BACKGROUND: Rail link to China a boon for industry
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By Hannele Tulonen
The rail connection between Kouvola and China is very important for Finnish industry, says Olli-Pekka Hilmola, Professor of Railway Logistics at the Technical University of Lappeenranta, who works in Kouvola.
He adds a researcher's input into the city's ambitious plans to become a logistics centre between east and west - at the end of the line of the "iron silk road".
The factory networks of both Finland and Sweden operate dispersed in Asia and the Nordic Countries, and the transport of semi-fabricated products from one location to another is difficult.
Planes are expensive and ships are slow, so the Trans-Siberian Railway would make things considerably faster, Hilmola says.
In addition to the integration of the factory network, easier storage and transport will also increase the innovative possibilities of industry, as Asian semi-finished products, for example, can be easily transported to the North, he observes.
The manufacture of electronics and machinery would stand to benefit considerably.
The development of rail transport is important in any case, as the growing flood of lorry traffic between Hanko and Russia could soon overwhelm the Finnish highways, said the professor, who had recently driven from Kouvola to Lappeenranta, weaving in traffic the whole way to avoid Russian trucks.
Higher customs fees charged by Russia have been causing problems, and reduced traffic.
Matti Andersson, head of marketing at VR Cargo, says that the planning of the rail link by Finnish, Russian, and Chinese officials is proceeding on schedule.
Test runs begin in November. It has been agreed that both Chinese and Russian rail containers can be used on the track.
Currently procedures on the Russian-Chinese border are being streamlined, so that crossing the border will take just one day, and not three, as was the case before.
"If agreement is reached on the price, traffic could begin a year from now in the spring. At first, once a week, and after two or three years, a train would leave once a day in both directions", Andersson says.
Kouvola has the only railway yard in Finland that is big enough to meet the needs of the "silk road", Professor Hilmola says.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.5.2006
More on this subject:
 Chinatown rises in Kouvola
HANNELE TULONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
hannele.tulonen@hs.fi
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