train and passengers
The internationalization of the Imatra railway border crossing would also renew the Imatrankoski station area.

Imatra: Liikenne 12 draft is incomplete

Release
18.2.2021 17:55
The draft guiding the investments completely ignores the importance of the traffic on the eastern border.

Imatra considers the national Liikenne 12 draft to be incomplete.

The Transport 12 plan will be the starting point for how transport-related investments and development targets are aligned in Finland in the coming years. The draft of the Ministry of Transport and Communications is currently in the opinion round in municipalities and regional associations.

The position of the city of Imatra is that road and rail traffic crossing the EU's external border in the east direction should be brought up as part of international traffic corridors.

─ The draft plan does not take a position at all on the development of the already existing rail connection through Imatra, which, when internationalized, offers a two-way rail traffic connection all the way to China, Päivi Ala-Vannesluoma amazes.

Opening Imatra's existing rail connection to international traffic guarantees and increases Finland's competitiveness. At the same time, it creates additional capacity for passenger traffic.

Starting international rail traffic at the Imatra border crossing also creates a significant opportunity to reduce emissions.

Border traffic has a big economic impact

The importance of the border crossing points in South-Eastern Finland to the economic structure of the region and the whole of Finland is important. In the draft plan, Estonian passenger ship traffic has been specially raised, which is absolutely minimal in terms of scale and importance compared to Russian passenger traffic in Southeastern Finland. In 2017, as many as 3,057 million Russians crossed the eastern border in Southeastern Finland. The number of Estonian shipping was 2,7 million passengers.

─  When we also take into account that the passengers between Finland and Estonia are mainly Finns, this means that the passenger flow on that route does not generate much income for Finland, on the contrary, the deputy mayor Kaisa Heino says.

According to research, Russian travelers spend around 160 euros per day in Finland (Visiittori.fi).

Imatra statement will be considered by the city council next Monday.

 

For more information:

city ​​engineer Päivi Ala-Vannesluoma, tel. 020 617 4418 paivi. lower rim creaseatimatra.fi (paivi[dot]ala-vannesluoma[at]imatra[dot]fi)

deputy city manager Kaisa Heino, phone: 020 6172206, kaisa. hayatimatra.fi (kaisa[dot]heino[at]imatra[dot]fi),

contact director Tea Laitimo, tel. 020 617 2212, teaatimatra.fi (tea[dot]laitimo[at]imatra[dot]fi)