Lithuania's railway network worst hit by storm, 400 km of track affected

VILNIUS - Lithuania’s railway network was the worst hit by a powerful weekend storm, with around 400 km of track affected, the transport minister said on Monday.

According to Juras Taminskas, disruptions to private telecommunications towers also knocked out the secondary air surveillance system of state air traffic control agency Oro Navigacija. The head of the agency later clarified that the outage was temporary.

The minister reported that emergency braking caused damage to four passenger trains currently undergoing repairs. The storm disrupted travel for more than 8,000 passengers and affected over 100 train services.

"What we can be pleased with is that we managed to control the situation with transit traffic. Great efforts were made to ensure that transit trains through Lithuania to and from Kaliningrad did not stop, avoiding further complications for our security services and other institutions," Taminskas said.

MINISTER CRITICISES PRIVATE TELECOMMUNICATIONS FIRMS

According to the minister, while state-owned Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre operates using batteries and generators, private telecommunications companies are facing "serious problems".

"Up to this point, Oro Navigacija's secondary air surveillance system is not working. It is installed on private towers where there is no power supply, and we do not have it," the minister explained.

Taminskas suggested the agency could move some of its equipment to the Telecentras tower.

The minister's adviser, Viktoras Jakovlevas, later stated that Oro Navigacija's operations were not disrupted as the primary system remained functional. He noted that secondary system malfunctions were observed only after the storm subsided.

Saulius Batavicius, director general of Oro Navigacija, said the wide-area multilateration air traffic surveillance system was temporarily affected by the telecommunications disruption.

"Despite this, the air traffic monitoring service was ensured using other functioning surveillance tools, so the disruption had no impact on flight safety," Batavicius said.

"We have been communicating for two years now, trying to knock heads with the operators, because there is a 2023 government resolution that clearly stipulates how long broadcasting must operate uninterrupted. The operators ignore this," the minister told reporters.

The minister argued that state data must be kept in state data centres: "The state data centres managed by Telecentras ensure an uninterrupted power supply even when disconnected from the grid; they are fully functional (...). The state must take care of what is important to the state."

Taminskas claimed that private telecommunications companies managing critical frequencies were failing to perform their functions properly: "Profits are being made, but the desire to invest and secure the state does not exist."

He added that these companies failed to ensure that communications remained uninterrupted for at least two days without electricity.

The minister further alleged that the Communications Regulatory Authority ignored requests not to transfer frequencies to private operators: "There was no reaction to this either; the Communications Regulatory Authority sold off our frequencies anyway. This is a programmed problem for the future."

"In this case, the Communications Regulatory Authority must step in and work actively," Taminskas said.

REGULATOR DEFENDS POSITION

Taminskas stated that the Communications Regulatory Authority's activity on the issue was insufficient: "Recently, frequencies were sold to private operators, and in my view, this will affect our critical network in the future."

Responding to the criticism, Darius Kuliesius, deputy chairman of the Communications Regulatory Authority board, said that ambitions often exceed capabilities.

"It is related to capacities and resources, both human and financial. We need to set priorities: whether it is more important today to provide coverage in 'white spots' where there is no connection, or to direct all money into generators and batteries," Kuliesius said.

"All base stations have batteries today, but when we have a power supply situation like today's, batteries cannot last that long. That is why mobile communication is down in various places," he added.