News

This year, the implementation of Rail Baltica, the largest railway infrastructure project in the history of the three Baltic States, is intensifying. In Lithuania, the most progress has been made, with work underway on a section of 29 km, further trackwork planned or under procurement on a section of 84.9 km, and 168 km of track planned for procurement.

The construction of the railway crossing on the Kaunas-Latvian border section is gaining momentum and visibility. With 700 workers, almost 500 pieces of equipment, and a total of 300 local and foreign partners working on the project, the pace of construction work is accelerating.

Following an assessment of the scope of the work, lessons learned and opportunities for improving the international project, a new Rail Baltica governance model was agreed on with the partners this year. It gives more flexibility to each of the three Baltic States, shortening the timeframes for future works procurement and speeding up management and implementation processes. RB Rail AS will ensure a unified implementation of the project, with each country’s implementing authority, in our case, LTG Infra, responsible for the preparatory work, design, construction of the European gauge, commissioning and future maintenance of the infrastructure. This significant change in the project management model came into force at the beginning of this year, following the agreement of all project stakeholders.

Until then, LTG Group had taken the best possible decisions on the Lithuanian part of Rail Baltica, in terms of being coordinated and taken together, in international project management formats. The result is ongoing construction and an experienced team fully committed to the project. Decisions on financing, timing, strategy, priorities are complex; they are taken and implemented at international level, including the allocation and administration of European Union funding. Under the EU grant agreement (“Development of missing connections from the Polish-Lithuanian border to Kaunas and preparation for the construction of the European gauge railway from Kaunas to the Lithuanian-Latvian border”), EUR 83 million worth of work has been carried out, with almost 15 km of European gauge laid and fully accounted for to the European Commission this year. The ambitious scope and timeframes of the project dictate the challenges ahead, a high-speed railway by 2030, connecting the Baltic region with Western Europe and making journeys even faster and more comfortable: cutting the duration of a four-hour journey to Riga in half and allowing to reach Warsaw in the same time.

The war in Ukraine has had a direct impact on construction work. The market has seen changes in suppliers and logistics chains as well as significant price increases. At the moment, as the intensity of work increases, the number of orders in the region is growing and the market capacity must match. We are already informing the market about the Rail Baltica implementation plans, but in seeking to attract new market participants, we face security concerns in the region.

On the other hand, there are many infrastructure projects underway in Europe, with which we are competing for further necessary funding. We have no doubt that Rail Baltica and its Western vision are trusted, and the project will continue to have timely, flexible funding.

By working in a targeted manner according to the project plan, we allocate the necessary resources. A project of this size and complexity is unique in our region and poses many challenges, but we have no doubt that the European gauge of Rail Baltica will be built on time, by 2030, in a high-quality manner and in cooperation with all partners: Latvia, Estonia, and Poland.

Arenijus Jackus, Chief Rail Baltica Lithuania Officer