High-speed link for Lithuania

  • 2008-01-09
  • By Mike Collier

VILNIUS -- Lithuanian railways is finalising plans for anenhanced, high-speed rail link to join Kaunas with the capital,according to CommunicationsMinister Algirdas Butkevicius.

Talkingto the Vilniaus Diena newspaper, Butkevicius said the service would see a 'double-decker'style electric locomotive on the routereaching speeds of 160km/h. The journey time between Lithuania's firstand second cities would be cut from an hour or more to just 45 minutes.

It is planned that fourtrains will be bought, with EU assistance, at a cost of LTL 30m (8.7 millioneuros) each, and Butkevicius said that if successful, the service couldeventually be upgraded to increase a high-speed link from Vilnius to the port city of Klaipeda.