Revival of Tallinn-Riga passenger train on agenda

  • 2007-02-28
  • By TBT staff
TALLINN - Estonian railroad officials announced last week that they would try to revive the long abandoned Tallinn-Riga link, a project that many analysts claim would be a risky venture, while a Danish consultancy has issued a report advising the Baltic states on the grandiose Rail Baltica project to choose the cheapest of three options on the table.

Tiit Riisalo, development director at Edelaraudtee (Southwest Railway), told a conference in Tartu last week that the company by 2009 would attempt to launch a fast train between the two capitals that would travel via Tartu and yet cover the distance in four-and-a-half hours.

The project foresees using existing track that connects Tallinn and Riga via the common border towns of Valka-Valga, though large sections of the rail would require extensive repairs, particularly between Tartu and Valga. To make the 4.5 hour timeframe, the train would have to average 120 kilometers per hour, a far cry from the 40 kilometers per hour the Tartu-Valga train must maintain across the shoddiest sections of track.

For years passenger trains traveled regularly between the Estonian and Latvian capitals through the Valka-Valga border crossing, but in 2001 the route was cancelled due to significant financial losses. Nowadays if someone wants to make the trip from Riga to Tallinn by train, he or she must get off the train in Lugazi, which is two kilometers from Valka, cross the Estonian border and then hop on a train in Valga. The journey takes up to seven hours.

The idea has met with considerable skepticism. In the words of Ain Tatter, head of the railway department at the Estonian Ministry of Economy and Communications, passenger rail service between the capitals would not be profitable.
"If there was one train going between Tallinn and Riga daily, the cost of the train service would be 80,000 kroons (5,100 euros) per day," he told the Baltic News Service. "The question is whether one train will be able to get 70 percent of the daily turnover of buses."

According to Tatter, there are 21 daily bus connections between the two cities, plus two between Tartu and Riga. Aggregate turnover on the routes amounts to 120,000 kroons. To break even, the Tallinn-Riga train would need more than two-thirds of this business, a goal Tatter doesn't believe is realistic.
In addition, passenger train travel is a loss-making enterprise not only in the Baltics but throughout Europe. Most governments subsidize domestic passenger trains, and in the Baltic states passenger trains are propped up at the expense of cargo handling, often referred to as cross-subsidization.

Currently European law forbids governments from subsidizing international routes, though the European Parliament is reportedly considering legislation that would allow governments to prop up interstate rail traffic. Tatter did not rule out that, if such a law is passed, Estonia and Latvia could reach an agreement on launching a Tallinn-Riga passenger rail connection.
Latvian rail officials seemed to meet the idea tepidly. In order for the project to work, they too would have to make considerable investments as the Riga-Limbazi train runs slowly.

"For the time being we're busy with passenger travel within the country and aren't planning to expand beyond its borders," said Girts Timrots, a representative of Pasazieru vilciens (Passenger Train), told the Bizness & Baltija paper.
Meanwhile, COWI, a multi-profile Danish consultancy, has released a report recommending the Baltics choose the cheapest of three routes being considered for the high-profile Rail Baltica. That option foresees keeping the current Russian-standard gauge track and establishing a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour. In 2006 prices the project would cost some 1 billion euros.
This option is the most attractive since it would ensure the highest rate of return, the consultants said.

By comparison, the second option calls for train speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour and would carry a price tag of 1.5 billion euros. The third option would require laying down an entirely new, European gauge track and would cost a daunting 2.4 billion euros, or about what building a new, single-reactor nuclear power plant in Lithuania would cost.
The exact route of Rail Baltica is also a highly contested issue, with proponents of laying down track that would trail along the shortest possible distance between Tallinn, Riga and Kaunas, which would require construction along the Gulf of Riga, and others who believe the rail should use existing track, including the aforementioned route through Tartu.
Last September the Baltic transport ministers agreed to reach a common plan for Rail Baltica by July.