The project of a Railroad from Rovaniemi (FI) to Kirkenes (NO), that is being discussed under the name „Arctic Rail“, should be considered more important now than a few years ago.
Due to the attack of Ukraine by Russia and the sanctions and the announced Russian attack of Finland and Sweden (yes, that is true, Russia more or less officially announced that) using the Russian port of Murmansk becomes less viable and it becomes more important for Finland to have a port in a „friendly“ country, which would be Norway. It can now be considered a possibility that FSB-people influenced Sami-population in northern Finland to categorically reject this project. In any case their concerns could be addressed by adding tunnel sections to the railroad to provide for crossings by the reindeer.
Concerning the route, a route close to the Russian border looked more promising, because it is shorter, it avoids the „cutting problem“ because the border will anyway be completely fenced soon by Finland and it provideds the possibility to also build a 