Jon Worth

#Bullshitmeter No, there is not going to be a Turku đŸ‡«đŸ‡ź - Stockholm 🇾đŸ‡Ș fixed link (tunnels, bridges)

Too far, too expensive, not enough people living either side

Maybe instead Sweden could complete its high speed railway south of Stockholm *that does make sense* but they can't find money for?

Sep 5, 2025 at 10:17amWeb
Show threadJon WorthSep 5, 2025

And it started with this: https://yle.fi/a/7-10083524 and then some other media followed up

đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©

Nu utreds en fast förbindelse mellan Åbo och Stockholm: ”Tiden Ă€r mogen att öka det nordiska samarbetet”

Egentliga Finlands förbund vill utreda vad en fast förbindelse mellan Åbo och Stockholm skulle krĂ€va. Samtidigt har lobbyarbetet inletts pĂ„ flera fronter.

Svenska Yle
Show threadMatinoitunut RutkustajaSep 5, 2025

@jon

Nice (not) to use real money to plan a connection that stays imaginary and not using money to drive trains on existing, now electrified, rail from Finland to Haparanda.

Better train connections to Vaasa and UmeÄ and secured connections to ferries would also be nice.

Show threadJuustoperse #EH23=>Home SoonSep 5, 2025
@matt_jarvin @jon and if anything gets built, I rather expect the Rail baltica to be extended instead - far shorter tunnel
Show threadonterofSep 5, 2025
@jon Funnily there's another "proposal" for a fixed link: Umea and Vasaa. I think that's even crazier for the even smaller possible demand and with the đŸ‡«đŸ‡ź 🇾đŸ‡Ș rail link via Tornio soonTM in operation. 😅
https://www.lok-report.de/news/europa/item/59236-finnland-schweden-vorstudie-zur-festen-verbindung-ueber-den-bottnischen-meerbusen-abgeschlossen.html
LOK Report - Finnland/Schweden: Vorstudie zur festen Verbindung ĂŒber den Bottnischen Meerbusen abgeschlossen

Fotos VĂ€ylĂ€virasto. Die Festverbindung ĂŒber den Bottnischen Meerbusen (Meerenge von Kvarken) zwischen Vaasa und UmeĂ„ ist laut einer gerade abgeschlossenen Vorstudie der finnischen Transportagentur VĂ€ylĂ€virasto technisch realisierbar. Es gibt mehrere Möglichkeiten fĂŒr die Umsetzung. Die Kosten f...

Show threadJon WorthSep 5, 2025
@onterof That one has a shorter distance, total. But it is all water. Turku-Stockholm makes more sense than Vaasa. Although both make very little sense!
Show threadacbSep 5, 2025
@jon Alas, the high-speed railway has been scrapped for anti-woke/make-Greta-cry ideological reasons, that sort of thing being the only red meat the Swedish conservatives can throw to the Nazis whose support they depend on.
Show threadJon WorthSep 5, 2025
@acb Right. But *please* build that before trying to build a massive bridge!
Show threadStefan LindbohmSep 5, 2025
@jon At this point, I’d be kinda happy with a few straightened curves and passing sidings
 But yeah nothing is getting substantially better in Sweden short of the new mainlines in the south. And double track between Stockholm - Sundsvall – that’s my route home and is almost without exceptions where things such as a small point fault causes random 30-60 minute delays.
Show threadSven UlemanSep 5, 2025
Maybe they wake up after the fehmarn tunnel is completed?
Show threadJon WorthSep 5, 2025
@svenuleman.bsky.social To built Malmö-Stockholm, perhaps. To build a Stockholm-Turku link? Well that ought to come once you can get to Stockholm faster
Show threadSven UlemanSep 5, 2025
No I meant the Malmö- Stockholm link, the otherone is useless.
Show threadekstromenatorSep 5, 2025
@jon Above all, no tax-free or smorgasbord!
Show threadLuke HornSep 5, 2025
But I want it! (But as you point out there are lower hanging fruits to be built first)
Show threadIgnas KielaSep 5, 2025
@jon I could see why you'd want to build Tallinn - Helsinki tunnel (there is a whole bunch of existing travel by not that cheap ferries) even if that's a propostreous project that would need a massive amount of things to go right to ever happen.

This, I don't see any kind of justification for building. It's just way too far, with too little people for it to make sense. A tad easier because a bunch of islands on the way, but it's still, way, way too big of a project for what benefits could be had any time soon.
Show threadđŸŒș Cat PöñíçkĂžvāSep 5, 2025
@ignaloidas @jon in a way, it’s much more attractive than rail baltica from the Finnish perspective, because it’s then like maybe 3 hours to Stockholm and 2-3 more to Copenhagen possibly, unlike rb which is like what, 6 hours best case scenario to Warsaw (where you didn’t want to go anyway)
Show threadIgnas KielaSep 5, 2025
@[email protected] @jon I guess? I don't see it being attractive enough from a cost perspective tho, I'd guess for the money you'd need for such link you could upgrade from Tallinn to Berlin to 350km/h.
Show threadđŸŒș Cat PöñíçkĂžvāSep 5, 2025
@ignaloidas @jon news article isn’t really a proper survey, it’s not enough to even start guessing the costs. I’m just saying in terms of benefits, you can easily see why would you maybe want to pitch it over the rb which isn’t really all that exciting for Finland either
Show threadIgnas KielaSep 5, 2025
@[email protected] @jon I mean, I have zero clue about the costs, I'm just guesstimating them myself. But they're not gonna be low.
Show threadJon WorthSep 6, 2025
@pony there’s a sort of logic here, but I think both of these ideas are ridiculous. Sorry! @ignaloidas