He said that the ministry will offer to redistribute the already existing funding to other fund projects in order to complete Riga’s international stations. “We don’t want to leave the stations unfinished, we have the opportunity before “Rail Baltica” reaches Riga to build this functional connection between the two stations and launch our “Škoda” trains,” said the minister.
The minister added that this embankment from Imanta to the airport will be built for two tracks, so that in the future, the tracks of “Rail Baltica” can also be laid next to them and, if necessary, even combined.
Regarding the further development of “Rail Baltica”, he said that the MoU offers, for the available funding, to continue developing the construction in the southern section, which is the most important direction to the Lithuanian border. But at the same time watch how to move about this vertically in the direction of Estonia. “Our commitment has not diminished in any way – to provide this entire passing vertical line, but at the same time, in Misa, where these lines split, to also build this Misa-Riga airport connection in the first round,” said the minister.
Therefore, according to him, the logic is formed that in fact Latvia will have achieved the integration of the two stations in the first round. Accordingly, when reaching the Riga Airport station from the south and further – initially on the wide tracks, later on the “Rail Baltica” tracks or even on both tracks, you will be able to get to the Riga Central Station.
He added that mainly in the first phase, all elements of the baseline are modeled as single-track solutions on a double-track embankment. This means that the embankment and all infrastructure, crossings and viaducts will be designed in such a way that there is room for two tracks, but accordingly, one track will be placed in the first phase.
“This is what we call the first phase of the project. After that, in the second phase, we will focus on completing the entire Riga loop and, of course, all the other investments that are necessary for Rail Baltica to function to its full potential,” said Briškens .
Commenting on the implementation scenario of the first stage, which is 2030, he said that this is the goal, and it is clear that the European Transport Network (TEN-T) regulation also provides for it. “I have not hidden that it is a big challenge, both technically and financially. There is no guarantee that it can be done by 2030, but we will do everything within the limits of the availability of funding to move towards such an ambitious goal,” Brishken said.
The minister emphasized that this is the solution directed by the MoU and the railway industry, but a political agreement in the coalition and the government, as well as in a wider context, still needs to be reached.
In parallel, a financial working group is also working, which is evaluating additional alternative financing strategies, including a private-public partnership model or the creation of a special structure that could form future revenues as a basis for organizing international loans. These different financing models were discussed at the meeting, and the minister hopes that from these offers it will be possible to arrive at a reasonable, financially justified solution for the first round of “Rail Baltica”.
Kristīne Malnača, Deputy State Secretary of the MoU for Rail Baltica issues, added that the MoU is currently preparing an informative report with these proposals and will submit the Legal Act on the portal in the near future. “The report could be ready next week, but of course there is also a coordination process, so it is currently difficult to predict when it will be reviewed by the government,” informed Malnača.
She said that funding for the construction of the Misa-Lithuanian border was supported in July this year, while in this European Union (EU) Multiannual budget planning period, the remaining funding that Latvia could claim for the “Rail Baltica” project is about 160 million euros. “This is funding that is left until the end of 2027. We hope that a similar support program will remain in the next budget planning period as well,” said Malnača.
LETA already announced that on Tuesday, the meeting of the thematic committee for the implementation of “Rail Baltica” was held, where proposals for the project’s implementation scenario, as well as the financing strategy, were considered.
The proposal for the “Rail Baltica” implementation scenario has been developed by the Technical Working Group established by the Memorandum of Understanding, in which representatives from the Baltic States joint venture AS “RB Rail”, SIA “Eiropas dzeľzalje lijnas” and VAS “Latvijas dzelzceļš” participate.
The proposal proposes to determine the priorities for the construction of the main railway track, foreseeing the gradual implementation of the project and creating synergy with the existing railway infrastructure.
The construction of the “Rail Baltica” cross-border connection is planned to start from the southern section from the Latvian-Lithuanian border to Misa, further moving to Salaspila and further to the Latvian-Estonian border. Before the completion of the first phase of the project, it is planned to put Riga Central Railway Station and the newly built station at Riga Airport into operation, connecting them with the existing railway infrastructure. This solution is planned to be implemented simultaneously with the modernization of the 1,520 millimeter (mm) infrastructure on the railway line Imanta-Rīga Central Station-Salaspils-Ogre. On the other hand, the construction of the 1435 mm connection of “Rail Baltica” Riga circle is proposed to start from Misa in the direction of Riga airport.
The thematic committee was established on February 23, but the first meeting was held on March 1, and it examined the implementation scenario of the “Rail Baltica” project in Latvia and management changes. On the other hand, at the second meeting on August 14, the actualities of the project’s progress, information on the procurement of consolidated materials for railway construction, as well as the draft law on the implementation of the “Rail Baltica” project were reviewed.
It has already been reported that the MoU has prepared an informative report in which it proposes to create a 1,520 mm connection from the Riga Central Passenger Station to the Riga Airport during the 2021-2027 EU multi-year budget period before the completion of the first phase of the “Rail Baltica” project, while it plans to attract funding by redistributing the EU fund funding from other SM infrastructure projects, including the purchase of battery electric trains (BEMUs).
The MoU report states that operation of BEMU trains is not possible without adapted railway infrastructure. It was also taken into account that only one applicant was identified in the procurement of emission-free trains, and thus it is not possible to compare the offered price with the offers of other market players in order to deal rationally with the available financing.
Reassessing the BEMU program, the MoU has concluded that the proposed solutions without significant additional investments in the electrification infrastructure are not optimal for traffic organization on long routes – to Daugavpils, Rēzekni, Zilupi and Liepāja.
It is also reported that according to the research report on the situation of the “Rail Baltica” project carried out by the highest audit institutions of the Baltic States, there is currently no clarity about the model of operation and management of the “Rail Baltica” railway line,
According to the data of the latest analysis of costs and benefits of “Rail Baltica”, the total costs of the railway line in the Baltics may reach 23.8 billion euros, including the costs of the first round of the project in the Baltics could be 15.3 billion euros, of which in Latvia – 6.4 billion euros. In the previous cost-benefit analysis in 2017, it was estimated that the project would cost a total of 5.8 billion euros.
In Latvia, the construction of the main line of “Rail Baltica” is planned to start in 2024.
The “Rail Baltica” project envisages the creation of a railway line of European standard gauge from Tallinn to the border of Lithuania and Poland, so that it would be possible to connect the Baltic states with other European countries by rail. In the Baltic States, it is planned to build a new, 870-kilometer-long railway line of European gauge (1435 millimeters) with a maximum train speed of 240 kilometers per hour.
Source: www.diena.lv
