By the end of this year, construction should be underway on 43% of the Rail Baltica main line, Marko Kivila, Chairman of the Management Board of the Baltic joint venture RB Rail AS, and Chief Financial Officer Ojārs Daugavietis told the LETA news agency in an interview.
Kivila explained that in Estonia, active construction is currently ongoing on approximately 105 kilometers of embankment and related infrastructure, while in Lithuania construction by year’s end will reach 114 kilometers.
In Latvia, however, construction is presently at about 10 kilometers, with the aim of reaching 45 kilometers by the end of the year.
He noted that before embankment works can begin in most areas, extensive preparatory work must be carried out – deforestation, construction of access roads, land leveling, as well as demining operations, which in Latvia are particularly significant since the new railway line crosses areas where unexploded ordnance from the First and Second World Wars is still being found.
“In some areas, deforestation, road construction, and land leveling still need to be completed.
At the same time, embankment building is underway, providing a stable foundation for the railway superstructure,” Kivila added.
According to him, this process is an essential safety prerequisite, but it also delays the start of construction compared with neighboring countries. “In parallel, embankment-related infrastructure is being built – bridges, viaducts, crossings, culverts, and other engineering structures. Once the embankment and related works are completed, the next phase is the construction of the railway superstructure, which includes the track bed – laying ballast, installing sleepers, and rails,” Kivila explained.
The head of RB Rail also stressed that contract signing is a decisive moment for the project. The only pending contracts concern outsourcing the train control and signaling (CCS) subsystems, and in Lithuania, certain sections of the main line from Kaunas to the Polish border and from Panevėžys to the Latvian border. Meanwhile, a contract for the electrification of the entire Rail Baltica route was recently signed.
“In Latvia, the main line contractor has already been selected,
so we are now finalizing the remaining sections to ensure that all contracts for the first-phase Rail Baltica construction works are signed. Once the contracts are in place, the focus will shift to actual construction, no longer to preparatory conditions,” Kivila said.
Daugavietis added that when requesting money from the European Commission (EC) through project competitions, representatives always ask about the project’s readiness stage.
“A signed contract effectively means we are at a very advanced stage of readiness, ensuring that the allocated funding will indeed be used and the project will progress. Previously, we had to play a game of assumptions, but today we can say: here are the contracts, and we are ready to invest and implement the project,” Daugavietis noted.
He further explained that in Latvia,
past decisions allocated part of the funding to the so-called Riga Loop, the main line section running through Riga.
“If we compared the amount of money available in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and if it had all been invested only in the main line bypassing Riga, construction in Latvia would likely be progressing at a pace similar to our neighbors,” Daugavietis added.
He stressed that the Riga Loop is the most complex part, where the railway passes through the city, requiring many considerations with a large number of stakeholders. Currently, the main focus is on building the 45-kilometer section of the main line from the Lithuanian border to Misa, then further to Salaspils, and northward to the Estonian border.
He also clarified that the project has been divided into operational segments so that parts of the line can be put into use before the entire main line is completed. “The reason the next target is the line from Misa to Salaspils is that from Salaspils a shuttle train can start operating to Riga Central Station and Riga Airport Station. Do we already have the money for this? Not yet,” Daugavietis admitted.
According to him,
everything now depends on the next EU long-term budget,
which is currently estimated to be larger than in the 2021–2027 period. Discussions on how this funding will be allocated have only just begun.
According to RB Rail, the first-phase costs of Rail Baltica in the Baltics could reach 14.3 billion euros, of which 5.5 billion euros would be in Latvia. However, there is potential for savings of up to 500 million euros through optimized technical solutions, as well as other possible reductions.
The total project cost, according to the cost-benefit analysis, could reach 23.8 billion euros in the Baltics. The previous cost-benefit analysis in 2017 had estimated the overall project cost at 5.8 billion euros.
The Rail Baltica project envisages the construction of a European standard-gauge railway line from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border, enabling further rail connections between the Baltic states and the rest of Europe. In the Baltics, a new 870-kilometer-long European standard-gauge (1,435 mm) railway line is planned, designed for a maximum train speed of 240 km/h.
Read also: RB Rail management warns: without state funding, Rail Baltica oversight is at risk
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