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by usrusr 31 days ago
Can anyone from the region comment on the status of plans for the landside linkup on the German side? Last time it made the press it was because the project was at risk of seeing the Danish tunnel finished before Germany could tell not even when but if a linkup would ever make it across bureaucratic hurdles. Almost like a Darien Gap made exclusively of red tape.
3 comments
logifail 31 days ago
You mean like the Brenner Base [Rail] Tunnel which will connect Austria and Italy?

Germany seems to be stuck at the "studying" stage before they improve the relevant rail links on the Grafing–Rosenheim–Kufstein route.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenner_Base_Tunnel

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usrusr 30 days ago
When the iron curtain fell, there were big plans and a formal contract about modernizing the rail link between Prague and Nuremberg (a hugely important connection on the days of Charles IV). The Czech side eventually stopped electrifying their parts when they realized nothing happened on the other side of the border. These days, Deutsche Bahn is operating a _bus connection_ between the cities. It seems like they are solely focused on beating imaginary Autobahn times between a selected set of major German cities, and consider everything else a nuisance...
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grumbelbart2 31 days ago
The exact same thing is happening with the Gotthard Base Tunnel. Switzerland has completed it almost 10 years ago, Germany still hasn't finished the links.

It is combination of the German planning system, which allows the processes to be stretched out due to objections, and spineless politicians who don't really want to commit to a route and kick the can down the road (because whatever they do, someone will be angry; but voter's don't really make you responsible if the link isn't built or is delayed).

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wasmitnetzen 31 days ago
The tricky part will be the the train tunnel on the other end of Fehmarn, the current best guess for the finishing date is 2032[1]. They haven't started building yet[2], so I wouldn't put a lot of trust in that number.

[1]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fehmarnsundtunnel [2]: https://www.anbindung-fbq.de/streckenabschnitte/sundquerung....

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shellfishgene 31 days ago
It's not really clear, the German part was going slower than the tunnel, but now that the tunnel is also delayed by at least 2 years, who knows maybe they are in sync again ;). The road link seems to be going much faster than the rail link on the German sinde, which won't be done before 2032.
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