Abstract

The stated ambition for Nordic co-operation today is for the Nordic Region to be “the most integrated and sustainable region in the world”. While integration is a fact, the same cannot be said for sustainability: the air routes between Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen are among the busiest in Europe. In the 1990s, however, there were visions, project plans and even a realised attempt to prioritise rail links between the capitals in the so-called ‘Nordic triangle’. Inspiration came from Europe, where new infrastructure was being developed and state-owned railway companies had created subsidiaries for cross-border traffic. Most prominently, the Eurotunnel allowed for high-speed trains from the centre of London to Brussels and Paris. With the Öresund Bridge, an opportunity was at hand to do something similar in the Nordic region. But why were the Scandinavian plans derailed?

In this talk I present findings from a research project that studies the failure to create a sustainable integration of Scandinavia through the history of the rise and fall of the Nordic triangle. Drawing on source material ranging from train companies to lobbying organisations, I examine the tense relationship between ideas of ecological modernisation and local environmental concerns. Furthermore, I analyse how the vision of a new railway was transformed into an EU project by politicians and experts in the early 1990s. In particular, the talk focuses on the attempt to create a Scandinavian market for high-speed rail traffic through the creation of the Swedish-Norwegian company Linx AB in 2000. In a time of renewed interest in European railways, the project sheds light on transport and business in Nordic cooperation, places the history of Scandinavian mobility in a perspective of Europeanisation, and analyses the transformation of public railways into market actors.