New waves in transportation in North-Eastern Europe

North‐Eastern Europe is a peripheral area around the Baltic Sea. In some parts i.e. Scandinavia high living standards including developed transport systems exist when at the same time rapid changes in the way of living in other parts ‐ Poland, the Baltic Countries and Russia ‐ are ongoing. Transport policies in the European Union are caught between demands for improved mobility and the concern on the environmental protection. In the former socialist countries the environmental issues are subdued by the demands for efficient transport. A fixed road and rail connection between Denmark and Sweden will change the transport geography of the western part of the area. Also the integration of the Baltic States and Poland to the Union will inside a few years change the economic and by that way also transport structure. After a short presentation of the geography and history the current European transport landscape will be described and current transport policies reviewed. Then some topics on the major changes during the last decennia as well as future studies will be presented. The paper draws heavily from the research projects ‐ SAMI, START and STEMM ‐ financed by the European Commission DGVII.