The work on the new German railway and road sections, which are to connect the Fehmarn Belt tunnel with Lübeck and Hamburg, is far behind schedule. Only two out of ten necessary planning approvals have been granted, and without a Planfeststellungsbeschluss from the Federal Railway Authority, construction cannot begin. Today - 10 September - is the deadline for objections to the Fehmarnsund tunnel, which is the most critical part of the entire project.
The Hinterland Connection is the name of this expansion. It consists of new and modernised sections, which will carry traffic from the island of Fehmarn into Germany. The most complex part is the 2.2-kilometre-long immersed tunnel under the Fehmarnsund, which must accommodate both two railway tracks and four road lanes. Only when a building permit is granted can construction begin - and from there it will take six years and five months before the tunnel is ready.
In April, Deutsche Bahn announced that construction could begin in 2026. That timeline was met with scepticism at the time, and recent months have only strengthened the doubts. Six months later, no decisive progress has been made, and the first objections are only now being addressed.
Expensive emergency solution
The process is cumbersome. First, the plans had to be published, which happened at the end of July. Then citizens, organisations, and municipalities were given a month to review the material. Now, on the very day of the deadline, the next step is for the Federal Railway Authority to process the objections that have been submitted. Only then can a meeting with the affected parties be called before a building permit can be issued.
According to the official plans, no trains will run over the Fehmarn Sound until the tunnel is completed. During the construction period, the existing bridge will be for cars, cyclists, and pedestrians only. An emergency solution could be that trains might run over the old bridge for a period, but this is a solution estimated to cost 100 million euros.
All this means that train traffic can start at the earliest in 2032 or 2033. On the Danish side, the immersed tunnel between Rødby and Fehmarn can, in principle, open for cars when it is completed. But without a completed hinterland connection, the project loses its green rationale: to shift freight from lorry to train and create a modern transport corridor between Scandinavia and Europe.
