Hacker News Reader

Comment by barbazoo | Hacker News Reader

I remember this project being controversial back in the day. I wonder what the locals think of that today. Definitely impressive technology.

View on HN

Local here. We were told to enjoy about 60 additional freight trains per day. The promised noise protection barriers were saved on due to budget after public voting went through.

Interestingly the ferry which is currently used to transport trucks is only at roughly half capacity.

It is a prestige project and I will have to move to some other place as I live next to the train tracks. These are used very sparingly today and are mostly not even electrified and one-tracked. Many wildlife refuges are on the way to move for the sake of the new tunnel.

> Interestingly the ferry which is currently used to transport trucks is only at roughly half capacity.

Sometimes the existing solution doesn't need to be bursting at the seams to justify building something better. A better solution can induce its own demand.

Yes I imagine most of the traffic goes through the bridge in Denmark. What is more, that bridge is a single point of failure, which is a problem in case of an accident or maintenance.

I think it has to be looked at from a greater picture. I previously lived in Skåne in Sweden, from there I could get to Gothenburg in little over 2 hours and Stockhholm in like 4 and a half, with the slow high speed trains in Sweden running at a maximum of 200 km/h.

By distance from Malmö to Hamburg is a bit farther than to Gothenburg and Berlin is a bit closer than Stockholm, with the forced dogleg of going through the Fehmarn Belt. By air it would be like Leipzig. That is how far into Germany you get.

It is simply ridiculous that the only way I could think of to get to the larger cities in northern Germany would be to fly. Take the train to Copenhagen airport and likely Ryanair or something similarly awful costing less than the ticket to the airport.

Sure I could look up some train travel with a multitude of changes through Denmark, likely taking the train on the ferry. Or an over night sleeper style, if they even run. I know there's been talk of them starting again.

It's 2022, there should be high speed links.

flixbus

Subjecting myself to 10 hours on a cramped bus isn't what I would call an option.

It would be one change of train, in Copenhagen, to get from Malmö to Hamburg. The faster train used to go on the ferry, but it's diverted through Jutland while they're upgrading the tracks for this tunnel.

The new-ish night train runs direct from Malmö, but only in some months of the year. (A seats-only overnight train runs all year from Copenhagen. But that was not fun the one time I used it.)

I think that ferry was the first one I'd been on with train tracks. One of the times I crossed it we had to get out, walk onto the ferry, then get on the train.

That is too bad, maybe they can still add in the sound proofing.

You might find the electric freight trains are quieter than you expect. I did, in a place I lived in England.

There's a rail noise map for some lines in Denmark. Activate Temavælger - Jernbanerstøj - Større Jernbaner 1,5m, and start at Copenhagen Airport, the Øresund line might be similar.

https://miljoegis.mim.dk/modules/mobile/?profile=noise

The better article on this would be "Why the Fehmarnbelt tunnel was not built". Because in Germany you cannot build big public projects in time and within budget. First you have politicians in the way, interfering in the project, with often absurd goals. But even worse, you have competing companies, which litigate contracts after the deadline, so you have to wait 10 years until the courts decided if the contract is valid or not. Costs are 10x higher then of course.

In Denmark this project would have been built in a year, in time and in budget. But unfortunately this involved Germany, so now they have another huge stinking overcost project. Denmark is angry

Is Denmark really angry?

About construction delays and politicians getting in the way etc., I can only think of BER as a catastrophic project. Do you have more in mind?

Stuttgart21 is also extremely late, over budget, and controversial enough that it's considered a reason why the Greens won city council in Stuttgart, marking their first ever majority council in a major German city.

In Cologne a tunnel collapsed during construction, killing two people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Stadtbahn#Tunnel_colla...

Sure they are. They approved it 2011. Germany just now, halfways.

https://www.tunnel-online.info/en/artikel/tunnel__3596417.ht...

But apparently it's again stopped: https://www.dredgingtoday.com/2022/01/19/leipzig-court-tempo...

Overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fehmarn_Belt_Fixed_Link

There should be better articles about the cost overruns.

There was news recently that the environmental survey was not done as thoroughly as it should have been and that they were building (or planning to build) through areas where actually so far undiscovered reefs are. A court awarded an injunction to hold work there for now if I recall correctly. I can't image that it is that popular.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com