Rostock-Gedser crossing

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Location of the planned bridge in the existing motorway network

A fixed Rostock-Gedser link was proposed as an alternative to the fixed Fehmarnbelt link . It would cross the Baltic Sea at a width of 40 to 45 kilometers from the coast near Rostock to Gedser on the Danish island of Falster . This crossing should form the main artery between Berlin and Scandinavia . With the political decision in favor of the Fehmarnbelt link, further planning of the alternative Rostock-Gedser link was initially unnecessary.

The crossing would be one of the longest bridges in the world. If a tunnel were chosen, it would be the longest crossing of the lake. In terms of the total tunnel length, however, the Seikan tunnel and the Eurotunnel as well as the Gotthard base tunnel would be longer.

Lines

bridge

At around 40 to 45 kilometers, the crossing over the Baltic Sea would be considerably longer than the 19 kilometers over the Fehmarnbelt .

Possible alternatives for the lines would be:

The more easterly lines offer the advantage that the Gedser Reef, which protrudes southeast from the Danish island of Falster into the Baltic Sea , could be followed for about 15 kilometers. This would mean a depth of less than 10 meters, which is favorable for bridge piers, for over half of the entire route. The eastern routes also offer the shortest connection to Poland, but they are correspondingly less favorable to Hamburg / West Germany. For Berlin / southern Germany, the easternmost route would be a few kilometers longer than the westernmost.

Land facilities

A Rostock-Gedser solution would primarily require an expansion of the Danish land facilities, while a motorway connection already exists on the German side. In the case of the Fehmarnbelt crossing, the situation is reversed: here the roads on the Danish side are completely developed, while on the German side there is no 25 kilometers of motorway (including an alternative to the two-lane Fehmarnsund Bridge ). This partly explains why the Danish government is giving preference to the Fehmarnbelt link, while the German side is less motivated.

Street

On the German side, the Rostock-Gedser crossing would connect to the federal motorway 19 / Europastraße 55 . Today this runs from Rostock-Überseehafen southwards to the A 24 and Berlin. The A 20 , completed in 2005, represents the connection westwards to Lübeck / Hamburg and eastwards to Greifswald / Stettin / Poland . Some of the expansion proposals for the A 37 / A 39 would be a south-westerly diagonal connection from Rostock to the Celle / Hanover / Braunschweig area and western Europe create. With the completion of the A 14, there would also be a connection to Magdeburg - Leipzig - southern Germany, which avoids the Berliner Ring .

On the Danish side, the crossing would connect to the existing European route 55. This is today at the southernmost 35 kilometers from Gedser to E47 - motorway in Eskilstrup only a two-lane main road, which is expandable but because of a very regular course to you. A bypass road has been planned around Nykøbing Falster for several years , as through-traffic to Rostock / Berlin has risen sharply after the reunification of Germany.

railroad

The double-track Rostock – Berlin railway line ( Lloydbahn and Berliner Nordbahn ) is currently being expanded to a speed of 160 km / h, but this will not be completed until 2015 due to delays. The route (Hamburg–) Rostock – Stralsund is (section Hamburg – Hagenow – Schwerin ) or is being prepared (sections Bad Kleinen – Rostock , Schwerin – Bad Kleinen and Rostock – Stralsund ) for 160 km / h. The Schwerin – Ludwigslust – Wittenberge – Stendal railway (sections Schwerin – Ludwigslust and Wittenberge – Magdeburg ) and the Lübeck – Lüneburg railway offer freight traffic coming from Scandinavia a way of bypassing the Hamburg and Berlin bottlenecks.

The 20-kilometer-long, single-track railway between Gedser and Nykøbing was renovated in 2006 and 2007, but with a top speed of 75 km / h and many level crossings it hardly corresponds to a long-distance railway. Traffic was stopped in 2009 and the track in Gedser was dismantled in 2011 . The 25-kilometer section north from Nykøbing to Vordingborg is single-track, but equipped for 120 km / h. From then on to Copenhagen the railway is double-tracked and equipped for 140 to 180 km / h. An extension of the Nykøbing – Vordingborg line would also be an option for a fixed Fehmarnbelt link; however, little concrete was drafted about it. The Storstrømsbrücke would be a bottleneck for a second track; this also applies to the Fehmarnbelt solution.

