EARLY this month, a massive new railway tunnel opened for the first time. It was finished six months early and nearly 10% under budget. So by now you know this didn't happen in America (or Britain, for that matter.) No, this feat of modern engineering (and good government) was completed in the Swedish city of Malmö, just across the Oresund bridge from Copenhagen, Denmark.
The project transformed Malmö Central Station, which is actually in the northern part of the city, from a dead end where trains had to reverse course into a through station. The former terminus is now just a stop on a large circular route that cuts underground through the center of Sweden's third-largest city. The construction of the tunnel was accompanied by the construction of two new stations—one in the actual city centre, and another south of the city, in an area targeted for future development. Here's a map:
Official travel times aren't much reduced, but commuters who work in the city centre will no longer have to disembark at Malmö Central. Instead, they can use the new underground station at Triangeln, cutting a transfer to a bus or cab out of their daily grind. And as the area around the new, southernmost Hyllie Station develops, the benefits of the project should become even more apparent. Railzone's Daniel Sparing explains:
This new link virtually makes Malmö and Copenhagen a single conurbation, [making] commuting from one city to another even easier. Copenhagen airport is also extremely well connected to central Malmö and the new development area [south of the city].
(Mr Sparing has more on urban rail tunnels here.)
When's the last time a rail project of this size was completed ahead of time and under budget in America? And if the Swedes can do it, why can't the Americans? The answer to the second question, at least, was in The Economist earlier this month.