Finland asked to support Rail Baltica project

Take note – story published 6 years ago

Attempts to get Finland more actively involved in the major Rail Baltica infrastructure project through the Baltic states stepped up November 8 with Rail Baltica's Latvian CEO asking for Finnish backing.

RB Rail's Baiba Rubesa, plus Aivar Jaeski, (Country Manager  for Estonia and
Finland) – met with Anne Berner, Minister of Transport and Communications of Finland,
Ossi Savolainen, Regional Mayor of Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council and Finnish
business representatives "to introduce Rail Baltica opportunities and benefits," according to a statement released by the company, which is jointly owned by Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, with the possibility that Finland and Poland could also hop aboard.

"The meetings with politicians and business community showed a keen interest from Finnish parties to assume an active role in the Rail Baltica project," the statement continued.

During the meeting with Berner, Rubesa said it was crucial to learn at this early stage, in the design phase of the project, what the Finnish business community's logistical
expectations from Rail Baltica are.

Related projects – the Arctic Rail and the FinEst Link – were also discussed.

"In addition, Baiba Rubesa kindly asked the Minister to advocate for Finnish support for Rail
Baltica financing in the EU post-2020 multiannual financial framework negotiations," the statement said.

Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Mayor Ossi Savolainen was quoted saying: “We love Rail Baltica! It is important for Finland to be better connected to Europe!”

As previously reported by LSM, Rail Baltica is an attempt to provide a high-speed rail link using European-gauge tracks connecting Warsaw to Helsinki via the Baltic states. It is expected to cost nearly 6 billion euros with the majority of funds coming from the European Union.

Seen a mistake?

Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor

Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor

Related articles

More

Most important