Arguments

Fehmarnbelt crossing (green) or the Rostock-Gedser crossing (orange) to the east in the motorway network

The most important argument of the Rostock-Gedser solution is emphasized that these more eastern lines represent a far better connection with the growth areas in Eastern Europe , especially Poland, and especially with the metropolis of Berlin.

In comparison, the Fehmarnbelt link is now an outdated idea that would better fit the geography of a divided Europe. The profitability of a Fehmarnbelt link has often been questioned. The German government was hesitant about the Fehmarnbelt project at the time, as domestic projects (e.g. expansion of the Berlin – Rostock railway line and the planned western crossing of the Elbe ) had priority.

Traffic researcher Per Homann Jespersen from the University of Roskilde describes the link as follows:

“A fixed link across the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany would be much easier to cross the Gedser Reef. A long section of such a bridge could be built as a flat bridge. Hamburg is a notorious bottleneck for road and rail traffic. Therefore a Baltic Sea crossing between Rostock-Warnemünde and Gedser would be better. "

- Per Homann Jespersen : The North Schleswig

Political development

The traffic spokesman for Radical Venstre and the Danish People's Party demanded on June 3, 2007 that the Danish government should support a Gedser – Rostock link instead of the Fehmarnbelt link; they received support from traffic researchers. A journey between Copenhagen and Berlin is 130 kilometers shorter on the Gedser – Rostock line, Copenhagen – Munich 160 kilometers and Copenhagen – Poland 230 kilometers shorter than across the Fehmarnbelt, says Stroschein.

Transport Minister Flemming Hansen rejected the demands on June 4, 2007, as such a change of course would "delay the fixed link by ten years". The spokesman for the Social Democrats , majority partner of the government on this issue, also sees the Gedser – Rostock proposal as a last-minute diversion, but also admitted:

"If the Germans don't want to take part, but want something else, then of course we will listen."

On June 29, 2007, the construction of the Fehmarnbelt fixed link was finally agreed with the Kingdom of Denmark. On July 10, 2009, the German State Treaty was ratified .

Today's connections

Today, most of the freight traffic with Scandinavia is handled using the RoRo procedure across the Baltic Sea. The rest of the freight traffic goes over the Great Belt , either by rail or on the European route 45 (in Germany the A 7 ).

Today Rostock-Überseehafen and Gedser are connected by the Scandlines car ferries (see Warnemünde – Gedser route ). Both the now dismantled ferry pier in Warnemünde and today's ferry pier in Rostock-Überseehafen are equipped with rail loading hatches, but no trains or railroad cars have been transferred since the ferry connection to Rostock overseas port changed. There is a siding to the port. The earlier S-Bahn connection to the international port was discontinued on December 9, 2012.

Rostock-Überseehafen is directly connected to the federal motorway network, which is advantageous for motorists. Several long-distance bus services between Berlin and Copenhagen are operated by Graahundbus / Berolina, Swebus Express, Eurolines and Säfflebussen .

The continuous train connection Berlin – Copenhagen via the Warnemünde – Gedser ferry was terminated in 1995. The 20-kilometer-long track section between Gedser and Nykøbing Falster has only been used by a daily pair of regional trains since then, because a complete closure could not take place without a parliamentary resolution. In 2006 and 2007 the track was slightly refurbished and in the summer of 2007 two pairs of trains were to run daily as a trial. The sense of track renewal, which supposedly should have cost 112 million crowns , was discussed in 2008 and 2009. The credibility of this large sum has been questioned. However, the section was finally closed on December 13, 2009. In 2011, all tracks in the Gedser ferry station were dismantled.

Since 1995, passengers between Berlin and Scandinavia have had to either travel via Hamburg ( Vogelfluglinie ) or take the Berlin – Malmö night train , which is transferred by the Sassnitz – Trelleborg ferry . The passenger train via Sassnitz-Trelleborg currently only runs in summer.

See also

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ ICE test drive in the direction of Berlin Ü ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Ostsee-Zeitung / Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state portal
  2. Route information , Banedanmark
  3. Divided opinions about the benefits of a fixed Fehmarnbelt link ( memento of September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Der Nordschleswiger , February 14, 2007
  4. New proposal: build a bridge between Gedser and Rostock , Jyllands-Posten , June 3, 2007 (Danish)
  5. Transport Minister rejects the bridge over Gedser – Rostock , Politiken , June 4, 2007 (Danish)
  6. ^ Fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt , BMVBS, 2008
  7. Federal Law Gazette 2009 II p. 799