Latvian Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development have submitted objections to the Rail Baltica implementation scenario proposed by the Ministry of Transport, thereby rejecting the report on the project, according to information on the Legislative Acts Portal.
On top of that, the Ministry of Defence believes the report from the Ministry of Transport does not reflect the minimal military mobility requirement – the option to load and unload military freight in Latvia – and its integration in Rail Baltica.
The Ministry of Defence has already informed the Ministry of Transport that for Salaspils intermodal logistical centre to be implemented by 2030 at a level allowing infrastructure to handle military freight, it will be necessary to prepare infrastructure on both sides of Daugava River – Iecava and Skulte infrastructure maintenance points for the reception and transhipment of military cargo, which would be comparable to the capacity of the Garkalne military freight handling point.
The Ministry of Defence stresses the report does include the priority defined by the defence sector – construction of Salaspils intermodal logistical centre by the year 2030. Therefore, it is not clearly stated if the infrastructure maintenance centres in Iecava and Skulte are to be built in accordance with military mobility requirements – allowing the loading and unloading of military freight.
Representatives of the Ministry of Culture, meanwhile, note that the implementation of the construction proposal is regulated by the Law on Protection of Cultural Monuments and Cabinet of Ministers requirements on the registration, protection, use and restoration of cultural monuments.
The Ministry of Culture stresses that in 2018, identification of cultural and historical heritage on the route of the planned railway line was carried out by European Railway Lines LLC. The report titled “Identification and research of cultural and historical heritage on the Latvian section track of Rail Baltica” was submitted to the government.
According to the Ministry of Culture, it is unacceptable for the report’s references to the reduction of administrative burdens and the necessary funding to be applied to research and identification of cultural and historical assets, which would be contrary to the legal framework, including international conventions, in the field of the protection of cultural heritage.
Thus, when planning works, the information obtained during the identification of cultural and historical heritage carried out along the planned route of Rail Baltica and during the research on cultural and historical values should be taken into account and the recommendations provided by the investigators for the performance of construction work should be conveyed to designers and performers of construction work, they should be incorporated into the relevant sections of the construction project, the ministry adds.
This is why the National Heritage Board has requested expanding the report with a section regarding the preservation of cultural heritage.
VARAM representatives, meanwhile, object to the task set out in the protocol decision to develop, together with the Ministry of Transport, a strategy for the development of regional stations and mobility hubs. In accordance with the ministry’s regulations, the Ministry of Transport carries out the management of the Rail Baltica project and the joint supervision of the project in order to ensure the establishment of the Rail Baltica state public-use railway infrastructure and the implementation of the project.
However, according to the regulations that govern VARAM, the ministry does not have the authority and functional mobility in matters of development of such strategies, the ministry stresses.
Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs request the clarification of one sentence in relation to the information on the next multi-annual financial budget of the European Union (EU) in order to ensure coherence with the draft line on the EU’s multi-annual budget after 2027.
At the same time, the Ministry of Economics, the Ministry of Climate and Energy, the Ministry of Justice, the Latvian Railway Association have coordinated the report with the proposals, while the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Healthcare, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education and Science have all coordinated the report without objections.
The Ministry of Welfare has refused to provide an opinion.
As previously reported, the Ministry of Finance had more than 20 objections to the Rail Baltica scenario proposed by the Ministry of Transport.
One of the objections from the ministry states that the information report and the draft minutes of the Cabinet of Ministers meeting currently provide information on the construction of the potential infrastructure of the project and the expected costs of its maintenance. What it does not provide, however, is information on the expected economic benefit of using the completed infrastructure and who will ensure the maintenance and management of the established infrastructure.
It has already been reported that the Ministry of Transport has prepared a scenario for the implementation of the first round of “Rail Baltica” in Latvia, which provides for the construction of one track from the Lithuanian border to Estonia, as well as the creation of a European gauge rail connection with one of the two Riga international stations, while before the completion of the first stage of the project, it is planned to connect the two Riga international stations in the existing railway infrastructure.
The Ministry of Transport points out that the choice of the Upesleja-Riga Central Station connection or the Misa-Riga Airport connection will be based on a separate feasibility study, which will determine which of the two connections is more profitable from an economic, technical and financial perspective. To make this happen, it is planned to attract alternative financial solutions, such as public-private partnerships (PPPs).
The total cost of implementing the first cross-border connection from the Estonian border to the Lithuanian border, using only the freight bypass through Salaspils, is 4.5 billion euros. On the other hand, the total cost of the infrastructure of the two international passenger stations and the associated tracks amounts to EUR 875 million, whereas the construction of infrastructure maintenance points in Iecava and Skulte, a traffic control centre and a side road Salaspils freight terminal, as well as four regional stations, requires EUR 133 million.
Estimates from RB Rail indicate that the implementation of Upeslejas-Riga Central Station project will require financing EUR 629 million, whereas Misa-Riga airport section of the project will likely cost EUR 924 million.