Government must decide which parts of Rail Baltia project should take priority - investigative committee

RIGA - Taking into account that it is not possible to fully implement the Rail Baltica railroad project in Latvia by the end of 2030, the Cabinet of Ministers should decide which parts of the project should take priority over the other parts during the first stage of the Rail Baltica project, according to an annex to the final report of Saeima investigative committee on Rail Baltica, which looks into different Rail Baltica mainline construction scenarios prepared by company RB Rail and the most economically feasible solutions.

The annex to the final report states that it will not be possible to build both Rail Baltica passenger mainline through Riga and a line through Salaspils for passenger and freight transport.

The annex to the report also notes that the maximum socio-economic added value of Rail Baltica for Latvia, the Baltics and the European Union can only be achieved if the project is completed in full.

It is therefore important to continue the preparatory work - design, real estate acquisitions - in all sections so that construction could commence as soon as funding is available. Stage one sections must be first to be built, with the remaining sections to be built depending on the availability of funding, either after completion of the first stage or, if additional funding is available, at the same as the first stage is implemented.

This approach has been endorsed by the European Commission, says the final report.

Last week, the committee released its final report on the Rail Baltica project, which says that the Transport Ministry had concealed from the Cabinet of Ministers the actual increase in the cost of the Rail Baltica project by recalculating it in 2016 prices, so that the increase would not look so high.

The committee found that already in its 2021 presentations, the Transport Ministry projected the cost of the Rail Baltica project at EUR 3.4 billion. In the fall of 2021 it was reported that the cumulative costs of Rail Baltica project were EUR 5.3 billion not including inflation.

In total, the committee's final report contains 29 conclusions, 16 proposals and names 18 persons who, in the committee's opinion, made mistakes, threatened the implementation of the project and did not take a sufficiently active position in the implementation of this project.

Last Thursday, four committee members from the opposition parties - the committee's head Andris Kulbergs (United List) and members Arturs Butans (National Alliance), Amils Salimovs (For Stability) and Kristaps Kristopans (Latvia First) - voted for the report. Three members abstained: Skaidrite Abrama (Progressives), Atis Labucis (New Unioty) and Girts Stekerhofs (Greens/Farmers). Abrama and Labucis objected to the list of persons responsible, considering it to be a subjective assessment.

As reported, Saeima on June 13 decided to set up a parliament inquiry committee, proposed by a group of 34 opposition and unaffiliated lawmakers to examine the mistakes made during the implementation of the Rail Baltica railway project.

The ad hoc panel was given six months to investigate the project's mistakes. Kulbergs was appointed head of the commission.

The ad hoc panel was tasked with identifying the mistakes that have been made while implementing the transnational railway infrastructure project, "so that decisions are taken in a transparent and timely manner, taking into account the national and public interest, the impact on the Latvian economy and the state budget," the lawmakers said.