Opinion piece by Ilona Bērziņa
Passenger transport by electric trains in Latvia is on the brink of a serious crisis. The state railway company Latvijas Dzelzceļš no longer hides the fact that the overhead contact line system is on the verge of collapse. There is a real possibility that passenger rail service could simply cease to function. EU funding that was meant for renewing the contact line network has instead vanished into the black hole known as Rail Baltica.
The first public warning came from TV3’s programme “Nekā personīga”, but let’s not pretend that the Ministry of Transport and Latvijas Dzelzceļš were unaware of the problem before that. Remember the winter and spring of last year, when people complained almost daily about the constant delays or derailments of ViVi electric trains? Initially, these problems were blamed on manufacturing flaws by Czech company Škoda Vagonka, but it later became clear that the main issue lies with our own rail infrastructure. See BNN’s article “Train delays due to railway infrastructure” for more.
Reading official news about railway infrastructure modernization projects in Latvia, one might get the impression that everything is going smoothly. Let me cite just one example—the 44 million euros platform modernization project, which has already gone over budget by around 10%. The main benefit promised to passengers is raised platforms so that people no longer have to risk tumbling out of or crawling into trains. But that project is also delayed.
Now imagine this theoretical—yet very Latvian—scenario: someone gets the “brilliant” idea to reallocate the remaining “platform money” to fill yet another budget hole in Rail Baltica’s eternally hungry belly. After all, maybe another pile needs to be urgently hammered into the Daugava River, or something equally absurd and untimely needs to be done?
There’s reason to worry. The infamous “golden pile” is no cheap joke—the unfinished bridge has already cost around 20 million euros, with another 75 million euros needed for completion—and no money in sight. So why not dip into other Latvijas Dzelzceļš infrastructure projects that still have EU funding allocated?
The situation with the contact lines is truly dire. According to “Nekā personīga”, the replacement of aging contact systems and transformers requires several hundred million euros.
It is clear that the state will not cover such costs from its own budget, and negotiations with the government could take an unpredictable amount of time. Unfortunately, government representatives tend to show up only when it’s time to cut a ribbon and pose for the cameras. Why should they care about contact lines that might or might not fail in five years, especially if trains aren’t their daily mode of transport? You can’t pose with a train line like you can with a bicycle for social media!
This story leads to some rather bleak conclusions. First and foremost, it reveals a lack of strategic vision and the inability to make decisions in the best interests of the national economy. With all due respect to whoever made the call, diverting funds from the contact line renewal to the Rail Baltica airport link does not reflect sound judgment. The excuse of delays doesn’t hold water here—delays or not, rail infrastructure must be restored and maintained in good condition.
By the time pantographs start failing one by one due to degraded contact lines, it will be too late to start repairs. The Ministry of Transport has already been warned about the situation. Now we wait to see how the Progressives Minister Atis Švinka will respond. This is not the kind of issue that can be quietly swept under the rug as if nothing happened.