Ministry threatens Estonian rail closure

The Transport and Communication Ministry cancelled the safety certificate of Estonian Railways on Sept. 9 and has threatened to halt rail traffic later this month if the company does not do repairs on its fleet and infrastructure.

The ministry says the monopoly passenger and cargo rail transport provider must repair several used engines it bought recently from the United States as part of renovations that also include repairs to stations.

Estonian Railways officials say the repairs are extremely vague and cover infrastructure that the company does not own.

"For example, we are being ordered to fix several railway stations that do not belong to us," said Estonian Railways spokesman Margus Varav.

A near accident last month raised questions about the safety of services run by Estonian Railways, in particular about a batch of uncertified engines it acquired in the United States this year.

Two trains almost crashed because drivers of an engine manufactured by General Motors fell asleep on Aug. 10. Fortunately the second (Russian built) train's automatic break system helped to prevent a tragedy.

Heiki Arike, head of operations safety at Estonian Railways, resigned following the Aug. 10 accident.

An investigation by the Transport and Communications Ministry's railways department found that only seven of the 23 U.S.-built engines being used by the company had the necessary alarm system and ordered that the rest be taken out of service.

Interior Minister Ain Seppik expressed dismay at the investigation's findings. "We have 23 uncertified engines without operation permits running around Estonia's railways and causing direct danger to people and the environment," said Seppik.

In addition to the Communica-tions Ministry's investigation, the Interior Ministry is now undertaking its own investigation into safety at the company and on the Estonian railroad network as a whole.During testing this spring one of the new engine's motor failed and last month another GM engine caught fire.

The 23 locomotives which the investigation found to be in use were part of a batch of 37 second-hand General Motors engines built in the 1980s which Estonian Railways purchased this spring for 8 million kroons (511,000 euros) a piece.

It earlier rejected an offer of brand new Ukrainian built locomotives because they were less powerful and were overpriced.

Most of the GM engines have been reconstructed to fit Estonia's railway gauge standards while the company still uses 62 Soviet-built engines.

The Moscow Institute of Railway Transport has now been commissioned to examine the GM engines and certify those that meet railway department standards, a process which could take about two months and cost about 5 million kroons.

An examination completed in May showed that most of Estonia's railway bridges are strong enough to carry the new locomotives but one bridge between Keila and Riisipere will have to be rebuilt, said Margus Metssalu, deputy director of the railways department.