Funding for the continuation of the Rail Baltica railway project in Latvia is guaranteed for several more years, Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity) emphasized today in an interview with Latvian Radio’s program Krustpunktā.
She pointed out that Latvia is currently in the design phase for the section toward Estonia, which she described as very positive, adding that the Estonian side had thought Latvia had not yet reached this stage.
Siliņa also said that all three Baltic states had suffered delays because of another European country that “failed the entire design process.” She did not specify which country this was. “As a result, the design process was prolonged in all three Baltic states,” the prime minister said.
According to Siliņa, EU funding has already been reallocated to ensure the completion of two major stations – Riga International Airport and Riga Central Railway Station. Within the government, agreement still needs to be reached on cost ceilings. At present, Latvia’s costs are the highest, but the government’s stance is that Latvia should be “somewhere in the middle between Lithuania and Estonia,” so common project limits need to be agreed, she explained.
“It is more or less clear that part of the financing will come from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), and then there is the potential to attract private-public partnership contributions,” Siliņa said.
She also stressed that both Lithuania and Estonia are still facing funding shortages.
As reported, according to RB Rail, the first stage of Rail Baltica in the Baltics could cost 14.3 billion euros, of which 5.5 billion euros would be in Latvia. However, savings of up to 500 million euros may be possible through technical optimizations, as well as other cost efficiencies.
Overall project costs in the Baltics could reach 23.8 billion euros, according to the cost-benefit analysis. In the previous 2017 analysis, total costs were estimated at 5.8 billion euros.
The Rail Baltica project envisions a European standard-gauge railway line from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border, ensuring that the Baltic states are connected by rail to the rest of Europe. The plan is to build a new 870 km European standard-gauge (1435 mm) line, with trains running at speeds of up to 240 km/h.
Read also: KNAB explains why the Rail Baltica case is stalling – politicians under scrutiny