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Germany gives green light to world’s longest rail and road tunnel to Denmark

A top German court on Tuesday approved the construction of the world's longest combined rail and road tunnel that is expected to slash journey times from northern Germany to Denmark.

Published: 3 November 2020 16:28 CET

Germany gives green light to world's longest rail and road tunnel to Denmark

A visualisation of the planned Fehmarn Belt tunnel between Germany and Denmark with the tunnel entrance on the Danish side at Rodbyhavn. Photo: DPA

The 18-kilometre submerged Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link is due to open in 2029 but has been beset by legal battles from conservationists and ferry companies.

German regulatory approval is “a historic milestone”, said the project's chief executive Claus Baunkjaer.

The tunnel will be one of Europe's largest infrastructure projects, crossing the Baltic Sea between the ports of Puttgarden in Germany and Rodby on the Danish island of Lolland, reducing road journey times to 10 minutes from an hour-long ferry ride.

It is expected to cost 52.6 Danish kroner (€7.1 billion), with the four-lane, twin railway tunnel section built and paid for by Denmark alongside EU funding, linking Hamburg and Copenhagen in two and a half hours by train.

The idea of a permanent connection across the Fehmarn Belt was mooted almost 30 years ago, originally as a bridge, just as the eight-kilometre Oresund link between Copenhagen and Malmo in Sweden was readying construction.

While Denmark has already begun building work on the project, work on the German side was halted by legal obstacles.

Environmentalists raised concerns over the environmental impact, especially on reefs and porpoises.

Unlike other underwater tunnels, such as the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel, the Germany-Denmark tunnel will not lie under the seabed.

Instead the tunnel is to use hollow concrete sections that are to be submerged and placed in a trench dug into the Baltic Sea floor.

Ferry firms facing vastly reduced trade also took a dim view of the competition from road and high-speed rail.

However, the federal administrative court in Leipzig rejected their arguments.

The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice is still mulling other complaints related to the project.

READ ALSO: Germany and Denmark to link with massive bridge across strait

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Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Monday

Sunny weather is expected all week this week. Photo: Niclas Jessen/Visit Denmark

Denmark’s former PM names new party Moderaterne

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s former prime minister, announced on Saturday that his new centre party would be called Moderaterne, the same name as the leading centre-right party in Sweden.

In a speech held to mark Denmark’s Constitution Day on Saturday, Rasmussen said the new party would attempt to unite Danes with a variety of different backgrounds and political viewpoints.

“Some prefer mackerel, and others prefer salmon. Some have long Danish pedigrees, others have only recently chosen to live in Denmark,” he said.

What they all have in common, he said, is their love for Denmark, which is “among the best countries in the world”.

“How do we drive it forward? We are trying to find an answer to that. How do we pass it on to our children in better condition than we received it?”

Rasmussen said the party would not launch fully until after November’s local elections, but was ready to contest a parliamentary election if the ruling Social Democrats decided to call an early vote, something he said he did not expect to happen.

Sweden’s state epidemiologist warns Swedes to be careful in “high-infection” Denmark

After the per capita number of new coronavirus infections in Denmark in recent days overtaking that of Sweden, Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has advised Swedes visiting their Nordic neighbour to be careful to maintain social distancing.

“You need to keep [the infection rate] in mind if you go there, so that you really take with you the advice you have in Sweden to keep your distance, not stay with lots of other people, and not have the close contact that involves a risk,” he told the Expressen newspaper.

He said Denmark’s higher infection rate was an obvious consequence of the country’s more rapid lifting of restrictions.

“They chose to open up society relatively quickly even though they knew that there was a certain risk that the spread of infection would increase,” he said. “Because they had vaccinated the elderly and did not see that it would be that dangerous with a certain increased spread of infection.”

Nils Strandberg Pedersen, former director for Denmark’s SSI infectious diseases agency called Tegnell’s comments “comical”.

“It’s comical. It’s Swedish spin,” he told the BT tabloid. “Denmark has registered more infections because we test so much more than the Swedes. It’s not the same as having more people infected in the population.”

More immigrants to Denmark are getting an education

The education gap between first and second-generation immigrants to Denmark and people of Danish origin has fallen over the last decade, according to a story published in Politiken based on new figures from Denmark’s immigration ministry.

An impressive 72 percent of 20 to 24-year-old first and second-generation female immigrants now completing further education of university education, compared to 58 percent in 2010.

Denmark records further 853 cases of coronavirus

A further 853 people were diagnosed with coronavirus in the 24 hours running up to 2pm on Sunday, a rise on Saturday when 592 cases were detected, but still within the range of 600 to 1350 a day within which Denmark has been fluctuating since the start of May.

Thorkild Sørensen, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen, told Ritzau that the sunny summer weather was allowing people to meet outside, and vaccinations were having an impact, allowing Denmark to open up without a surge in infections.

On Sunday morning, 138 people were being treated for coronavirus in Denmark’s hospitals, up four from Saturday, or whom 29 were in intensive care.

Some 40.4 percent of the population has now received at least one dose of vaccine and 23.2 percent have received both doses.

Sunny summer weather expected in Denmark this week

Denmark is expected to have warm sunny weather with temperatures of 18C to 23C, with blue skies and little rain, Danish Meteorological Institute said on Monday.

“This week looks really nice and summery, and it will be mostly dry weather most of the time,” Anja Bodholdt, a meteorologist at the institute told Ritzau on Monday. “The only exception is Monday, when people in Jutland and Funen might wake up to scattered showers that move east during the day.”

Danish property market show signs of cooling

The number of houses being put on the market fell again in May, according to new figures released from Home, one of Denmark’s largest online estate agents.

According to Bjørn Tangaa Sillemann, an analyst at Danske Bank, the figures suggest that momentum is seeping out of what has been a “scorching” market over the last year, although he said it was unlikely prices would actually fall.

“Although demand seems to be declining, it is still high, and when interest declines, it can also make it less attractive to put your home up for sale than it has been recently,” he said.

At Home, 5.1 percent fewer houses were put on the market in May, while the number of apartments put on the market fell 9 percent, and the number of sales fell by 2.1 and 5.7 percent respectively.

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