Challenges for international accessibility and mobility in the Öresund region
The international accessibility to and from the Öresund region generally looks good when compared to other northern European metropolitan regions. There are many reasons for this. For one, the railway and road networks of the Öresund region are relatively well developed on both sides of Öresund. For another, a large number of transport and logistics companies are localised in the Öresund region. These companies can provide quick and efficient connections for freight transport to and from the region (10). Finally, Copenhagen airport and its many flight routes to and from the region create a traffic centre which connects the Öresund region with other international regions by quick and frequent air connections.
Even if the potential accessibility to and from the Öresund region is relatively good, the future challenge will be to ensure continued accessibility; at the same time, it will be necessary to reduce the environmental impact of increased traffic and congestion.
To a high degree, the environmental burden and problems relating to congestion of the transport sector are connected to the increase in traffic, that is, the number of vehicles and kilometres driven. Due to the increasing global trade and the increasing demand of longer business and leisure
trips, the traffic work has grown to a great extent the last decade, without a corresponding growth in the transportation work (the volume of transported goods and number of persons). The amount of emissions from a number of substances decreased considerably during all of the 1990s, but the amount of carbon dioxide emissions are still parallel with the increase in traffic - compare the figure on the next page. The levels for carbon dioxide are closely connected to the use of fossil fuels in the transport sector.
To handle this challenge is not easy, but a start could be to use the existing and new infrastructures and transport systems more efficiently. One such measure could be to upgrade the railway capacity for passenger transport on both sides of Öresund to be able to handle even more passengers in the long-term. The existing train system of the Öresund region could be developed to also include western and southern Zealand with direct train connections across Öresund; this could be an initiative to attract part of the increasing Öresund traffic to the public transport system and away from the environmental burden of car traffic. The potential seems to be greatest for commuting and travel to the larger cities in the Öresund region, while the growing leisure and tourist traffic across Öresund would be more difficult to transfer from car to train traffic (11).
- Development of emissions from Denmark 1988 –2006 and expected development up until 2030.
Source: Infrastrukturkomissionen, 2008:41
Another solution could be to establish a high speed train system between Stockholm/Oslo - Öresund region - Berlin/Hamburg for more energy-efficient and environmentally adapted international accessibility to and from the Öresund region. A high-speed train system would potentially be a future travel alternative to air traffic between the Öresund region and the large cities in Scandinavia and northern Europe.
Increased efforts to move freight from road transport to transport by rail or by sea are just one of the many strategies that could reduce the environmental burden and congestion from freight transport to and from the Öresund region. However, greater strategic efforts are needed to ensure better accessibility to the existing and new transport centres, such as ports and intermodal terminals to reload freight by road, rail and sea. Today the responsibility for development and localisation of most of the important transport enters in the Öresund region is spread among many public and private actors.
(10) IBU 2/Oxford Research, 2010
(11) IBU 2/Tetraplan, 2009a
Sources
This text is based on the following:
• IBU 2/COWI, 2009a: International tilgængelighed i Øresundsregionen. IBU 2 delopgave 1. COWI, 2009. www. ibu-oresund.dk.
• IBU 2/COWI, 2009b: this text is in Danish IBU 2 delopgave 4. COWI, 2009. www. ibu-oresund.dk.
• IBU 2/Tetraplan, 2009a: International persontransport i Øresundsregionen. IBU 2 delopgave 2. Tetraplan, 2009. www. ibu-oresund.dk.
• IBU 2/Tetraplan, 2009b: International godstransport i Øresundsregionen. IBU 2 delopgave 3. T etraplan, 2009. www. ibu-oresund.dk.
• IBU 2/Oxford Research, 2010: Øresund-Femern som grøn transport logistisk korridor. IBU 2 delopgave 3. Oxford Research, 2010. www. ibu-oresund.dk.
• Infrastrukturkommissionen, 2008: Danmarks Transportinfrastruktur 2030. Infrastrukturkommissionen, betänkande.
• EU, 2009: A Sustainable Future for Transport. European Commission.
