Cargo Traffic on the Helsinki-Tallinn Route

The twin-city model has found to increase economical activity and well-being. The similar economical, social and cultural background of Finland and Estonia as well as the EU integration give good preconditions to create a twin-city of Helsinki and Tallinn. The relatively long distance between Helsinki and Tallinn is challenging. Therefore, good transport infrastructure and functioning connections are required to form a twin-city of Helsinki and Tallinn. The connections between these cities can be considered also in broader perspective than only from the viewpoint of the twin-city concept. New markets areas have been emerged in Europe due to collapse of planned economy and integration of Europe. Also the transport routes to the markets are changing. The Hel-sinki-Tallinn sea route can be considered as a fast route to the new markets in the Cen-tral and Eastern Europe. The Helsinki-Tallinn sea route is also a potential route to the Western European markets. This study provides an analysis of transport and cargo flows between Finland and Esto-nia for regional and local planners. The main purpose of the study is to clarify the pre-sent situation of the seaborne cargo flows on the Helsinki-Tallinn route and how the cargo flows will develop in the future. The study focuses on the following thematic enti-ties: the Finnish and Estonian seaborne transport system and cargo flows, the structure and volume of the cargo flows on the Helsinki-Tallinn route, the hinterland cargo flows on the Helsinki-Tallinn route and the transport methods used on the Helsinki-Tallinn route. The study was carried out as a desk research, a statistical analysis and an inter-view study during the spring–autumn 2011. The study reveals that during the period 2002–2010 the volume of the seaborne cargo traffic between Finland and Estonia has increased significantly while the trend of the trade volume between Finland and Estonia has remained nearly constant. This indicates that the route via Estonia is increasingly used in the Finnish foreign trade. Because the ports of Helsinki and Tallinn are the main ports in the cargo traffic between Finland and Estonia, the role of the Helsinki-Tallinn route as a sea leg in the hinterland connections of Finland has increased. The growth of the cargo volume on the Helsinki-Tallinn route was estimated to continue on the annual level of 10 % during the next couple of years. In the long run the growth of the cargo volumes depends on the economical and indus-trial development of the former Eastern European countries. If the IMO’s sulphur regu-lations will come in force, the Helsinki-Tallinn route will become one of the main routes also to the Western European markets, besides of the route via Sweden. The study also shows that the fast and reliable connections year round on the Helsinki-Tallinn route have made it possible for service and logistics companies to reconsider their logistics strategies in a new way in the both side of the Gulf of Finland. Anyway, the ropax concept is seen as the only economical profitable solution on the Helsinki-Tallinn route because cargo and passenger traffic are supporting each other. The trucks (vehicle combinations) will remain the main mode of transport on the Helsinki-Tallinn route because general cargo is the main commodity on the route. IMO’s sulphur regula-tions and the changes in the structure of the Finnish industry may create prerequisites for rail road transport in the hinterland connections of Finland. The twin-city model has found to increase economical activity and well-being. The similar economical, social and cultural background of Finland and Estonia as well as the EU integration give good preconditions to create a twin-city of Helsinki and Tallinn. The relatively long distance between Helsinki and Tallinn is challenging. Therefore, good transport infrastructure and functioning connections are required to form a twin-city of Helsinki and Tallinn. The connections between these cities can be considered also in broader perspective than only from the viewpoint of the twin-city concept. New markets areas have been emerged in Europe due to collapse of planned economy and integration of Europe. Also the transport routes to the markets are changing. The Hel-sinki-Tallinn sea route can be considered as a fast route to the new markets in the Cen-tral and Eastern Europe. The Helsinki-Tallinn sea route is also a potential route to the Western European markets. This study provides an analysis of transport and cargo flows between Finland and Esto-nia for regional and local planners. The main purpose of the study is to clarify the pre-sent situation of the seaborne cargo flows on the Helsinki-Tallinn route and how the cargo flows will develop in the future. The study focuses on the following thematic enti-ties: the Finnish and Estonian seaborne transport system and cargo flows, the structure and volume of the cargo flows on the Helsinki-Tallinn route, the hinterland cargo flows on the Helsinki-Tallinn route and the transport methods used on the Helsinki-Tallinn route. The study was carried out as a desk research, a statistical analysis and an inter-view study during the spring–autumn 2011. The study reveals that during the period 2002–2010 the volume of the seaborne cargo traffic between Finland and Estonia has increased significantly while the trend of the trade volume between Finland and Estonia has remained nearly constant. This indicates that the route via Estonia is increasingly used in the Finnish foreign trade. Because the ports of Helsinki and Tallinn are the main ports in the cargo traffic between Finland and Estonia, the role of the Helsinki-Tallinn route as a sea leg in the hinterland connections of Finland has increased. The growth of the cargo volume on the Helsinki-Tallinn route was estimated to continue on the annual level of 10 % during the next couple of years. In the long run the growth of the cargo volumes depends on the economical and indus-trial development of the former Eastern European countries. If the IMO’s sulphur regu-lations will come in force, the Helsinki-Tallinn route will become one of the main routes also to the Western European markets, besides of the route via Sweden. The study also shows that the fast and reliable connections year round on the Helsinki-Tallinn route have made it possible for service and logistics companies to reconsider their logistics strategies in a new way in the both side of the Gulf of Finland. Anyway, the ropax concept is seen as the only economical profitable solution on the Helsinki-Tallinn route because cargo and passenger traffic are supporting each other. The trucks (vehicle combinations) will remain the main mode of transport on the Helsinki-Tallinn route because general cargo is the main commodity on the route. IMO’s sulphur regula-tions and the changes in the structure of the Finnish industry may create prerequisites for rail road transport in the hinterland connections of Finland.

