The European standard gauge railway line Rail Baltica project will not pay off financially and the country will have to pay for its maintenance, said Rail Baltica Estonia manager Anvar Salomets.
When asked by Estonian public broadcaster ERR how the construction of Rail Baltica could pay off financially, Salomets said that “it’s not financially sustainable and it never will be”.
The Chief Technical Officer of Rail Baltica Estonia explained that if the project was financially profitable, some private businessman would have built it by now.
According to him, it’s clear that Estonia and other Baltic States will have to pay for maintenance of the railway line every year. This means ticket sales alone and user fees will not be enough to ensure railway operations. When asked when the railway line could become self-sufficient, Salomets said it’s not impossible.
Nevertheless, he stressed that profits are not the goal of the project.
Salomets said 85% of Rail Baltica is financed by the European Union. He allows the share of EU in Rail Baltica’s financing could go down.
Rail Baltica Estonia manager added it may happen EU’s financing of the project could go down to 80%. This possibility was taken into account in plans.
“In certain parts of the project we work with an 80/20 proportion,” he said.
Salomets said that although Rail Baltica infrastructure construction efforts in Estonia are already underway, the railway lines are planned to be installed only in 2027. Viaducts and passenger terminal building in Tallinn are under construction. A portion of the funding for the construction of the project will be allocated by the European Union during the financing period, which will begin in 2027. According to the current plans, Rail Baltica will be completed in 2030.
Also read: Rail Baltica main track costs for Latvia estimated at EUR 3.7 billion
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