EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Railways, Transport

Urve Palo, Anrijs Matiss and Rimantas Sinkevicius. Riga, 28.10.2014. Photo: flickr.com

“This is a long awaited event for all the three Baltic states. I am convinced that the signing of the Contract will ensure the implementation of Rail Baltica II, which will be a major public railway transport project. I want to emphasize that the greatest beneficiaries of this project will be the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian citizens who will be able to easily travel to any Baltic country and other destinations in Europe in the near future. This important transport line will serve as a bridge between Europe and the Baltic states and contribute to the economic development”, the minister of Transport Anrijs Matīss announced to the audience.

Estonian Minister of Economy Urve Palo and Lithuanian Transport Minister Rimantas Sinkevicius also partici[ated in the signing of the agreement.

The company's head office is located in Riga and the main activity is the design, construction, and international marketing of the railway line.

Palo said this is a historic moment in the cooperation of the Baltic states. "This is the largest-scale joint project in the history of our countries and the establishment of a joint venture shows that all countries are serious about the railway project", cites LETA.

Palo noted that the Rail Baltic project must move forward at a brisk pace since the first application for funding has to be submitted to the European Union as early as February next year.

Estonia has reached in the preparations of the project the route choosing stage.

In accordance with the Agreement of shareholders, the main task of the joint venture will be design, construction and marketing of the railway line. It is also made clear that the owner of the rail infrastructure in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia is the country in which the infrastructure is located, as well as the fact that each party co-finances the railway construction only within its territory.

As reported, the Register of Enterprises of the Republic of Latvia decided to register the company LLC Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas, which is a state-owned limited liability company with a core capital of 680 000 euros. The Ministry of Transport of Latvia will become the shareholder of this company. The LLC Eiropas dzelzceļa līnijas will become the shareholder of the joint venture of the Baltic states as a Latvian representative investing 650 000 euros to the joint venture and thus obtaining the amount of the capital equivalent to the proportions of Estonia and Lithuania — 33.33% respectively.

The total length of the Rail Baltica II is planned to be 728 km and the maximum speed of the passenger transportation service is expected to reach 240 km/h. In Latvia, the total length of the Rail Baltica II will be 235 km. The passenger train journey along the chosen route from Tallinn to the Lithuanian - Polish border is planned to last approximately 4 hours. The average speed of the passenger trains is estimated to be 170 km/h, and the passenger transportation routes will be scheduled for every two hours.

By the beginning of 2016, the detailed technical study of the Rail Baltica II of the Latvian phase will be carried out with focus on the environmental, technical and economic aspects in order to determine the exact allocation of the planned Rail Baltica II railway line in the territory of Latvia, including conjunctions to ports and airports. According to the research, the technical project is expected to be developed till 2019 in order to start the construction process in 2020 and finish it in 2024.

According to the calculations performed by the British consulting company AECOM Ltd. in 2011, Latvia estimated costs for the new railway line is 1.27 billion euros, but the costs of all the three countries taken together is 3.68 billion euros (the total investment amount will be specified after the detailed technical research of the Latvian phase). The particular contribution of each state depends on the amount of the EU co-financing. The Rail Baltica II project may be eligible for up to 85% EU co-financing.

The project will ensure the Baltic transport infrastructure systems integration in the EU transport networks, as well as sustainable and diversified economic development and competitiveness.