of the NSR needs to be studied further with several ice scenarios and LNG transports included  The next step within BEATA will be a deeper analysis of the JBTP transport corridors concentrating on the present roads  This will be done under Finnish chairmanship of BEATA by September

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Jor ma Les kin en