The implementation of the Rail Baltica project in Riga will increase the volume of train traffic and congestion, the Mayor of Riga said. The project will first connect Riga and Salaspils by rail and then provide regular train services from Central Station to the airport.
Although it is not yet clear how often the Vivi trains will run before the completion of the first phase of the project on the planned section from Riga Central Station to Riga Airport, it is clear that this will have an impact on traffic flow in the city.
"There is no sense to build a connection for three trains. A train should run every 20 minutes, half an hour. This is a high enough volume," said the Mayor of Riga, explaining that in several places where the railway tracks cross the road infrastructure, Rīga would need to build two-level crossings.
Currently, most of the level crossings are single-level, which means that drivers would have to wait longer at level crossings.
"At some level crossings, such as Liepājas Street near Stradiņš Hospital, this can be very critical. I would say that the first step should also be to build two-level crossings at Liepāja and Zolitūde. If trains are going to be coming there very often, well... It's not easy to get from Imanta to Zolitūde already," the mayor said.
The design of such overpasses alone would take two to three years, Ķirsis predicted.
In principle, such crossings would have to be paid for from the money earmarked for the project, but Riga would have to work on other infrastructure, including the approaches to these crossings.
"Actually, what they are not talking about is that we have calculated that the Rail Baltica project would also require some €500 million from Riga's side, for example, to clean up the area around the Central Station so that tourists do not have to roll through the tunnels with suitcases."
The Mayor pointed out that the city is hampered by the lack of clear decisions on the project and the delays.
He gave the example of the Altonava Bridge, which will be closed to traffic in the near future:
"We were told all the time that as part of Rail Baltica this bridge would be removed and a new one built. So the municipality was economical, it kept this bridge alive, but did not build a new one or overhaul it. If we had known years ago that this vision we had built was a utopia and there was no money for it, we would have taken steps a few years ago and the gap without the bridge would have been much shorter."
Ķirsis also pointed out that he would like to hear clarity from the Ministry of Transport and the government on the second phase of the project.
Commenting on the government's conceptual agreement not to include the capital in the Rail Baltica route in the first phase of the project, Ķirsis said that the project makes much less sense. Nevertheless, he has to accept the reality of the situation.
