Keith Dawson
e-mail: kmdawson@dlc.fi

28.7.1997

TRANSPORT SUBSIDIES

I have followed the reports in the media concerning the financing of various transport projects. The Ministry of Transport has just accepted it will contribute 518mmk to the Leppävaara project and most likely it will support the connections to Helsinki's planned new harbour with at least the same amount again. At the same time it is trying to save 15mmk this year and 30mmk next year from the amount budgeted for buying railway services in rural areas.

Is it true that the Leppävaara and Helsinki harbour projects are not commercially viable without such massive State subsidies? It has been shown that the Helsinki region is the only one in Finland which compares to European levels of population density and economic activity. Why then cannot these projects attract sufficient funding from other sources? Dare I suggest that perhaps it is because they are not the best solutions to the problems they are supposed to answer - or is it only political ideology stopping the private sector from taking the lead in such projects?

It is a sad situation when the Government is prepared to spend massive amounts of tax payers cash on half-baked ideas in the Helsinki region, when the national railway network is starved of money to maintain (let alone improve) the tracks and services on behalf of the rest of the nation.


Back to forum