European Union, Baltic Sea Region Programme has approved Rail Baltica Growth Corridor (RBGC) of 3,6 MEUR budget for years 2011-2013. City of Helsinki is the Lead Partner and CEMAT at Aalto University School of Economics is the Coordinator of the Project. Ms. Malla Paajanen is the RBGC Project Manager and Ms. Marja Mattila the Project Coordinator in CEMAT. Launched in January 2011, the Project aims to improve the competitiveness and accessibility of cities and regions in the Eastern Baltic Sea Region through increased interaction and cooperation. RBGC partnership consists of 21 Partners representing cities, regional authorities, and research institutes, as well as e.g. ministries and national railways as associated organizations. The Project will end in June 2013. Rail Baltica Growth Corridor represents already the second successful project arising from a close partnership between the City of Helsinki and CEMAT. In September 2009 EU Baltic Sea Region Programme approved the first project, BaltMet Promo (2,8 MEUR) – a Project to increase global competitiveness of BSR – where Helsinki is the Lead Partner and CEMAT in charge of Coordination and production of a study on supply of film making services in BSR.
RBGC creates a cooperation and transport service platform that observes the needs of both transport sector and customers in line with the green growth corridor principles. RBGC brings benefits for cities and regions, transport sector and citizens by improving the competitiveness and economic potential of the Region.
RBGC is linked to the wider concept of Rail Baltica – a railway that will connect the Eastern Baltic Sea Region from north to south branching from St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas and Warsaw to Berlin. The Region gains new economic potential as the major business hubs will be connected with North-West Russia and the EU core.
Rail Baltica Growth Corridor has two pilots. The first pilot aims to improve the accessibility of Baltic Sea Region by introducing Rail Baltica Travel Information Network, an integrated door-to-door travel planner for the Rail Baltica region in terms of long-distance and local public transport, covering multimodal (road, sea, rail and air) timetable information. The second pilot strives to improve interoperability and cooperation of the logistics centers along Rail Baltica in order to increase its competitiveness from the viewpoint of global freight flows.
Rail Baltica Growth Corridor is included in the Rail Baltica Memorandum of Understanding signed at the TEN-T Days in Zaragoza on June 9th 2010 by the Member States. With MoU European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, European Coordinators for TEN-T projects and Member States commit themselves to carrying out this project as fast and efficiently as possible.
Photo: VR Group Ltd 2009