"The total budget of this contract is 644 000 EUR, and the finalized model is expected by early 2022. The primary objective of the Transport Demand Model is to forecast the passenger and freight demand for the Rail Baltica infrastructure for the first 30 years of operation," a company statement said.
The DM "will be used to predict the travel choice, including mode and routing, made by the passengers travelling with Rail Baltica. Such information will be used to calibrate and finalise Rail Baltica infrastructure design and operational planning. In addition, the model will support decision-making for numerous Rail Baltica activities, including cost-benefit and socio-economic analyses, environmental assessments, business, and financial planning," the statement added
The model will be delivered by Milan-based TRT Trasporti e Territorio, a consulting company with an extensive
experience in leading transport studies, including demand modeling exercises, such as TRIMODE, the pan-European multimodal transport model at the request of the European Commission.
"Their partnership with the German leading transport modeling consulting PTV CEE Sp. – the developer of VISUM, one of world’s most widely used integrated software platforms – guarantees first-class support for the Rail Baltica project," the statement said.
RB Rail’s Italian Transport Economist Dr. Stefano Manzo commented: “Our next-generation transport demand model – to be developed together with highly experienced partners – will not only take the Rail Baltica commercial and operational planning to the next level, but aims to become the reference model for the entire Baltic region.”
As a ‘live’ model that will be regularly updated in the future, the DM will help to optimize the size and scope of passenger stations as well as freight facilities, the company said.
As previously reported by LSM, Rail Baltica is a 5.8-billion-euro high speed rail link that will connect the Baltic states on a European-gauge track to the rest of Europe. It is being 85% financed by the European Union with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania contributing an additional 5% each.
