Analysis. On Friday 25 August, DEGES started work on widening the road across Fehmarn from two to four lanes. The work is expected to take five years, and will thus be completed in time for the opening of the Fehmarn Tunnel in 2029.
Freight trains risk a detour over Funen and Jutland
But while cars and trucks can use the new, fast corridor from Scandinavia to continental Europe in 2029, there is a serious risk that freight trains will still have to detour via Funen and Jutland well into the future.
The Fehmarn Sound Bridge, which connects the island of Fehmarn with the German mainland, is in a rather sad state after 60 years. It has therefore been decided that the bridge must be replaced by a 1.7 kilometer long immersed tunnel. The problem is that that work has not yet started, and there are no signs that it will happen in the foreseeable future.
Deutsche Bahn has a plan B
Deutsche Bahn, which is responsible for the construction of the Femernsund Tunnel, said in January that it expected to stay on schedule and be finished by the end of 2029. However, nothing has really happened since then.
Back in January, however, Deutsche Bahn assured that there was no reason to panic. They had a plan B ready in the drawer:
– Our alternative plan is to electrify and renovate the Femernsund Bridge if we are not ready for commissioning in 2029, said Deutsche Bahn’s railway spokesman, Peter Mantik at the time to FemernReport. And the work has now started, as many holidaymakers probably noticed over the summer.
Femernsund Bridge cannot handle freight trains
The problem is simply that the railway on the Fehmarnsound bridge is single-track and cannot be extended with an extra one. In addition, the bridge, which was inaugurated in 1963 at the same time as the ferry connection between Rødby and Putgarden, is not at all dimensioned for the large and heavy freight trains that are expected to pass.
A delay of the Fehmarnsound Tunnel could thus end up being a serious stone in the shoe for both national and EU ambitions to move a larger part of European freight transport from the motorways onto the rails.
Things take time in Germany
It is a known fact that things take time in Germany. And even if the decision on a Fehmarnsound tunnel has been made, the planning and approval procedures are extensive. And there is almost a tradition of complaints and lawsuits that have a suspensive effect.
Can end up as a sleeping pillow
Therefore, initiating a plan B is actually bad news, because it can end up being a sleeping pad. When there is no sword of Damokles hanging over the project in the form of a sharp deadline, where overruns have serious consequences, then you tend to let things take their time. And if you have to start from the process leading up to the initiation of the Fehmarn Belt project in Germany, then it is a matter of years rather than months.
Also read FemernReport’s interview with Schleswig-Holstein’s business and transport minister Claus Ruhe Madsen about the German hinterland work.
