Although more than a year and a half have been spent on working on scenarios for dividing the Rail Baltica route into sections, there is still no decision on the scope of the route for the first step.
Five years ago, the program "De Facto" talked about how the construction costs of Riga Central Station had grown from the EUR 200 million announced in 2017 to EUR 430 million in 2019 (the initial contract amount is 430,538,203 euro).
Now the official contract amount has already reached EUR 566 million. This summer, the report viewed by the government mentions EUR 888 million, counting inflation.
The Rail Baltica Airport Station costs have also risen from EUR 237 million to EUR 399 million.
Planning for further development of Rail Baltica, officials are looking for different ways to save.
Reviewing the project, it is concluded that, for example, disproportionate noise suppression requirements are planned - the train would go through Latvia without passengers even seeing the landscape.
"Consultants have done a redesign of these noise blockers. We're seeing significant savings. I'm not saying specific numbers right now, but that's pretty significant what we could get," says Ēriks Diļevs, chairman of the project implementer EDzL board.
Investments have been made where it is clear that further work will not follow in the first phase. For example, EUR 20 million has been spent to build bridge supports in the Daugava, but there is no bridge in the next six years' plans. The building of the bridge supports started knowing that there would be no bridge soon. The supports will have to be put into conservation.
Last Monday, the general public was also expected to be introduced to the first phase development scenario of the rest of the Rail Baltica route. However, the event was canceled indefinitely, citing changes needed after the meeting of Baltic Transport Ministers.
The Estonian priority is currently the Tallinn–Parnu link, but the link to Latvia is being delayed due to environmental requirements. So, Latvia is also considering another change of plans.
"It will most likely start to operate in sections. There could be specific routes, like Tallinn-Parnu. In our case I hope it would be Rīga Airport–Kaunas, where it would be possible to start running trains before the entire line is finished," says Transport Minister Kaspars Briškens.
When asked how much such a branch could cost, Briškens replies: "Estimates are around 1.1 - 1.2 billion, but of course it has to be seen in the context of whether we are trying to combine this project with the Riga bypass, which is of course also a significant need, and of course, it will depend on what type of funding model will be used here."
The potential changes, in turn, mean that the issue of what happens with the second Daugava bridge at Salaspils planned under Rail Baltica, for the construction of which money has already been allocated from the European military mobility fund, is also becoming relevant.
Everything that has been built or designed within the framework of Rail Baltica in Riga City is intended only for the transport of passengers and light goods. However, heavy goods, such as military equipment, tanks, cannot be carried along these tracks – they had a route designed along Salaspils.
