Petrozavodsk – Murmansk – Kirkenes Corridor

The planning of a new international trunk network terminal for the port of Kirkenes with an access road and a potential railway connection from Finland was started in 2018. The planning is expected to be completed in 2019. As of today, there are uncertainties concerning the construction and financing of the project. On the Russian side, the improvement works have been in progress since 2008 and have encompassed the entire 230 km stretch between the Norwegian border and Murmansk. The state program of the Russian Federation “Development of the transport system”, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on 20 December 2017 No. 1596, provides “Integrated development of the Murmansk transport hub”. The implementation has 2 stages: Stage I - railway line – station Vykhodnoy - bridge over the river Tuloma - station Murmashi 2 - station Lavna (at the expense of the federal budget); Stage II - dredging of the water area and water approaches for the coal terminal (at the expense of extrabudgetary funds). In order to increase its capacity, it is planned to build the second track on the Murmansk - Petrozavodsk section with a length of 327 km (Medvezhyegorsk District, the city of Petrozavodsk, Prionezhye District, Segezha District, Polyarnye Zori, Olenegorsk, Kondopoga District, Segezha, Kondopoga, Kem, Belomorsk District, Kandalaksha, Louhi District, Kola District, Murmansk, Kem District, Apatity). The Government of the Murmansk Region is considering the possibility of organizing ferry service on the route Kirkenes - Murmansk - Kirkenes. It has been decided to extend the runway at Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen in 2018-2023. There are also plans for reconstruction of Murmansk Airport.