Finland. Länsimetro Oy
Date of loan: 1 April 2011
Country: Finland
Borrower: Länsimetro Oy
NACE sector/loan type: Land transport
Environmental lending facility: CLEERE: 100%
Environmental area: air
Focus sectors
|
Environment |
100% |
Other: | |
| Energy | Financial intermediary | ||
| Transport, logistics and communication |
Manufacturing and mining | ||
| Innovations | Services and other |
Project
The 30-year-maturity loan totalling EUR 120 million has been provided for extending the metro line from Finland's capital city, Helsinki, to the city of Espoo. The metro will connect the southern parts of Espoo to the regional rail transport system. The new 13.9-kilometre metro line will be built totally underground. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 passengers will use the metro daily and that around 60,000 will cross the border between Helsinki and Espoo every day.
In addition to its positive environmental effects, the project will have a significant employment impact. Once the west metro is completed, bus traffic from southern Espoo to the centre of Helsinki along the Western Motorway will be discontinued. Feeder buses will transport passengers to metro stations.
Länsimetro Oy was founded in 2007 as a jointly owned company by the cities of Espoo and Helsinki. Länsimetro Oy will build the new metro line but the line will be sublet to Helsinki City Transport (HKL), who will be responsible for running the metro as well as the maintenance of track stations and depots.
Compliance with NIB's mandate
By financing the project NIB is fulfilling both the environmental mandate (rail transport have less emissions) and the competitiveness mandate, as the project is supporting to increase the competitiveness of the greater Helsinki area. The NIB loan's value added is the long-term financing - enabling the cities of Helsinki and Espoo to fulfil their transport and traffic plans and to be able to keep the public ransport tariffs at a moderate level. The long-term financing provided by NIB is very important because the planned life time of the project is at least 30 years.
Environmental summary
The major environmental advantage with the project is the transfer of passengers from road to rail and the reduction of traffic congestion in the city centre of Helsinki. Railway transportation causes considerably lower emissions in comparison with road travel. The main environmental issues are impacts occurring during the construction period. Länsimetro has introduced mitigation measures for the temporary negative impacts.
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