Helsingin seudun liikenteenhallinnan kärkihankkeiden päivitys 2011

Työn tavoitteena oli kokonaisnäkemyksen luominen Helsingin seudun liikenteenhallinnan tilasta ja kehitysnäkymistä sekä seuraavien tärkeimpien kehittämispolkujen tunnistaminen ja konkretisointi toimenpiteiksi. Työssä keskityttiin seuraaviin painopistealueisiin 1. Liityntäpysäköinnin informaation ja maksujärjestelmien kehittäminen 2. Liikenteenhallintakeskuksen toiminnan kehittäminen ja laajentaminen 3. Liikennejärjestelmän reaaliaikainen tilannekuva ja lyhyen aikavälin ennusteet 4. Pääkaupunkiseudun pääväylien ruuhkien ja häiriöiden hallinta 5. Joukkoliikenteen ajantasaisen matkustajainformaation kehittäminen. Työssä laadittiin katsaus kullakin painopistealueella jo tapahtuneeseen sekä käynnissä olevaan kehitystyöhön, kuvattiin esiin nousseita ongelmia ja laadittiin esitys vuoteen 2020 ulottuvasta toiminnallisesta tavoitetilasta sekä konkreettisista kehittämistoimista. Työssä järjestettiin myös tulevaisuustyöpaja, johon pyydettiin alustuksia valikoiduilta viranomaistahoilta, tutkijoilta ja palveluntuottajilta. Näiden keskustelujen kautta kirkastettiin seudun toimijoiden näkemystä älyliikenteen toimialan kehitysnäkymistä ja –tarpeista. Työn lopputuloksena syntyneeseen toimenpideohjelmaan kirjattiin yhteensä 30 hanketta. Näistä viisi hanketta valittiin työpajatyöskentelyn kautta varsinaisiksi kärkihankkeiksi, joiden toteutus on kriittistä liikkujien ja viranomaistyön palvelutason kannalta ja joka edellyttää usean toimijan yhteistyötä. Lisäksi tunnistettiin joukko seurattavia hankkeita. Valitut kärkihankkeet, käynnistämisen vastuutaho sekä tavoitteellinen käynnistysvuosi ovat seuraavat: 1. Liityntäpysäköinnin dynaamisen informaatiojärjestelmän pilotointi Hämeenlinnanväylän käytävässä Kehäradan asemilla (HSL 2012) 2. HSL:n alueen joukkoliikenteen häiriönhallinnan uudelleenorganisointi (HSL, Liikennevirasto 2012) 3. Seudullisen liikenteenhallintasuunnitelman laadinta verkollisen operoinnin kehittämiseksi häiriötilanteissa (ELY-keskus, Liikennevirasto 2013) 4. Reaaliaikaisen sujuvuustiedon tuottaminen ruuhkautuvalta pääkatu- ja alempiasteiselta maantieverkolta (Liikennevirasto, kunnat 2012) 5. Liikenteen vaihtuvan ohjauksen ja tiedottamisen hyödyntäminen pääväylien ruuhkautumisen ja häiriöiden hallinnassa. (ELY-keskus 2012) Kärkihankkeisiin ei liity sellaisia riippuvuuksia, että niitä ei voitaisi käynnistää ennen päätöksentekoa jostakin muusta investoinnista. Merkittävimmät riippuvuudet liittyvät LIJ2014-järjestelmän ajoneuvojen paikannuksen ja muiden työkalujen valmistumiseen. Johtoryhmän linjauksen mukaan kärkihankkeissa ja muissakin toimijoiden omissa hankkeissa syntyvien tietojärjestelmien rajapinnat avataan soveltuvasti kaupallisten toimijoiden käyttöön, jolloin syntyvien kaupallisten loppukäyttäjäpalveluiden kautta voidaan parantaa tietopalvelujen tavoittavuutta. Kärkihankkeiden valinta ja sisältö on rakennettu pitkälti sen lähtökohdan varaan, että liikenteen tietopalveluissa julkistoimijoiden roolina on pääasiassa lähtötietojen tuottaminen ja jakaminen varsinaisille palveluntuottajille. Vuoteen 2016 mennessä uusien rajapintojen kautta jaettavien tietojen määrä on nykyiseen verrattuna huomattavasti laajempi, ja odotukset uusien ja innovatiivisten palvelujen syntymiselle ovat korkeat. HLH-johtoryhmä nimeää jokaisen kärkihankkeen läpiviennistä vastaavan työryhmän, joiden työskentelyä ohjataan nykyisen kaltaisessa johtoryhmätyössä. Johtoryhmätyön organisointi on todettu toimivaksi, sillä ryhmä koostuu seudun 14 kunnan alueen keskeisistä julkisista toimijoista ja sen kautta on olemassa vahvat kytkennät sekä seudun liikennejärjestelmätyöhön (HLJ) että valtakunnalliseen älyliikenteen kehitystyöhön.

