Barents Link Forum (Interreg, Tacis)
Funded by Euregio Karelia Neighbourhood Programme 2001-2006

Objective of the project

The project planned to form a cooperation forum where the entities along the Barents Link transport gateway could together plan the construction of the future connection and, in particular, the expansion of rail transport.

Main activities

• Establishment of cooperative teams, • Organising a Barents Link event in Kajaani, listing shared goals and concrete objectives in a memorandum, • Creation of a cooperation network, • Completion of an extensive transport study, ‘Barents Link Corridor – a multimodal collector to Transnational Northern Axis of EU 2007’ • Carrying out an extensive cross-sectional transport study of Northwest Russia, “Northern Transport Corridor”.

Achievements

The project was successful in creating a fixed cooperation network with the transport and regional authorities of Northwest Russia. Working together with these entities, initiatives for agreement negotiations between nations (e.g. starting container transport, perishable goods, and setting tariffs) can be created and the transport development opportunities of the Vartius international border crossing point can be presented to officials in Finland, Russia and the EU. The goals to develop transport mostly require agreements between nations (Finland–Russia–EU). Therefore, renewing border operations is limited at the local level. An extensive transport study, ‘Barents Link Corridor – a multimodal collector to Transnational Northern Axis of EU 2007’, contains updates on the most significant investment and development needs by transport mode. A preliminary list was received from the Kostomuksha customs unit regarding the investment needs at the Lytta –Kivijärvi stations. In addition, an extensive cross-sectional transport study of Northwest Russia was put together by Russian transport specialists and published (Northern Transport Corridor – Severnyi transportnyi koridor) in Russian. Implementation of the goals was continued in the Tacis part of the project during 2008–2009. It was hoped that the project would be continued in order to get also the Norwegian and Swedish companies and regional authorities to participate actively in the development work