The world’s longest immersed tunnel, the future Fehmarnbelt tunnel between Denmark and Germany, will be equipped with a state-of-the art railway and an energy efficient catenary system.

The Tunnel Track and Catenary (TTC) contract will be put out to tender in the spring with a projected financial framework of approximately EUR 200m or DKK 1.5bn. It will comprise a 25 km two-track railway to run trains at 200 km/hr and a catenary system of which 18 km will be located in the tunnel itself and with a total of 7 km outside the tunnel, on the Danish and German sides.  

To enable companies to form appropriate consortia and participate in the tender, Femern A/S is making additional information available.

"There has been great interest from potential bidders in having more details ahead of the tender in the spring,” says Kirsten Christensen, Contract Director, Femern A/S, with responsibility for railway installations. "We want, of course, to assist companies in putting consortia together and to tender for the contract. Our main aim is to attract some great and well-qualified competition in the tender phase.”

Femern A/S has published the new information about the tender on the EU tender database TED: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:632847-2022:TEXT:EN:HTML

The tender itself is expected to be published by the spring of 2023 with the winner of the TTC contract announced in the spring of 2025.  

To ensure the best possible tender, Femern A/S carried out extensive market research earlier this year whereby the industry was consulted to obtain input on the latest climate-friendly and energy-efficient solutions.   

"We gave potential bidders the chance to put their knowhow on the table, which went down well with a number of major players in the market. It also gave us valuable insight which we’re currently processing to ensure that the tender will be as strong as possible and that we’ll get a climate-friendly and energy-efficient railway when we open,” says Kirsten Christensen.

When the tunnel with its electrified railway is completed in 2029, it will offer a green 'shortcut' for the transport of rail freight and passengers to Europe. The rail journey through the tunnel will take 7 minutes, avoiding a 160 km detour.