Public and Private Sector Decision Makers Within the Rail Baltica Growth Corridor

Transport volumes have increased and will continue to increase in European Union. Even though the growth has not been equal between different transport modes. Most of the growth has been faced on road transport. European Union aims to balance the unbalanced market shares between the modes by gaining and supporting the competitiveness of railway and waterway transport. In EU railway transportation is seen as solution to increase safety in traffic and decrease the environmental impacts of transportation. The aim of this research is to figure out how it is possible to decrease the environmental impacts by the technology already in use. Main focus of this research is in intermodality and combining the road and railway transportation. This study aims also to figure out demands and expectations towards new Rail Baltica railway route connecting Tallinn and Berlin. The research is conducted by performing a literature review about decreasing environmental impacts and combining road and rail transport. Another viewpoint is taken from the possible effects of tourism to the passenger transport on rails. Knowledge gained by literature review is deepened by additional internet questionnaire study and expert interview study. In decreasing the environmental impacts of transportation electric trains are definitely the best option providing that the electricity is generated from renewable or carbon dioxide free sources. Decrease of environmental impacts has been reached also with acceptance of larger road transport vehicles. According to interviewed passenger transport experts, the whole route from Tallinn to Berlin may not be convenient to be used in passenger transport, just because the route is too long.. In EU freight is transported mainly with semi-trailer combinations, and that is why it could be logical if huckepack trains would be used on Rail Baltica. Huckepack train allows semi-trailers to be transported on rails with time efficient loading-unloading process. Overall, Rail Baltica project is experienced as a future-oriented one and new railway alignment is seen as great alternative option for transport modes using fossil fuels.

Scenario-based traffic forecasts for the routes between the PENTA ports in 2020

Maritime transport is the foundation for trade in the Baltic Sea area. It represents over 15% of the world’s cargo traffic and it is predicted to increase by over 100% in the future. There are currently over 2,000 ships sailing on the Baltic Sea and both the number and the size of ships have been growing in recent years. Due to the importance of maritime traffic in the Baltic Sea Region, ports have to be ready to face future challenges and adapt to the changing operational environment. The companies within the transportation industry – in this context ports, shipowners and logistics companies – compete continuously and although the number of companies in the business is not particularly substantial because the products offered are very similar, other motives for managing the supply chain arise. The factors creating competitive advantage are often financial and related to cost efficiency, but geographical location, road infrastructure in the hinterland and vessel connections are among the most important factors. The PENTA project focuses on adding openness, transparency and sharing knowledge and information, so that the challenges of the future can be better addressed with regard to cooperation. This report presents three scenario-based traffic forecasts for routes between the PENTA ports in 2020. The chosen methodology is PESTE, in which the focus in on economic factors affecting future traffic flows. The report further analyses the findings and results of the first PENTA WP2 report “Drivers of demand in cargo and passenger traffic between PENTA ports” and utilises the same material, which was obtained through interviews and mail surveys.

