A new megaproject, currently being built beneath Denmark and Germany, will revolutionise travel between the two European nations when it opens by the end of the decade. Currently, the journey between Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, and the northern German port city of Hamburg typically takes around five hours and usually involves a ferry. 

However, this is all set to change, as construction has officially begun on the rail connection for the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link. From late 2029, this will enable trains to travel from Copenhagen via Lübeck to Hamburg in just two and a half hours. The incredible project will connect the Fehmarnbelt tunnel – which joins the Danish island of Lolland to the German island of Fehmarn – with the mainland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s northernmost state. “After years of planning, today we can celebrate the start of construction for the rail link here on Fehmarn. With our Danish partners, here in the middle of the Baltic Sea we’ll complete a new European rail link from Denmark through Germany to Italy by 2029,” said Berthold Huber, DB Management Board Member for Infrastructure at the project’s opening ceremony.

“This corridor is equally important for local and long-distance transport here in Schleswig-Holstein and for European freight transport,” he added. The tunnel will create a land route between Sweden and Central Europe that is over 99 miles shorter than the current journey – a major advantage for cargo.

The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link will be the longest combined road and rail tunnel in the world, featuring two double-laned motorways and two electrified rail tracks. It is also one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects, costing around £5.6 billion. It is being built by immersing pre-built tunnel sections, unlike the Channel Tunnel, which was made using a boring machine.

Each of the 89 sections will be 712 feet long, 138 feet wide and 30 feet tall, each weighing 73,000 metric tonnes, according to CNN. It will involve approximately 113 million cubic feet of concrete – enough to build roughly 150 to 160 Great Pyramids of Giza – and 360,000 tonnes of reinforced steel, the equivalent of about 50 Eiffel Towers. Engineers have already dredged roughly 670 million cubic feet of soil, sand and clay from the seabed to make way for the project.

The Belt link forms part of the new European freight corridor between Norway’s Oslo and Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily, also known as the Scandinavian-Mediterranean (ScanMed) Rail Freight Corridor. This massive project is estimated to stretch some 7,000 miles via Finland, Germany and Austria. 68 freight trains are expected to run along it daily, according to DB Cargo.

Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway company, is starting the project with the double-track upgrade and electrification of the seven-mile line between Puttgarden and the Fehmarn Sound Bridge, the first of 10 construction sections. Starting in 2026, work on all sections between Fehmarn and Lübeck will proceed simultaneously. Of the project’s 55 miles of rail lines, 34 miles are planned as new construction.

While environmental concerns have been raised about the project, Michael Lovendal Kruse of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation argued that the link will bring benefits. He said: “As part of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, new natural areas and stone reefs on the Danish and German sides will be created. Nature needs space and there will be more space for nature as a result.

“But the biggest advantage will be the benefit for the climate. Faster passage of the Belt will make trains a strong challenger for air traffic, and cargo on electric trains is by far the best solution for the environment.”