Rail Baltica: on the wrong track
Rail Baltica, an 870-kilometre-long, double-track, high-speed railway line that will run through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Poland, was first conceived 30 years ago, and when the three Baltic states joined the EU 20 years ago it was already considered a priority. But the project is making slow progress, and the costs have now risen to 15 billion euros. The main bottleneck is in and around Riga.
A derailed mega-project
Verslo žinios takes a frustrated look at the status quo:
“The railway connection from Tallinn to Poland has become Schrödinger's cat - it both exists and does not exist. Every year the goals change: the length of the route, the deadline for completion is postponed, the costs increase. The Estonians can't keep up with the project and the Latvians can't find any more money. ... You have to eat an elephant in small bites, apparently even smaller than up to now. On the 30th anniversary of the original Rail Baltica concept, we have to admit that we have made ourselves look suspicious and ridiculous. In the end, we will have tracks, but no trains or stations.”
A big building site but no EU funding
Neatkarīgā criticises Latvian decision-makers for the plan to integrate Riga Airport into the rail project:
“Meanwhile, Lithuania and Estonia are working objectively and constructively on the project. ... In the media, Lithuanians and Estonians are also annoyed and saying it's all too expensive and too slow, but without the shrill cries of despair and anger that we have here, where numerous officials have made fools of themselves with their displays of ignorance, incompetence and irresponsibility. ... Like the Estonians, the Lithuanians did not set out to turn Vilnius upside down for Rail Baltica, tearing down bridges, digging tunnels and ramming piles into the mud without knowing whether there would even be any European funding for all this.”
Security interests at stake
Postimees calls for the main line of the railway network to be built quickly, even if it means using temporary solutions:
“From the very beginning, the core objective of the high-speed railway connecting Estonia with Central Europe was to guarantee national security and not just cater to passenger convenience or economic interests. ... In the current security situation we don't really have a time buffer that allows us to postpone the completion of the main line. Postponing it to some unspecified date in the 2030s is unacceptable. But the project is heading in the right direction and it looks like everything that is superfluous to the goal of completing the main line will be postponed or shortened. ... Latvia should also quickly come to terms with the fact that Riga will not be on the main line for the time being.”