Linas Jegelevičius
The much-touted premier Baltic railway project, Rail Baltica, seemingly braces for the new deadline of completion, in Lithuania at least – 2030.
“We are set to be done with it by then and thus we would be the first among the other Baltic States to complete the project, before the official EC deadline,” the Lithuanian Transport Ministry told BNN.
The importance of the project has gone tremendously after the war broke out in Ukraine, hence the European Commission’s decision to finance up to 85 percent of the project’s costs, and push it on top of the bloc’s transport infrastructure projects.
Yet, the project is far from being a smooth ride.
„When I am looking at the preparation of the contractors (of the project), I have to admit I see a lot of various bureaucratic obstacles. Unfortunately. One of the international contractors, a Spanish company, which is not even hired by a Lithuanian company (but is part of the project) is unfortunately late with the work it is trusted with,” Lithuanian Transport Minister Marius Skuodis has said recently.
And there has been more bad luck with Spanish companies along the way.
At the end of 2022, the Lithuanian government barred Lithuania’s state-owned railway group Lietuvos geležinkeliai from signing a deal with a Chinese-controlled Spanish firm for the construction of a Rail Baltica railway bridge over the Neris River over national security concerns, saying that Puentes y Calzadas Infraestructuras, the company, poses a threat to national security.
The decision meant that LTG Infra, a subsidiary of Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LTG),
could not sign the contract, worth 62.5 million euros, with the Spanish firm.
Besides, among other things, there is what experts call a lack of capacity for the project.
„I see certain limitations. This is the market capacity to implement this project at this scale. But what we are doing is restructuring the scope of the project, restructuring its implementation with a lot of market consultations with contractors being underway and we are looking for solutions”, Dovydas Palaima, head of the Lithuanian management of Rail Baltica, told delfi.lt
Recently, the Lithuanian Transport minister visited the Jonava district, through which Rail Baltica is being built to the Latvian border, to see with his own eyes how the project looks on paper and how it is in reality.
Having inspected the site, he reiterated that the planned date for completion of the project on Lithuanian soil – in 2026 – will be delayed. Yet the minister hopes that, within the next three years, it will be possible to lay the tracks at least as far as to Panevėžys, Lithuania‘s fifth-largest city.
„The year 2028 is when the Poles indicate to us that they will approach the border with their own rails. This means that in the same year, we also have to have rails so that they connect and it is possible to put the train on the rails and travel” M. Skuodis said.
He also says that the project will be more expensive, but does not say how much.
Six years ago, the project in Lithuania was supposed to cost 2.5 billion euros.
According to M. Skuodis, it is “natural” that the ongoing war and inflation impacted the price of the project.
Besides, there is another reason that was generally omitted at the inception of the project – climate change.
„We need to admit that we have such a phenomenon as climate change. When building such a facility, we need to build it completely differently, so that the larger rains we can expect do not wash away the same foundation. This, again, caused increases in the price,” D. Palaima told LNK news.
During the entire project implementation period,
Lithuania has already laid more than 128 kilometres of Rail Baltica tracks.
The European train is already running from Poland to Kaunas
“In other sections, if we take Kaunas-Vilnius or Kaunas-Poland, the main task for this year is to complete the special plans and start preparations for land acquisition projects,” D. Palaima said.
The construction of the longest railway bridge in the Baltic countries in Jonava across the Neris is set to begin later this year.
„There were also problems with its design, but as of today, they have already been resolved, the preparatory works are now underway and the construction of the bridge should begin at full capacity this summer,” D. Palaima said.
The technical documentation of the Neris bridge is also being coordinated.
Approached by BNN, Lithuania’s Transport vice-minister Loreta Maskaliovienė was optimistic: „The implementation of the Rail Baltic project in Lithuania is moving forward intensively. Compared to Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania has made the most progress in this project.“
She says the project is very important for Lithuania both strategically, economically, and in terms of national security, therefore Lithuania aims to implement it earlier than stipulated in EU regulations, by 2030.
„Global factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the geopolitical situation have also (negatively) affected the work of some project implementation stages, the cost of materials and planned works, including the limited market capacity to implement the project. But overall, we remain ambitious and are making every effort to implement this critical project as quickly as possible,” she accentuated.
Underscoring Lithuania‘s step ahead on the project, Rail Baltica Board member Marius Narmontas says that no other Baltic country has yet laid a single kilometer of the European track.
“In the near future, Latvia will also have a general contractor to start the works. Construction works are also being carried out in Estonia…
Not only Lithuania announced the delay of the project – both Latvia and Estonia did that too,”
he said.
Despite the impediments, looking forward, Lithuania is set not lose steam in moving forward with Rail Baltica.
„In the coming months, the main construction of the embankments and engineering structures will begin in the sections of Šveicarija-Žeimiai and Žeimiai-Šėta. The necessary technical documentation is currently being prepared and coordinated. In these sections, the construction of access roads for cars of local importance is underway; in one section, they are almost finished, and in the section Žeimiai-Šėta construction will begin very soon,“ the vice-minister told BNN.
According to her, at the end of this year, two additional contracts will be signed for the construction of the Rail Baltica track embankment and engineering structures towards the Latvian border, in the Kaunas-Šveicarija and Šėta-Ramygala sections.
„In other sections, the Kaunas railway junction, Kaunas-Vilnius and Kaunas-Lithuanian and Polish borders, as well as in objects of regional significance, territorial planning activities are intensively underway, and special plans are being prepared. All special plans for the railway line are expected to be approved by the end of this year,“ L. Maskaliovienė said.
The project has become much more important in the light of war in Ukraine. Before the war, Rail Baltica was effectively an economic project that also was aiming to help solve environmental issues, but now, it has become important to ensure security and peace.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine has “fundamentally” changed Rail Baltica’s function, making this project important not only for the region’s economy but also for its defence…We need to bring the Baltics and Finland closer to the EU not primarily, but also for military use.
Troops and military equipment should be able to travel to the EU swiftly to ensure the defence of the EU and NATO.
This point becomes relevant as Finland and Sweden are joining NATO,” Catherine Trautmann, the European coordinator of the North-Sea Baltic TEN-T Corridor, said at the Rail Baltica Industry Day conference in Riga last December.
Therefore, the European Commission has decided to finance up to 85 percent of the project’s costs.
Rail Baltica is a greenfield rail transport infrastructure project with the goal to integrate the Baltic States into the European rail network. Its purpose is to provide passenger and freight service between participating countries and improve rail connections between Central and Northern Europe, specifically the area southeast of the Baltic Sea.