• Traffic along Northern Sea route up 50% from last year. Finland planning a railway to the North Sea
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[img]http://barentsobserver.com/sites/barentsobserver.com/files/styles/grid_8/public/main/articles/northern_sea_route_rosatomflot.jpg[/img] i]2013 saw a record in both the number of vessels and the amount of cargo transported along the Northern Sea Route. [/i] [quote]71 vessels sailed the whole route between the Bering Strait and the Barents Sea in course of the recently finished summer season of 2013. This is a 54 percent increase compared to 2012, when 46 vessels sailed the route. In comparison, 34 vessels sailed the whole route in 2011 and only four in 2010. In spite of the increased number of vessels, the total amount of cargo transported in transit along the NSR has hardly gone up. The total amount this year was 1,355,897 tons – only 7.5 percent more than in 2012, when 1,261, 545 tons was carried through the NSR. Conservative estimates had suggested the amount of cargo would grow to at least 1.5 million tons.[/quote] [url]http://barentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2013/12/fifty-percent-increase-northern-sea-route-03-12[/url] [quote]“It is for Finland’s future development a very significant opportunity, but we do not yet know whether it is profitable,” says Jyrki Katainen. He wants a connection to Norway to be studied, but also mentioned that another possible variant could be a link to the Arctic Ocean via Russia. The Finnish Prime Minister answered questions about the rail connection between Lapland and the Arctic Ocean at the press-conference following the opening of an Arctic scientific conference in Rovaniemi on Tuesday. €3,2 billion “A railway link from Rovaniemi to Kirkenes will cost some €3,2 billion,” says Timo Rautajoki, CEO of Lapland Chamber of Commerce. He gave a speech about Lapland’s development in the session on Arctic in a global economy. Lapland holds rich ore-deposits and new mines are already under development some 150 kilometers north of Rovaniemi. From Rovaniemi to the Norwegian Arctic port of Kirkenes is a distance of 520 kilometers. “Connecting the new mining areas north of Sodankylä with the railway today going to Rovaniemi will cost some €350 million,” says Rautajoki. He supports the idea to connect Finland with a Norwegian port with a railway, but underlined the economic challenge.[/quote] [url]http://barentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2013/12/katainen-railway-arctic-ocean-great-opportunity-03-12[/url] The Arctic area is growing pretty rapidly at the moment. Ports, railways, mines, oil rigs, etc are all being built and inching gradually northwards. Eventually once the arctic becomes ice free entirely I can see the area becoming incredibly important for shipping.
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