Speaking of his departure from the Joint Venture, Mr Riihimäki, a Finn, said: “I regret to leave Rail Baltica due to personal reasons. I experienced Rail Baltica as an exciting project to work for, and I would like to thank the entire RB Rail AS staff, stakeholders, international partners and Supervisory Board for their cooperation and support.”
Riihimäki will carry on his duties until 19 December. He was announced as the CEO of the venture as recently as February, as reported by LSM at the time.
Karolis Sankovski, Chairman of the RB Rail AS Supervisory Board said: “We are saddened that Timo Riihimäki has resigned, but we respect his decision. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I would like to thank him for his hard work and wish him all the best in the future. Smooth further operations of the Joint Venture will be assured by other Members of the Management Board as well as the whole RB Rail team during the period of search and recruitment of the new CEO."
Meanwhile Estonia's ERR News reported October 29 that the first construction works related to the Rail Baltica project were underway.
RB Rail AS is a multinational joint venture of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania established to coordinate the implementation of the Rail Baltica Global Project, the first infrastructure project of this scale from Tallinn to the Lithuanian/Polish border. Rail Baltica is a double track, European standard 1,435 mm gauge electrified railway for passenger and freight transport. The overall length of the railway will be 870 kilometers. The total cost of Rail Baltica in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is estimated at around €5.8 billion with the first trains due to start rolling in 2025.
