The Shortcut: A Subsea Rail Tunnel between Sweden and Germany

摘要

There are many engineering mega projects in the world, and compared to other ideas and even projects that are now under development in for example China, the suggested tunnel between Sweden and Germany is not particularly long, deep or difficult. The tunnel engineering profession and related sciences are every day breaking new records and although there is a need for a lot more studies and technical investigations the general hypothesis among tunnel experts is that The Shortcut is technically feasible. The main question for the project, as for similar mega projects, is if it makes economically sense? This is again depending on a complex assessment of direct cost - benefit analysis for the transportation sector, added with positive and negative effects on urban and regional development and the net environmental impact. Conclusions so far, based on the different Coinco studies, indicate that this in sum would be positive calculations, but more research has to be done during the years to come.