The Project of Rail Baltica

1. Project Overview.
Rail Baltica project is divided into two stages: the first one is 70 kilometers, connecting Poland with Lithuania, which had been opened on October 16, 2015; the second one is about 728 kilometers from Estonia, through Latvia, Lithuania, to the border of Poland and Lithuania, adopting 1435mm track gauge.
2. Project Progress.
Based on historical reason, existing railways of three Baltic countries are mainly east-west trend to the direction of Russia and Belarus, there are no north-south railway directly connecting European railway network. So the imagine of constructing standard gauge railway between Baltic Sea and Europe had been firstly put forward in 1994, which will speed up regional integration from geopolitics, security and economic development perspective.
In 2001, a 1435mm agreement was signed and in 2003, program coordination group began to research for line route, technical standard and investment program. According to plan, three Baltic countries will conduct previous research work in 2016, including feasibility research and assessment, and then preliminary design begin to carry out.
3. Project Support.
The preliminary budget of Rail Baltica is 3.68 billion euros, and now it has increased to 5 billion euros. EU will pay 85% at maximum and the rest will be borne by three Baltic countries.
On March 7, 2016, European Affairs Committee held meeting to emphasize every participant should provide sufficient support for Rail Baltica and co-financing.
4. Project Significance.
Rail Baltica project contributes to enhance unity of Baltic countries, deepen integration of transportation infrastructure and it is also the touchstone of testing Baltic countries’ cooperation.
This article comes from Sinorock.