Actual costs of Rail Baltica will be known in September - Kozlovskis

RIGA - Transport Minister Rihards Kozlovskis (New Unity) said in an interview with LETA that the actual cost of the Rail Baltica railway project is expected to be announced in September.

He noted that he does not wish to speculate on the project’s costs, as they change, if not daily, then weekly.

Kozlovskis noted that the Ministry of Transport (SM) is relying on hired consultants, one of whose tasks is to develop a management model.

The minister acknowledged that, following the completion of the procurement process, the previously assumed commitments and the vision of what the project would look like do not align with the actual situation. Consequently, it is very challenging to determine how to reconcile the current situation with the commitments already made or to achieve a technical review of aspects of the work already underway.

Commenting on the project’s timeline, Kozlovskis said that, following a meeting with colleagues, the consensus is that the project must move forward.

"I don’t see any way to finance this project from the budget, so we must rely on European funding. This is being communicated to the European Commission (EC). If we know by September how much it will cost, then European funding will be available. That is the pace at which we can move forward," Kozlovskis emphasized.

The minister also agreed with Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs (United List) that we should explore options for using existing rail connections to reduce costs, since getting to the point where new tracks can be laid is the most expensive phase of the project.

"Looking ahead, it is clear that the funding allocated to the project is nowhere near what it should be. It also will not be easy to secure funding during the next EU funding period, as countries have many needs. But we cannot give up and say that we will no longer carry this out. It is clear that we cannot finance this project from the budget, and European funding will not be available for everything we want to do," Kozlovskis concluded.

As reported, according to project implementer RB Rail, the cost of the first phase of the Rail Baltica project in the Baltics could reach EUR 14.3 billion, including EUR 5.5 billion in Latvia.

The total cost of the project could reach EUR 23.8 billion in the Baltics, according to the cost-benefit analysis. A previous cost-benefit analysis in 2017 estimated the total cost of the project at EUR 5.8 billion.

The Rail Baltica project will build a European standard gauge railway line from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border to connect the Baltic States with other European countries by rail.