Helsinki and Tallinn Land EU Funds for TWIN-PORT II Project

The Baltic Sea ports of Helsinki and Tallinn have received EUR 29.3 million from the European Union for their jointly developed TWIN-PORT II project to improve the infrastructure and the maritime links between the two ports. 

The Port of Helsinki together with the Port of Tallinn and AS Tallink Grupp, the ferry operator on this route, obtained the EU funding within the 2014 CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) program. The total cost of the planned investments is EUR 97.6 million.

At this stage the support to develop Helsinki-Tallinn maritime link in the period 2015-2018 is allocated as follows:

  • Port of Helsinki will receive EUR 19.2 million to develop traffic and port facilities related to Helsinki-Tallinn line traffic, this includes the new fast flow terminal, ramp constructions for the vessels, gate services and street connections. The total investment of the Port of Helsinki is EUR 64 million.
  • Port of Tallinn will receive EUR 5.3 million support to develop several activities in the Old City Harbour: sewage system in the port to collect waste waters from ships, extension of terminal D, reconstruction of access to terminal A and connecting the terminals A and D. The total investment of Port of Tallinn is EUR 17.6 million.
  • AS Tallink Grupp will receive EUR 4.8 million support from the EU to be assigned to the new environmentally friendly LNG vessel, which will be serving the Helsinki-Tallinn line starting from 2017. The ship will cost EUR 230 million and the investment under TWIN-PORT II is EUR 16 million.

The CEF program is a continuation to TEN-T, where the initial TWIN-PORT project was started. The follow-up project is called TWIN-PORT II.

Helsinki-Tallinn line serves about 8 million passengers per year, while trucks and trailers carry over 3 million tons of cargo per year. The flows of traffic and passengers between the two ports have been constantly growing for a decade already.

”The continuing effective cooperation with Port of Helsinki and Tallink helps us to develop the link as a whole. It also supports the Twin-City idea and the Rail Baltic project,” said Ain Kaljurand, CEO of the Port of Tallinn.