Rail Baltica is a trans-European railway line connecting Warsaw and Helsinki via Kaunas, Riga and Tallinn. On the 730 km long route running through the three Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, these passenger trains will reach speeds of up to 240 km/h, with freight trains running up to 120 km/h. The main players of the Polish railway industry are interested in participating in this prestigious project, the value of which is estimated at EUR 5 billion.
On 17 January, RB Rail, the company responsible for the implementation of the project met in Warsaw with the leading Polish railway companies. Organised by the Polish Cluster of Construction Exporters, the meeting was also attended by representatives of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia. The subject of the event was the presentation of the Rail Baltica project together with a discussion of its progress, further plans, scale and schedule. This is currently the largest and most complex project in the region and represents the missing link within the European Union connections with its north-eastern part.
“Being of strategic importance for the development of the region, Rail Baltica is a project of the future. I believe that while implementing this project we can achieve many benefits in cooperation with our closest neighbours, i.e. Finland and Poland”, said CEO of RB Rail Baiba A. Rubesa during the meeting.
According to the data presented by RB Rail, 5 million passengers are expected to travel between the Baltic States each year and the volume of transported goods fluctuates around 16 million tons per year. The project, the implementation of which is to be an important stimulus for development in the region, arouses interest within the Polish railway industry.
The Rail Baltica project, which together with the Via Baltica road link forms part of the Trans-European TEN-T network, is to be completed by 2025 according to the assumptions presented by RB Rail. The connection between the route and the Polish section depends on the pace of work carried out in Poland. According to RB Rail representatives, this should happen by 2030.
In his summary speech of the meeting, Andrzej Kozłowski, Vice President of the Board and Managing Director of the Polish Cluster of Construction Exporters, stressed that, “Such meetings are an opportunity for direct contact of potential participants of tenders with the Contracting Authority. They offer the opportunity to use the best source to find all the information and requirements concerning the competences of the contractors, the sources of financing for this project, and the approximate scale and importance for the economies of, in this case, the three Baltic States.