Rail Baltica infrastructure project stalled by cost overruns, technical difficulties

DW (English)

An ambitious railway infrastructure project aims to link the Baltic states with Europe's train network. But financial woes and technical problems are stalling the endeavor.

Transcript

00:00It's an impressive, ultra-modern station they built in Riga.

00:05The problem? The new rail Baltica line has to bypass this stop in order to save money.

00:11The entire project, of course, was actually intended to link the three Baltic capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with Europe,

00:20finally integrating the three countries into the European rail network.

00:25But as much as the Baltic states have long broken with their Soviet past,

00:29the Russian Gorge railway track has been retained. That makes any connection difficult.

00:34Also, planning Rail Baltica was chaotic, leading to unnecessary construction projects.

00:40In November, the EU Commission provided a further 1.5 billion euros.

00:45But that's not enough to finish Rail Baltica, and it's unclear where the remaining funds will come from.

00:541 billion? You're probably supposed to get it from the EU.

01:00I don't know, but this project is madness. Where's the money supposed to come from? From people's wallets?

01:09I don't think Latvia has any money. They are hoping that the money will come from abroad.

01:20You could ask the citizens to pay, a little bit from everyone. And you could ask the European Union.

01:27This Latvian company would like to continue building. It's the general contractor responsible for construction in Latvia.

01:36Our project is experiencing something similar to what's happening with other big projects in Europe,

01:43like this Leon Turin. Initial cost was not estimated enough. Now there is Covid, Ukraine, all the prices went up,

01:51and we are basically in the same shoes as other projects.

01:55So now it's time to see what we can deliver until the end of 2030, with the limited budget that we have.

02:02A Latvian parliamentary inquiry committee is now investigating Rail Baltica.

02:08Three former prime ministers have testified. Because documents were secret,

02:12the scandal surrounding planning errors never got much public interest. Now they're looking for a way out.

02:21And in total, so estimated capex is 5.5 billion. We have now available 1.4 billion euros for Latvia.

02:28And now, together with RB Rail, we are also, let's say, actively looking on these attracting private investments.

02:35In November, the Latvian government decided to build the route as cheaply as possible,

02:40in a straight line from Estonia to Lithuania, bypassing Riga. And there will be only one track, not two.

02:48The grandiose new Riga station and a newly built terminal at the airport will also get a rail connection,

02:56albeit with the old Soviet track gauge.

03:05Transcribed by ESO, translated by —

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