Five Baltic Ports Togehter: Forecasts, Trends and Recommendations

The ports of Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, Naantali and Turku play key roles in making the Central Baltic region accessible. Effective, competitive, eco-friendly and safe port procedures and solutions for the transportation of goods are of major importance for trade in the Baltic Sea region. This report presents the most essential results and recommendations of the PENTA project, which focused on how ports could better comprehend and face current and future challenges facing carriage of goods by sea. Each of the four work packages (WPs) of the PENTA project analysed the changes from a different perspective. WP2 focused on traffic flows between the PENTA ports. Its main emphasis was on the ports, shipowners, and logistics companies that are the key parties in freight transport and on the changes affecting the economy of those ports. In WP3 noise as an environmental challenge for ports was investigated and the analysis also shed light on the relationship between the port and the city. In WP4 procedures related to safety, security and administrative procedures were researched. The main emphasis was on identifying the requirements for the harmonisation of those procedures. Collaboration is highlighted throughout this report. In order to prepare for the future, it was found that ports need to respond to growing competition, increasing costs and shifts in customer demand by strengthening their existing partnerships with other actors in the maritime cluster. Cargo and passenger transport are the main sources of income for most ports. Cargo traffic between the PENTA ports is expected to grow steadily in the future and the outlook for passenger traffic is positive. However, to prepare for the future, ports should not only secure the core activities which generate revenue but also seek alternative ways to make profit. In order to gain more transit traffic, it is suggested that ports conduct a more thorough study of the future requirements for doing business with Russia. The investigation of noise at ports revealed two specific dilemmas that ports cannot solve alone. Firstly, the noise made by vessels and, secondly, the relationship between the port and the surrounding city. Vessels are the most important single noise source in the PENTA ports and also one of the hardest noise sources to handle. Nevertheless, port authorities in Finland and Sweden are held responsible for all noise in the port area, including noise produced by vessels, which is noise the port authority can only influence indirectly. Building housing by waterfront areas close to ports may also initiate disagreements because inhabitants may want quiet areas, whereas port activities always produce some noise from their traffic. The qualitative aspects of the noise question, cooperating with the stakeholders and the communicating of issues related to noise are just as important. We propose that ports should follow the logic of continuous improvement in their noise management. The administrative barriers discussed in this report are mainly caused by differences in international and national legislation, variations in the customs procedures of each country, the incompatibility of the IT systems used in maritime transport, noncompliance with regulations regarding dangerous goods, and difficulties in applying Schengen regulations to vessels from non-EU countries. Improving the situation is out of the hands of the ports to do alone and requires joint action on a variety of levels, including the EU, national authorities and across administrative borders.

Sosiaalipsykologian uusia oppikirjoja

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

SobekCM’s Community Ecosystems & Socio-Technical Practices

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Railways, Airports and Sea Container Operators as Publicly Listed Companies – Financial Performance and Shareholder Value Creation Perspective

Logistics infrastructure and transportation services have been the liability of countries and governments for decades, or these have been under strict regulation policies. One of the first branches opened for competition in EU as well as in other continents, has been air transports (operators, like passenger and freight) and road transports. These have resulted on lower costs, better connectivity and in most of the cases higher service quality. However, quite large amount of other logistics related activities are still directly (or indirectly) under governmental influence, e.g. railway infrastructure, road infrastructure, railway operations, airports, and sea ports. Due to the globalization, governmental influence is not that necessary in this sector, since transportation needs have increased with much more significant phase as compared to economic growth. Also freight transportation needs do not correlate with passenger side, due to the reason that only small number of areas in the world have specialized in the production of particular goods. Therefore, in number of cases public-private partnership, or even privately owned companies operating in these sub-branches have been identified as beneficial for countries, customers and further economic growth. The objective of this research work is to shed more light on these kinds of experiments, especially in the relatively unknown sub-branches of logistics like railways, airports and sea container transports. In this research work we have selected companies having public listed status in some stock exchange, and have needed amount of financial scale to be considered as serious company rather than start-up phase venture. Our research results show that railways and airports usually need high fixed investments, but have showed in the last five years generally good financial performance, both in terms of profitability and cash flow. In contrary to common belief of prosperity in globally growing container transports, sea vessel operators of containers have not shown that impressive financial performance. Generally margins in this business are thin, and profitability has been sacrificed in front of high growth – this also concerns cash flow performance, which has been lower too. However, as we examine these three logistics sub-branches through shareholder value development angle during time period of 2002-2007, we were surprised to find out that all of these three have outperformed general stock market indexes in this period. More surprising is the result that financially a bit less performing sea container transportation sector shows highest shareholder value gain in the examination period. Thus, it should be remembered that provided analysis shows only limited picture, since e.g. dividends were not taken into consideration in this research work. Therefore, e.g. US railway operators have disadvantage to other in the analysis, since they have been able to provide dividends for shareholders in long period of time. Based on this research work we argue that investment on transportation/logistics sector seems to be safe alternative, which yields with relatively low risk high gain. Although global economy would face smaller growth period, this sector seems to provide opportunities in more demanding situation as well.

The northern provinces of Sweden and Norway with part I, of Russia / published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

[N. 1:4400000].

Sweden and Norway.

[N. 1:5000000].

Russia.

Oikeassa yläkulmassa lehden numero: N:o III.

Russia in Europe / engraved by J. & C. Walker.

Janamittakaavat: Russian verstes ; English miles.

A new map of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, & Moscovy shewing their present general divisions, cheif, [!] cities or towns, rivers, mountains, &c.

[N. 1:8500000].

A new map of Denmark and Sweden. According to ye newest and most exact observations. By H. Moll, geographer.

Kahdessa osassa painettu kartta.

Russia in Europe.

Janamittakaava: Miles.