Estonia’s Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Svet has sent a letter to his Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts stressing the need to maintain the pace of the construction of the Rail Baltic so that the new railway would be completed as a functional north-south connection by 2030.
Svet said he also would like to reiterate Estonia’s support to the idea to start partial operation on the Rail Baltic track before 2030. In Estonia, this would mean operation on the Tallinn-Pärnu line in 2028 or 2029.
“Even though main construction activities are now being done on the Tallinn-Pärnu section, the government of Estonia is fully committed to develop the section of Pärnu-EE/LV border by 2030. The Rail Baltic southern part of Pärnu County spatial plan is advancing well, the respective county plan is in public discussion phase and is expected to be adopted at the beginning of next year. We also address design process so that the section can be
built within the 2030 timeframe,” the Estonian minister said in his letter to Latvia’s Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens and Lithuania’s Transport Minister Marius Skuodis.
In Estonia, construction activities are currently underway on approximately 70 kilometers on the Tallinn-Pärnu main line, new contracts for approximately 30 kilometers are to be signed shortly, and the construction of different individual structures, such as viaducts, etc, will be
commissioned for the rest of the Tallinn-Pärnu section.
To ensure the implementation of the 2030 schedule, the government of Estonia has decided to allocate an additional 197 million euros for the construction of the Rail Baltic main line. Finances are earmarked in the 2025 state budget, with rebound in the 2026-2028 state budget strategy. The state budget funds will complement the already ensured and future CEF financing. On top of this, 75 million euros will be allocated for the construction of the Rail Baltic Ülemiste rolling stock depot — a dual use stock depot for new and current track gauge width.
The minister said it is crucial for the government of Estonia that the works progress at the same pace in Latvia and Lithuania, as a situation where the ready-built Estonian section of the Rail Baltic stays isolated from Latvia and Lithuania in 2030 would be extremely harmful to the whole project. Therefore, he places great hope on their continuous good cooperation and best efforts to pursue decisions that ensure completion of the Phase 1 by 2030.
Svet says his key takeaway from the meeting with his Latvian and Lithuanian colleagues two weeks ago was that the transport ministers of all the three countries understand the importance of completing the first phase of Rail Balic project by 2030 and are fully committed to take the necessary steps to achieve this goal.
“We agree that phase-based constructing should be implemented on the Rail Baltic where possible to ensure that a functional high-speed railway connection is ensured between our three countries by 2030,” he said.
Source: BNS
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